As far as the east is from the west,
so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
Psalm 103:12
This is a promise to claim!
God is saying to you and me: All your sin is gone! Gone forever! Gone completely! Gone never to return! Gone!
David, who wrote this Psalm, had some big sins. But he believed that God’s grace was bigger than his sin. Even if the sin was adultery, God’s grace was bigger. Even if the sin was murder, God’s grace was bigger. Even if the sin was rampant pride, God’s grace was bigger.
David understood grace. And he lived before the cross, before he could see the full wonder of a Savior dying in our place and paying for all our sin.
Those of us who live after the cross, surely we too must grasp grace.
David would have loved John Newton, the former slave ship owner who discovered grace and penned the classic hymn, “Amazing Grace.” Newton had been responsible for ripping families apart, husbands from wives, parents from children. He had been responsible for unthinkable brutality on voyages across the Atlantic, when slaves suffered horribly and so many died, thrown overboard into the sea. Newton’s sin was so big! But he discovered grace. Amazing grace. Grace that’s bigger than all our sin. Grace that removes our sins as far as the east is from the west. All our sins. Past, present, future. Thoughts, words, deeds. All our sins.
Yes, David would have loved Newton.
The next time you wrestle with guilt and condemnation, turn to the great promise of grace, Psalm 103:12. Read it. Learn it. Revel in it. Believe it.
This is a promise to claim!