The Fruit of Forgiveness

Psalm 130:3-4  If you, O LORD, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand?  4  But with you there is forgiveness; therefore you are feared.

Is God a “forgiveness” vendo machine that we can just come back to every time we sin? Can we, or should se, be going back to Him for the same sin again and again and believe that He forgives us?

The passage above sets the record straight.  Yes, the Lord is a forgiving God.  Actually, no matter how many times you go back to ask forgiveness the Lord will forgive.  Why?  He does not keep a record of sins.  The psalmist here proclaims that if the Lord did keep a record of sins, then no one could stand before Him.  We would all be enjoying eternity apart from Him – in other words, in hell!

But He does not keep a record of sins.  That’s how much He loves us.  With Him there is forgiveness.  It’s not that He does not know how many times we have sinned, because He does.  It’s not that He cannot remind us of the many times we have forsaken Him, because He can.  This just means that every time we come to the Lord seeking forgiveness, He will forgive.  He will not tell us “that’s the nth time you’ve done that!”.  No, He will forgive.  That’s God’s part.

But what is the expected result in our heart?  Can we sin, ask for forgiveness, then sin again, and ask for forgiveness again and again?  That’s the next thing the psalmist mentions – “4 but with you there is forgiveness; therefore YOU ARE FEARED.

When someone comes to God asking forgiveness he is not face to face with a giant vendo machine, that if you just put the right coin, the right amount, the softdrink comes out.  We don’t just say the right prayer, or utter the right phrase, and forgiveness comes.  God always sees the heart.  And a heart that stands before a holy and righteous God realizes who he has sinned against, and when that person receives His forgiveness, God’s forgiveness, he leaves His presence with FEAR.  That person realizes who has forgiven him, and he leaves that presence with the desire to sin no more.

Can we come to God anytime, again and again, to ask forgiveness?  Sure.  But anyone who comes before God with a right view of who He is, and with a right experience of that holy forgiveness, will fear Him so much that He will eventually leave his life of sin.  Realize who you have sinned against…and who is forgiving you…a holy and righteous, but gracious and merciful God.  You are a forgiving God…therefore You are feared.

Psalm 85:8  I will listen to what God the LORD will say; he promises peace to his people, his saints-- but let them not return to folly.