BEYOND COMPREHENSION

By Jim Corner

There are so many Biblical concepts that cannot be fully understood by the mind of man. How, for example, could one comprehend the love of God? Describe for me, if you will, the depth of suffering that the Lord endured on the cross. In this article I want to share with you one of the greatest blessings known to man, namely, the forgiveness of God. Just as with the love of God and the suffering of the cross, I will be unable to fully explain the magnitude of this blessing. I want to share two Biblical passages that will help us have a greater appreciation of the forgiveness of God.

The word forgiveness in the Scriptures comes from a Greek word that literally meant ‘to send away.’ It was used to refer to the canceling of a debt. Generally speaking in the Bible, it refers to the fact that God removes our sin from us and looks upon us as though we had never sinned. The forgiven Christian stands before God as a sinless individual. It is only because of the forgiveness of God that we can have eternal life. The Scriptures state in Isaiah 59:2 that sin is what separates man from God. God is without sin and cannot have fellowship with anyone who possesses sin. That is bad news for all of mankind but through the sacrifice of Jesus, God has given us forgiveness.

Let me share with you one of the most beautiful descriptions of forgiveness found in the Word of God. We read the following in Psalm 103: 12: "as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us." Why do you suppose He said ‘east from west’ and not ‘north from south’? Well, let’s think for a minute. If you are driving due south and you travel far enough, you will be going due north and vice versa. If, for example, you were standing 3 feet north of the North Pole you would know that you are 3 feet from south. The point is simple; you can measure north from south. If, however, you are driving due east you will never be going west unless you change directions. The point is simple: you cannot measure east from west and in the same way, you cannot measure the forgiveness of God.

We could spend page after page and even write book after book on the forgiveness of God and yet never adequately describe the magnitude of His forgiveness. The second passage I want to share with you is found in Matthew 18:23-34 but I want to focus on verses 23-27. As you can see, Jesus tells a story about a master who had a servant that owed him 10,000 talents. In our money today, that would approximate several millions of dollars. The slave did not have the money so the master was going to sell his wife and children and everything he had to begin to pay the debt. Notice that I said begin to pay. You see the average daily wage in that day was about 17 cents. If you owe 2 million dollars and pay 17 cents a day against the debt it will take you over 32, 000 years to pay the debt. The reality was that the man could never pay the debt. In the story the master totally forgave the debt. The man in that story is you and I and the master is God. You see, we had a debt of sin that was unpayable and God paid the debt for us by sending His Son to die in our place.

Do I fully understand the teaching of these two passages? Absolutely not but it does help me to better appreciate the vast love of God for me as demonstrated in His forgiveness of my sin. Have you received forgiveness for your sins? It is unfortunate that so many in our world do not teach what the Bible says about salvation and forgiveness of sin. There are many preachers that would tell you to simply pray to the Lord, confess your sins and accept Jesus as your personal Savior and you will have eternal life. Such is not the case. Don’t listen to me but listen to the Word of God. There we see that one must believe in Jesus (John 20:30,31); they must repent or turn from sin (Acts 17:30); they must confess Jesus as Lord (Matthew 10:32,33) and they must be immersed in water (Matthew 28:19). The Bible states that when I do these things God will forgive my sin (Acts 22:16), He will give me His Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38), He will place me in His Son’s Church (I Corinthians 12:13), He will place me in Jesus (Galatians 3:27) and He will save my soul (Mark 16:16).

If you would like to study the Word of God further, we invite you to contact the webmaster of this site. If you live in the Dallas area he can come and study with you personally. If you live somewhere else he can lead you to someone who will study with you. If you prefer to study via Bible correspondence you can contact World Bible School at www.wbschool.org and they will be happy to send you a free Bible course. We simply want you to enjoy the beauty of the forgiveness of God!