January 9

Thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back. Isaiah 38:17.

OBSERVE the manner in which the pardon of sin is here expressed. It is by a metaphor. What a man throws behind his back is out of his sight, and he regards it no more. How does this apply to God? Nothing can ever be properly out of his sight, or out of his knowledge. No; but the meaning is, that their sins will no more appear before him to provoke his anger or call forth any condemnation. It is not what we do with our sins, but what God does with them; not whether we forget them, but whether God remembers them. The Christian may say with David, “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgression from us.”

Observe the extensiveness and measure of the blessing. Thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back, however numerous, and however heinous. “Though our sins are as scarlet,” says he, “they shall be white as snow;” “though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool,” for he will abundantly pardon. If only one sin remains it would be enough to ruin the soul for ever. But this is not the case. Mark, here is the knowledge of the privilege. He speaks without any hesitation: “Thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back.” There is a difference between the reality and the manifestation of a thing. There are persons whose pardon God hath sealed, who write very bitter things of themselves. They have not as yet the full assurance of faith. Nevertheless, they are sustained by hope in his mercy. And if they seek it in his own way, he will in due time appear to their joy, and they shall not be ashamed. If they throw themselves at his feet he will take them to his bosom. If with Peter they cry, “Lord save, or I perish,” they will be able, by-and-by, to say with Thomas, “My Lord and my God!” Let us therefore seek after this inestimable blessing.

What is every thing else without this?-what if we have been recovered from the grave?-what would our going down to the pit of corruption be when compared with going down to the pit of damnation?-what would it be to have the body healed, and the soul condemned? Oh! to be reconciled to God by the death of his Son; to be able to say, “O Lord, thou wast angry with me, but thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortest me.”