Mark 2:5 – And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”
THEME OF THE DAY: THE FOUR SWEETEST WORDS EVER HEARD. Those four words are found at the end of today’s scripture – “your sins are forgiven.” Those words have been called “the music of freedom” and rightly so. Nothing is sweeter to the soul than the song of redemption and hearing the words witnessed by the Spirit through the Bible, “Your sins are forgiven.”
In the Revelation, this song of redemption will be our eternal song – “And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. And he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne. And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying, ‘Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth’” (Revelation 5:6-10).
When a person experiences the forgiveness of sin through the marvelous grace of God in Christ, a lot happens in the new-born soul. Let’s consider three of those happenings which are attitudes planted in the forgiven person. They become the compasses guiding the now child of God to a proper understanding of the Christian life and all deal with what has been forgiven in us – our sin.
First, with the forgiveness of sin, comes a heart of thanksgiving and praise for that forgiveness. In experiencing the burden released or the freedom of knowing our sins are forgiven, there is an immediate sense of praise and gratitude for the Lord Jesus and His salvation. It is the natural response to the God who has just met our greatest need in life. This is wonderfully illustrated by one of the ten lepers who was healed by Jesus. The story is found in Luke 17:11-19. All ten were healed, but only one returned to thank and praise Jesus. Why did he? He was thankful to Jesus for healing him from an incurable disease. And us? The only proper response to experiencing the cure to our incurable disease of sin is the attitude of the healed leper; thanksgiving and praise.
The next attitude given and to be developed in the forgiven sinner is a hatred for what we have been forgiven of – sin. Here is one of the key marks of true conversion; we are given a hatred of sin. Yes, we struggle with still “liking sin”, and will even fall to its deceptive ways, but we will not love it or be controlled by it. Those chains of loving sin and being ruled by sin are part of the “freedom package” when Christ tells us, “Your sins are forgiven.”
A third attitude in the heart of the forgiven sinner is a resolve to fight against all sin. We simply will not or cannot remain passive in the daily warfare against remaining sin in us. From a hatred of sin will come battle against sin. We will see what sin did to Jesus and refuse to allow or willfully participate in what put Him on the cross. Would that not be the height of ingratitude and insensitivity to tolerate or practice the very things God forgave us of and killed His Son for?
Yes, there are no sweeter words to the soul wounded by sin than to hear “Your sins are forgiven.” And should we know those words by personal experience, let’s build on the attitudes of thanksgiving for such forgiveness, hatred for what was forgiven, and then to do all-out battle against the sin that still remains in us.
PRAYER: “Lord, I praise You for Your forgiveness and the freedom I know from it.”
QUOTE: “Don’t recall your sins that God has promised to not remember.”