It can be even more of a challenge, however, to believe that we are forgiven. It is at the heart of our faith that God through the death of Jesus has dealt with all our sin, but has it really sunk in? Yesterday I had an idea that I would write down on pieces of paper all those things that trouble me about my past, put them in a bin liner and rejoice to see the binman take it all away to a place I will never know. But then it occurred to me that I would ever completely wipe out all that stuff from my mind and was never meant to. John Newton could write about ‘Amazing Grace’ because he was mindful of what he was before he took the story of Jesus to his heart and was grateful that by the grace of God he was given the opportunity to begin again.
Then think about Mary Magdalene, a faithful follower of Jesus. Luke tells us that she lived a disturbed life before the turn-around she experienced when she encountered Jesus. (Luke 8: 1-2) If it was known about her past in the community and the fellowship of believers, it cannot have been very far away from her mind.
Paul saw himself and all Christians as ‘a new creation’ in Christ but never forgot that he had in the past colluded in the deaths by execution of people in the rising Christian movement. Peter never forgot that he had denied Jesus. But all these people could stand up under the weight of past sin because they believed that it no longer defined their lives. They were no longer just sinners, but sinners renewed in the power of the Holy Spirit. ‘Ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven.’
The best way forward for us all is to meditate on the powerful images we find in Scripture of what it means to be forgiven.
In his final prayer the prophet Micah says:
‘Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy. You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins under foot and hurl all our iniquities into the deaths of the sea.’ (Micah 7: 18-19)
Consider the depths of the sea. That is the distance of our sins from us. They may still be there in some unfathomed place, we remember them, but they no longer touch us, they no longer define our lives.
The Psalmist writes:
For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.’ (Psalm103: 11-12)
It’s a powerful image. God taking charge of our sins and hurling them into the depths of space. They are ‘removed’ from us. They may still be there in some unexplored place, we remember them, but they no longer touch us, they no longer define our lives.
As we approach Holy Week we are invited to ponder the last days of Jesus on this earth and the fulfilment of his mission to make it possible for us to be forgiven, and to be part of a community where the temperature of forgiveness among us is high. Having been touched by the power of forgiveness in our lives, however much of a challenge it may be, nevertheless it should never be absent from Christian aspiration.
