"Iniquities prevail against me: as for our transgressions, thou shalt purge them away." [Psa 65:3]
Paul tells us of the simple gospel when he writes to the Corinthians; we read, taking note of the bold text,
“Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are being saved, if ye continue to hold fast to what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the scriptures.” [1 Cor 15:1-4]
It is perhaps the most blessed thing in the world to know that our sins are forgiven, that all of our wickedness, rebellions, misdeeds, and wrongdoings are covered under the blood of Jesus, which washes us utterly clean of our sins. As David says, “blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.” [Rom 4:6-7] What a blessed truth indeed that our evil sins are no longer imputed to us; that is, God does not view us as having committed them, if we be in Christ, for God, “hath made [Jesus] to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” [2 Cor 5:21] And Jesus has, “condemned sin in the flesh: that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” [Rom 8:3-4]
Jesus Christ had all of our sins laid upon Him. They were transferred to Him, imputed to His account instead of our own. Similar to how the high priest on the Day of Atonement was to “lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel…putting them upon the head of the goat,” [Lev 16:21] so too our sins were laid on Jesus. And further, as the high priest was to “send [the goat] away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness,” [Lev 16:21] so too our sins, laid on Christ, have been sent away, never to be seen again, so that as it is written, “as far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.” [Psa 103:12]
May it never become a bland truth that our sins have been forgiven, that, “though [our] sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” [Isa 1:18] No, but let this truth always comfort us, even till death, that God has graciously and mercifully, according to “the kindness and love of God our Savior,” said, “I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” [Titus 3:4, Jer 31:34] The plague and curse of sin which once separated us from God, no longer stands in the gap; now, praise God, Christ Jesus stands in the gap on our behalf, “that [The LORD] should not destroy [us].” [Ezek 22:30] Now, through Jesus we have peace with God and we have been brought near through His blood; as we are told: “being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ…[and] being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from [God’s] wrath through Him.” [Rom 5:1]
What Adam and Eve lost is restored to us in Jesus. He is our atoning lamb, our propitiation – that sacrifice which appeases the wrath of God and removes the guilt of sin. As The Spirit tells us, Jesus “is the propitiation for our sins,” and again, “herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” [1 Jn 2:2; 4:10] The word propitiation means, “the act of appeasing wrath and conciliating the favor of an offended person.” [Webster 1828] Through faith in Jesus’ blood this propitiation is granted to us. Because Jesus paid our debt, God’s wrath is appeased and done away with; instead of wrath, we now obtain God’s favor: His kind and tender disposition, and we are now promised that “in the ages to come [God will] shew the exceeding riches of his grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.” [Eph 2:7]
This fact being established, that Christ has forgiven us, let us look at another place which speaks of this blessed truth. In Psalms sixty-five, we are first confronted with David’s words, “iniquities prevail against me.” [Psa 65:3] We can all attest to this truth. Before Jesus regenerated our hearts, we were “dead in sins” [Eph 2:5] and unable to save ourselves. Paul reminds us,
“For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.” [Rom 5:6]
We were without strength, unable to save ourselves; but God saw our afflictions and stooped down to help us. In the Psalms we read of this great act of humiliation. The Spirit says,
“Who is like unto the LORD our God, who dwelleth on high, Who humbleth himself to behold the things that are in heaven, and in the earth! He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth the needy out of the dunghill; that he may set him with princes, even with the princes of his people.” [Psa 113:5-8]
Indeed, when we were sinners in the world, iniquities, sins, prevailed against us. It was not until we were born again from God’s Spirit that we could lay hold of the promise, “for sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace;” [Rom 6:14] for, “the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.” [Jn 1:17] We see then the truth of David’s statement. But what of the latter portion of the verse?
Despite David’s weakness to overcome the law, not having the grace of Christ accessible yet to him, he says, “as for our transgressions, thou shalt purge them away.” What is of particular note here is the word “purge.” The word literally means to cover. It can also mean to atone or to remove by expiation. The word expiation means, “to atone for; to make satisfaction for; to extinguish the guilt of a crime by subsequent acts of piety or worship, by which the obligation to punish the crime is canceled.” [Webster 1828] As with the other verses listed, this one is equally as beautiful and encouraging; for through it we see that Jesus, The Messiah, has made expiation for all our rebellions. Through His sacrifice, Jesus has extinguished all guilt of our sin; He has completely obliterated any obligation on our part to repay the debt to God. Jesus has utterly blotted out our sins; as the servant was forgiven by the master of a debt of ten thousand talents, so too we have been forgiven of our massive debt. Praise God who shows us such mercy and grace! Praise God again for Jesus, who joyfully and willingly went to the cross to accomplish these things for us. Let us therefore offer forgiveness to others, because God promises, “if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” [Mt 6:15]
Click here for more posts in Daily Meditations on Jesus’ Glory, Vol II