Psalm 103 - Forgiveness

"He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities."

Psalm 103:10

Psalm 103:10 is an incredible and wonderful promise. To a person who is
aware of his or her sins and desires to please God, it seems impossible. It
is only possible because of the next two verses:

"For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him.

As far as the east is from the west
So far does he remove our transgression from us."

Psalm 103:11-12

This is a description of the true status of our forgiveness. He removes our
sins in such a way that they are not accessible—as though they had never
even happened! If this seems impossible to you, welcome to the incredible
power and grace of God.

The full context of these verses is the entire Psalm which powerfully
supports them. This is forgiveness on a scale beyond comprehension.

If our sins are not accessible, then they cannot have any impact on our
past, present, or future. What does this mean? We will never be held
accountable for our sins. Also, our past sins will not be able to lead us into
future sinning because they are gone.

Let’s shift our thinking a bit. This kind of thinking is human thinking and it
makes perfect sense that we would read it that way. But this psalm is not
only about the human thinking. It is also, or especially, about the thinking of
God. This psalm can be read as our perspective of our sins, but it is more
than that. This is also about God’s perspective of our sins. When He
forgives a sin, it is so gone that it is truly as if it had never happened. That’s
how He sees it.

This is more than mere forgiveness. Forgiveness is a declaration of God’s
willingness not to count our sin against us. God’s perspective is that our
sin—no matter how many times we have sinned or how offensive our sins
are—no longer exists. It is as if it had never happened.

But how can this be? How can this be possible?

There is only one reason. Before we ever sinned—in fact before anyone
ever sinned, even before Creation—the wisdom and foresight of God
provided for the inevitable reality of sin. He intended to send His Son to
Earth to open the eyes of people to His reality and love for His creation.
The Son would pay the death penalty so sinning people could be forgiven.
This unfair death of One who was absolutely perfect and innocent would be
the full and final payment for all sin. This plan was fulfilled in the death and
resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. We were identified with His death
(Rom 6:2; Gal 2:20) so His righteousness could be attributed to us. God
saw Christ’s death as the full and final payment for all sin so all people
could be with Him without sin and its consequences. The means of entering
the presence of God is for a person simply to believe in God’s acceptance
of the death of His Son.

A person’s acceptance of God’s provision releases such a perfect solution
to the problem of sin. That person’s acceptance of God’s provision means
that God sees no sin in that person. It just does not exist to be seen.
God’s perspective is what truly matters.

Jay Swisher