Psalm 103:12, Ephesians 1:7, 1 John 1:7
The Greatest Reality
The forgiveness of God is the most staggering reality in the universe. The holy, perfect Creator of all things — against whom every human being has sinned, whose law has been broken, whose glory has been exchanged for idols — forgives. Completely, freely, finally.
This is not something that should be taken for granted. It should astonish us every time we encounter it.
What God's Forgiveness Looks Like
The Bible uses multiple images to describe the completeness of God's forgiveness:
Distance. "As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us." (Psalm 103:12). East and west never meet — they are infinitely separated. The distance between our sins and us, in God's economy of forgiveness, is infinite.
Depth. "You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea." (Micah 7:19). Not placed on the shore where they can be retrieved — cast into the depths. Gone.
Erasure. "I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud and your sins like mist." (Isaiah 44:22). A cloud that has dissolved. A mist that has cleared. Nothing remaining.
Memory. "I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." (Jeremiah 31:34). God's choice not to hold sins against the forgiven is as complete as forgetting.
The Cost of Forgiveness
God's forgiveness is free to the recipient — but it was not free to God. Forgiveness required the death of His Son. The penalty for sin had to be borne somewhere — and God bore it Himself in Christ.
This is what makes divine forgiveness both gracious and just. It is not God turning a blind eye to sin. It is God dealing with sin at infinite personal cost, so that the guilty can go free without the demands of justice being violated.
In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace. — Ephesians 1:7
Forgiveness flows from the riches of God's grace — and it flows through the blood of Christ.
The Completeness of Forgiveness
Perhaps the most liberating truth about God's forgiveness is its completeness. When God forgives, He forgives everything — every sin, past, present, and future; every deliberate rebellion and every unconscious failure; every secret sin and every public failure.
There is no sin too great for God to forgive except the sin of refusing His forgiveness. "The blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin." (1 John 1:7). All.