Inspiration from a funeral!

It is amazing how the bible speaks to you in surprising circumstances. Today we went to the funeral of a friend's mother. The Pastor used Psalm 103 for his reading and text for his message but it caused my mind to wander and to consider just how far the east is from the west because David in this Psalm makes this vitally important point in verse 17:

“As far as the east is from the west, so far does He remove our transgression from us!”

The first amazing truth is that God chooses to take away our transgressions: that is sins to you and I! As I have said many times in this blog: “our personal sin separates us eternally from fellowship with God and that it is by the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ that forgiveness is available to all who will repent and trust in Him alone in order that we might come into fellowship with Him.

But how much are we forgiven?

That was a most important question to David because he had sinned much. David had orchestrated the death on a man called Uriah in order that he might cover up the fact that he was having an affair with Uriah's wife and had made her pregnant. That means that David was a murderer and was clearly at odds to God's requirement of holiness. David did repent and sought forgiveness and as is promised in scripture he received it. If you want to see what a painful experience that was for David read Psalm 51.

Sin is forgiven to an amazing extent!

David said that it is forgiven as far as the east is from the west. But how far is that?

We currently live in East Looe which is separated from West Looe by the river. It is not far, in fact it is only the width of the river away, maybe a distance of 30 metres. Is this what David means? Clearly that cannot be the case, that is just a river's width is not a great deal. When we consider David's life as recorded in the bible we also read of an amazing compliment made by God to David! In spite of all of the many mistakes that he made God refers to him as a man after His own heart. According to God David had and amazing relationship with Him.

But how can that be?

The only answer can be that David's sins were completely forgiven and the only way that David can illustrate such a complete forgiveness is to use a measure that is so vast that it is impossible to measure. We can measure the distance from North to West, in fact it is simply half of the distance of the circumference of the earth! That would be a big enough figure for us but God's measure is infinite it is East to West which never ever meets! David's sin was forgiven completely and so is mine but what of yours?

God is an amazing forgiver to all who will repent and trust Him wholly for forgiveness, why not read more of the bible and discover just what forgiveness really means!