From Depths of Despair to Heights of Joy

If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness; therefore you are feared. – Psalm 130:3-4

On May 24, 1738, John Wesley, an ordained minister of the Anglican Church, attended a vespers service in St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. The congregation sang Psalm 130, a prayer of one seeking to experience God’s forgiveness of sins. It was Wesley’s prayer, too, for though he was an ordained minister, he longed to know that his sins were forgiven. That evening Wesley attended a Non-conformist service in a one-room meeting place on Aldersgate Street. There he heard someone read Luther’s introduction to the Epistle to the Romans, and as he listened to Luther’s words, the prayer he prayed in the afternoon was answered. Wesley wrote that his heart was strangely warmed and he experienced great assurance that his sins were pardoned and he was a child of God.

In the Latin, Psalm 130 is called “De Profundis,” or “Out of the Depths.” It is one of several penitential psalms, and it is also one of the fifteen psalms of ascents that pilgrims would sing while ascending the hill of the Lord as they came to worship at the temple during the three festival seasons. So we can imagine Jesus Christ himself singing this psalm as he came to Jerusalem to worship. Together with Psalms 32, 51, and 143, it is called one of Luther’s “Psalmi Paulini” because it speaks of salvation by grace.

This psalm teaches us how to be lifted out of the depths of despair to the heights of God’s great salvation. We must therefore pay close attention to what it says.

Cry Out to the Lord

Psalm 130 begins, “Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord.” Here we see the psalmist in the depths of trouble. God has a way of taking his sinning, wandering, erring people through troubles, such as sickness, economic difficulties, persecutions, or rocky relationships, to bring them back to their senses and back to God. It is because God loves his people so much that he exercises such severe, corrective discipline. Someone once said, “Deep places of affliction produce deep devotion to God.” If you are going through the depths of trouble, I hope you will realize that God loves you and will bring you out, in his time.

What should we do when we are in the depths of troubles? If we are unbelievers, we may curse God and try to get ourselves out by our own efforts. But the Bible declares that self-salvation is impossible. No man can save himself from sin and its severe consequences. So we must know who can save us and call on him. In Psalm 69 the psalmist cries, “Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in the miry depths, where there is no foothold. I have come into the deep waters; the floods engulf me. I am worn out calling for help; my throat is parched. My eyes fail, looking for my God. . . . You know my folly, O God; my guilt is not hidden from you. . . . I am in pain and distress; may your salvation, O God, protect me” (vv. 1-3, 5, 29). In Psalm 107 we are told repeatedly how God’s people wandered and erred, becoming arrogant and proud. Then God would bring severe troubles upon them, and in their distress they would call upon the Lord, who would deliver them from all their troubles.

Many of our troubles, according to the Bible, are due to our sin, yet we cannot save ourselves. What, then, should we do when we find ourselves in the depths of misery and trouble? We must cry, cry, and cry again to God. Cry to the one who is able to help us. Cry to the one who can descend to our depths, pick us up, and lift us up out. Pray in faith, pray passionately, pray with purpose, and pray persistently to the one true God, who is gracious and merciful. Pray, “Save me, O covenant Lord. You are holy, infinite, personal, and gracious. Come to my aid! Lift me out!” Tell him, “Save me, Jehovah Jireh, God who is my provider. Save me, Jehovah Rophekah, the Lord who is my healer. Save me, Jehovah Nissi, God who is my victory. Save me, Jehovah Meqquadishkem, the one who sanctifies me, for I cannot sanctify myself. Save me, Jehovah Shalom, God who is my peace. Save me, Jehovah Tsidqenu, the Lord who is my righteousness. Save me, Jehovah Shamma, the Lord who is there.” When we call from the depths of our misery, our God comes down to save us. If he did not come to us where we are, how could we be helped? But he does come, for that is his nature.

The story of Jonah illustrates this truth. In Jonah 1:1 we read, “The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: ‘Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.'” But Jonah did not want to obey this command, as we see in verse 3: “But Jonah ran away from the Lord.” He said, “No, I am not going to preach!” A violent storm arose, and the sailors determined that Jonah was responsible. So Jonah told them, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea” (v. 12). “Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm” (v. 15). He was thrown overboard and sank into the depths, “But the Lord provided a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was inside the fish three days and three nights” (v. 17).

In 2:1-4 we find Jonah’s supplication from the depths:

From inside the fish, Jonah prayed to the Lord his God. He said: “In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me. From the depths of the grave I called for help, and you listened to my cry. You hurled me into the deep, into the very heart of the seas, and the currents swirled about me; all your waves and breakers swept over me. I said, ‘I have been banished from your sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple.’ The engulfing waters threatened me, the deep surrounded me; seaweed was wrapped around my head. To the roots of the mountains I sank down; the earth beneath barred me in forever. But you brought my life from the pit, O Lord my God.”

