"Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He retaineth not His anger for ever, because He delighteth in mercy. He will turn again, He will have compassion upon us; He will trample under foot our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea." [Mic 7:18-19]
In order for us to more fully appreciate what God reveals to us in the verse we have for today, we must first expand upon some of their definitions. Then, after knowing the words more perfectly, we may get a far better glimpse into the mirror of God’s word, which shows us Christ’s image and beauty.
First, “pardoneth.” The word means to expiate. To expiate 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 cancelled.” [Webster] The basic meaning of this Hebrew word is to take up or take away. That is, The LORD is taking up our sins off of us. He lifts them up off us and has placed them on the shoulders of Christ, our Savior and Lamb who has paid our debt and bore our transgressions and faults. Our sins are no longer a weight we must bear: the obligation for God to punish us for their badness has been cancelled, and our Father has been well pleased to extinguish all our guilt and liability for them. Praise be to Jesus Christ, who has provided us with expiation, who has borne the fulness of our sins’ penalty; and praise also to our great God, “that pardoneth iniquity.”
Second, “iniquity.” The Hebrew word here means perverseness; and perverse means, “turned aside; hence, distorted from the right.” [Webster] Perverseness is a disposition to thwart or vex; uncompliant; a stubborn disposition; unaccommodating to what is proper or desired by others. [Webster] God, Judge of all, has graciously, for the sake of Jesus and His precious blood, elected and predetermined that all who believe in Christ; that all who step into that boat as it were in faith; that all who shroud themselves in Christ’s hem – yes to all of them, their deepest perversions and distortions of what is right, their incompliance and stubbornness against all which God deems good, shall all be removed. Every jot and tittle against them, accumulated through their lifetime of “iniquity,” should by Christ’s magnificent blood be dashed to pieces and thrown out: all of their iniquities satisfied and atoned for in God The Judge’s fiery eyes.
Third, “passeth by.” This phrase means to pass by; that is, to forgive. The word literally means to pass over, as in, pass over a stream, pass by a person, or pass over the earth.
Fourth, “transgression.” Transgression in the Hebrew means to defect or rebel against. Our transgressions against God are those of infidelity against His kingship, against His lordship, against His covenant, or against His love. To transgress is to be unloyal to a certain duty or allegiance. For the subject, he throws off the authority of his king; for the citizen, in like manner his lord; for the covenantor, that which was promised; and for the husband or wife, their transgression is against their marital promise of lifelong love and faithfulness. Praise God who is so inclined toward us as to walk past our rebellions, who does not stop to linger nor observe our defection and revolts of allegiance, but for Christ’s sake forgives them in an instant. As Paul said, “but God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” [Rom 5:8]
Fifth, “retaineth.” This Hebrew word at its base means to bind fast to anything; to join to; to take hold of. Our Father does not bind Himself to anger; He does not cling tightly to it. Rather, He holds a very loose grip upon it, being exceedingly longsuffering, for He takes great delight in showing mercy, for He is “rich in mercy.” [Eph 2:4]
And finally, “delighteth,” which word means to be inclined toward, to be favorable toward.
Who is like our great and awesome God, whose character and glory span beyond the vast lightyears of space? There is none like Him, who is so forgiving and merciful. As the Psalmist said rhetorically,
“For who in the heaven can be compared unto The LORD? Who among the sons of the mighty can be likened unto The LORD?...O LORD God of Hosts, who is a strong LORD like unto thee? Or to thy faithfulness round about thee?” [Psa 89:6, 8]
And again,
“…There is none like unto thee, O LORD; thou art great, and thy name is great in might.” [Jer 10:6]
“There is none holy as The LORD: for there is none beside thee: neither is there any rock like our God.” [1 Sam 2:2] Among the gods, among the people of earth, there is not one among them who can compare to our great God and Redeemer, Jesus Christ. For as we have seen today, He is He who atones for all our depravities. Though we rebel against Him, and though we quickly turn out of the way; though we have been enemies of His, purposely disobeying His statutes, yet our Father has chosen to forgive us in Jesus His Son. He has chosen to completely wipe out all guilt and shame associated with our sin, imputing to us the righteousness of Jesus, and forsaking all His former wrath against our sins and grievous lifestyles. As Psalms says, “bless The LORD…who forgiveth all thine iniquities…” [Psa 103:2, 3] Every single sin which we have committed is forgiven in Christ, passed over, sunk deep into the depths of the sea, as Micah goes on to say,
“He will turn again, He will have compassion upon us; He will trample under foot our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.” [Mic 7:19]
Just as Jesus in time to come, at “the Day of Vengeance,” will “tread the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God,” [Isa 63:4, Rev 19:15] so too The Father, who was well pleased to “crush [His Son]” in judgment of our sins, [Isa 53:10] tread under foot Christ Jesus as a grape, when all His wrath was poured out upon His head while He hung upon the cross. And just as Jonah was cast into the sea and so “the sea ceased from her raging,” [Jon 1:15] so also Christ Jesus, who was “made…sin for us,” [2 Cor 5:21] was cast into the sea of God’s wrath to experience that deep, relentless pressure of God Almighty’s anger against sin, so that those who trust in Christ’s sacrifice might steadfastly cling to the promise, “being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.” [Rom 5:9] Praise God a thousand times over for His pardon of our sins by the sacrifice of Jesus our Lord. Our sins, by virtue of Jesus’ payment and our belief, are utterly abolished. In Isaiah, we see again, The LORD says to us regarding our this truth,
“I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto me; for I have redeemed thee.” [Isa 44:22]
Indeed, again as Micah exults, “who is a God like unto thee[!]” Who is like The LORD on high who is so willing to furnish and lavish such grace and mercy upon us! For through Christ all our sins are never again to be seen, having been plunged into the depth of the sea as it were, and having been blotted out. So then, let us not falter at this through unbelief. Whether we require salvation or forgiveness, let us follow the admonition given in Isaiah, for our God is not like man, but being holy, delights to show mercy.
"Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD." [Isa 55:7-8]
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