SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/12/2017 11:07 AM
My Worship Time Focus: God Will Forgive Their Sin
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts 3:19b
Message of the verse: “that
your sins may be wiped away”
Perhaps Peter’s words
may have reminded his hearers of what David wrote in the 51st Psalm,
a Psalm he wrote in confession to what had happened between he and Bathsheba
and her husband Uriah. “Hide Your face
from my sins And blot out all my iniquities (Psalm 51:9).” The problem with the first-century Judaism
and also the works-righteousness system is that it only tells you about your
sins, but doesn’t tell you how to be forgiven of your sins as it served only to
“weight men down with burdens hard to bear” as Jesus stated in Luke 11:46. God has provided for mankind forgiveness of
their sins which is not only found in the New Testament, but Old Testament as
well. Isaiah 43:25 “"I, even I, am
the one who wipes out your transgressions for My own sake, And I will not
remember your sins.” Isaiah 44:22
“"I have wiped out your transgressions like a thick cloud And your sins
like a heavy mist. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you."” “Ps 103:12 As far as the east is from the
west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us.” (Just be thankful that the Psalmist did not
say North from the South.)
John MacArthur writes
“There is only one way to receive God’s forgiveness—through faith in His Son
Jesus Christ. Peter boldly proclaimed to
the Sanhedrin that ‘[Jesus] is the one whom God exalted to His right hand as a
Prince and a Savior, to grant repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins’
(Acts 5:31). It is ‘through His name
[that] everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins’ (Acts
10:43). ‘In Him,’ Paul wrote to the
Ephesians, ‘we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our
trespasses, according to the riches of His grace’ (Eph. 1:7; cf. Col. 1:14). In Ephesians 4:32 he added, ‘God in Christ…has
forgiven you.’ The sacrificial death of
Jesus Christ accomplished what the Levitical system was unable to, since ‘it is
impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins’ (Heb. 10:4)
“Exaleipho (wiped away) pictures the wiping of ink off a document
(cf. Col. 2:14). Unlike modern ink, ink
in the ancient world had no acid content.
Consequently, it did not bite into the papyrus or vellum used for
documents. Instead, it remained on the
surface where it could easily be wiped away by a damp sponge. God does far more than merely cross out
believers’ sins, He wipes
them away completely. They are
gone beyond the possibility of review or recall. Even their horrible sin of rejecting and
executing their Messiah was not indelible and could be wiped away.”
Romans 6:4-5 tells us
that those who place their faith in Christ are united with Him in His death and
also resurrection: “death? 4 Therefore
we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was
raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in
newness of life. 5 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His
death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection,” Because
of this God “having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees
against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having
nailed it to the cross (Col. 2:14).”
Paul writes in Romans 8:1 “Therefore there is now no condemnation for
those who are in Christ Jesus.”
One of my wife’s
favorite hymns “It is Well with My soul” was written by Horatio Spafford who
penned it after a part of his family died by drowning. If I remember correctly
he wrote part of it before the tragic death of part of his family and then
after that he wrote more verses to this wonderful hymn
“My sin, O, the bliss of this glorious
thought,
My sin not in part but the whole
Is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord; praise the Lord, O, my
soul!”
John MacArthur adds
“Those words find their echo in every redeemed heart.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: Sometimes in the day-to-day
life I forget that Christ has forgiven all of my sins, and this is not
good. It is wonderful to be reminded of
this truth.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust the Holy Spirit to used my Spiritual
Diaries to bring honor and glory to my Lord, to whom I owe all too.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:
Pull out the beam from thine own eye” (Matthew 7:5).
Today’s Bible question: “Who
said, ‘I saw in my vision by night, and, behold the four winds of the heaven
stove upon the great sea’?”
Answer in our next SD.
9/12/2017 11:39 AM
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