Jonah sank, Jonah was swallowed, and Jonah supplicated. But then God came down, and Jonah was saved. He who cries out to God shall soon be lifted out of the depths of despair to sing from the heights of joy!

A Record of Sins

The author of Psalm 130 was very conscious of his iniquities and guilt. He says in verse 3: “If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand?” In other words, no one is able to stand in God’s presence when he judges because of the magnitude of his sins. In verse 8 the psalmist says, “He himself will redeem Israel from all their sins.”

There is no real consciousness of sin today. In fact, when you speak to people about sin, they laugh at you, because, having eliminated God from their thinking, they have no consciousness of sin. Where God is acknowledged, there will be consciousness of sin. But modern people are busy pursuing the happiness of temporal, sensual pleasures. Rather than being God-conscious, they are self-conscious and self-centered. Sin is not what people are thinking about

But verse 3 begins, “If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins. . . .” This does not mean that God does not keep a record of sins. He does! God knows every sin we have ever committed. He knows not only the murder, but the very thought that gave rise to the murder. He knows not only the adultery, but the very lust that gave rise to that adultery. Only when we read the Ten Commandments along with the Sermon on the Mount can we understand the full implication of the law and our transgression of it. And the last commandment is, “You shall not covet.” Of course, no court will prosecute us for coveting, for who can see into our heart? But God sees, and he will hold us responsible.

How many people walk about as though they have not sinned, as though everything is all right with them, when, in fact, they have committed sin? But God does keep a record of sins, and this means every sin we commit, because God is omniscient. He knows our thoughts before we think and our words before we speak. He knows what we will do before we do it, and he never forgets anything. You and I forget every day; but God remembers everything. The God of the Scriptures is a moral God. He is light, and in him there is no darkness. He gave us his moral law, the Ten Commandments, by which we must be judged. So sin can be defined as “any lack of conformity unto or transgression of the law of God.”

The Bible declares that all are guilty of sin, and the soul that sins must die-spiritual, physical, and eternal death. We are conceived in sin, born in sin, and practice sin daily. We commit iniquity, transgression, and sin. What is iniquity? It is perversion. Using our own fallen reasoning, we twist and bend and pervert what God has stated in his law. What is transgression? It is rebellion; it is deliberately rising up against God’s authority to rule over us and saying, “We will not have this king to rule over us!” What is sin? It is missing the mark. It means we are going in the opposite direction and will never arrive where God wants us to arrive. In our great “wisdom,” we are going in the entirely wrong direction.

We are told in the Scriptures that God hates our iniquity, transgression, and sin; it is a dishonor to his being. So he keeps a record of all our sins; not even one is missed. Every idle word, every wrong deed, is recorded. The longer we live, the greater our sins and the greater our guilt. For this reason, one could say that it would be better to die in infancy and never see the light of the day than to live a long life full of sin. And because of our sin, the wrath of God is revealed against us. Yet we can only sink deeper and deeper in our guilt; we are helpless in our own strength to lift ourselves up and out of it. The great professor Cornelius Van Til once gave a vivid description of man’s inability to save himself: Suppose a man is in the ocean, being beaten about by waves, and he wants to get out. He asks, “What should I do?” and the word comes: “What do you have around you?” “A lot of water.” “Fine; why don’t you make a ladder with it?” “Well, even if I could make a ladder out of water, what would I lean it against?” “Against water. And the rest is easy-you just climb out on it.” This demonstrates the utter futility of any human attempt to save ourselves by leaning onto our own understanding.

With God There Is Forgiveness

Is there any way to blot out our transgressions from God’s record? Is there any way to make our record clean of sin? And if there is no way of dealing with our guilt, who can stand in God’s presence at the judgment? The expected answer is that no one would be able to stand, and that is what we read in Psalm 1: “The wicked will not stand in the judgment” (v. 5) and Psalm 143: “Do not bring your servant into judgment, for no one living is righteous before you” (v. 2).

Paul speaks about the problem of the human condition in the book of Romans: “As it is written: ‘There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one'” (Romans 3:10-12). Man is not nice and he is not evolving. He is not getting better and better every day. What, then, can we do?

The twentieth chapter of the book of Revelation speaks about the great judgment and about books being opened. In verse 12, John writes, “And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened.” These books are the record books of our sins-every sin-whether in thought, word or deed. But then in verse 15 we read, “If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.” So there are “books” and there is “the book,” the book of life. Psalm 130 makes a similar profound statement in verse 4, beginning with the word “But . . . .” Oh, this is a glorious word! We face the deep darkness . . . but . . . there is a light shining! There is a way out, an exit, a ray of hope for the despairing sinner. “But with you there is forgiveness.”

How did the psalmist know this was true? And how can we know it? The answer is given in verse 5: “In his word I put my hope.” The word of God declares there is a way out, a way of salvation, and that there is hope for every sinner. Creation does not declare this fact that God forgives our sins. In fact, we can study creation all we want, but it will not tell us, for this fact is not found in creation.

The word of God alone declares this fact. So we must read God’s special revelation to discover this glorious truth: “But with God there is forgiveness.” Throughout the Bible, God revealed this glorious truth through his prophets and finally he revealed it in his Son, Jesus Christ.

So the first thing we must do to get out of the deep mud and mire of our own misery is to read and hear the word of God. We must listen to the gospel carefully. The only book of hope to the sinking sinner is the Bible. Oh, modern man may despise and mock it. But if you are sinking, then read it, study it, and understand it. It will give you hope and lift you out of the depths of despair to the heights of everlasting joy.

Read it and read it again, for only there will we find this truth: “With God there is forgiveness.” This God is the covenant Lord revealed in the Scriptures, the God who revealed himself to Moses in the burning bush, the “I AM that I AM.” There is no other God, Creator and Redeemer. All other gods are nothing. All other religions are impotent to save anyone. Only with the Lord of the Bible is there forgiveness of sins.

The Lord Himself Will Redeem Us

The essence of sin is opposition to God, for all sin is against God. “Against you, you only, have I sinned,” David cried out in Psalm 51. If sin is against God, then only God can forgive sin.

The Bible tells us God is holy and God is love. Being holy and just, he must punish sinners; being love, he desires to save sinners. How can this dilemma be solved? How can God forgive sin without being unjust, unholy and immoral? The answer is found in verse 7: “O Israel, put your hope in the Lord, for with the Lord is unfailing love-ha chesed.”

The same God who entered into a covenant with Abraham also enters into a covenant with us. This covenant is based on nothing in us, but solely on God’s love for sinners, a love that is described here as unfailing and everlasting, a loyal, covenant love. God loved us from all eternity and loves us when we sin against him. Think about that! God loves us now, and his love will never let us go. This powerful divine love pursues sinners and makes them saints of God. This love atones for our sins. This love changes our very nature and causes us to love God and our neighbors.

God loves us; yet how can he, also being just and holy, forgive us our sins? The answer is given in the remainder of verse 7: “With him is full redemption.” Full redemption means that where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. It is full, plenteous redemption-redemption full enough to regenerate us, justify us, sanctify us, and glorify us.

Why do we need to be redeemed? Because, as born sinners, we are slaves of sin, death, and Satan. Do not think a sinning person is experiencing great freedom. No, whoever sins is serving his master, Satan. But with God there is redemption, emancipation, and salvation. He sets us free from our servitude to sin, death, and Satan. Our ownership has been changed because someone has paid a price for our freedom.

What price did our redeemer have to pay for our full and plenteous redemption? Psalm 49 tells us: “No man can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for him-the ransom for a life is costly, no payment is ever enough-that he should live on forever and not see decay” (vv. 7-9). From a human standpoint, our situation would be hopeless, for every man is a sinner; therefore, how could one sinner redeem another? Even if we could find a sinless man, how could he redeem multitudes of sinners?

Who, then, is this redeemer who brings about full redemption? The answer is given in verse 8 of Psalm 130: “He himself will redeem Israel from all their sins.” The covenant Lord himself redeems his people from all their sins. God/man, perfect God and perfect man, one person in two natures, came into our hell to lift us out of the depths and bring us out into the glorious sunshine of his divine approbation.

Several scriptures speak about this Redeemer. Isaiah 7:14 says, “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.” The name Immanuel means “God with us.” This son being spoken of is God, the second Person of the Trinity-but at the same time, he has taken upon himself a human nature.

Isaiah 9:6 says, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” This child is also called Mighty God.

The New Testament also speaks about this God/man. The gospel of Matthew tells us:

But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”-which means, “God with us” (1:20-23).

John says this about our Savior: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. . . . The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. . . . From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another” (John 1:1, 14, 16).

God himself will redeem Israel from all her sins! The second Person of the Trinity, the eternal Son of God, took upon himself human nature and put himself under the law, that he might fully keep God’s law in our behalf and die on the cross for our sins. The death he suffered was due us, for the Bible says, “The soul who sins is the one who will die,” and “The wages of sin is death.” Jesus Christ died in our behalf; thus, in him our sin was punished. He redeemed us, having paid the ransom. The price of our redemption was not silver or gold, but the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without defect or blame.

Why did God in Christ do all this? To solve our problem. As holy God, he must punish sinners for their sin. But because he is love, he does not want to destroy us. Therefore he took care of this problem himself. He planned this salvation from the foundation of the world.

Paul speaks of this in Romans 3:21-26. After declaring that no one understands, that no one is good, that no one seeks God, that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, and that the wrath of God is being revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, Paul gives the glorious gospel of God’s grace: “But now a righteousness from God, apart from law”-meaning apart from lawkeeping; that is the glory of it-“has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.” This was the meaning of the entire Old Testament. “This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished-he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.” God can justly forgive our sins because our sins have been punished in his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

How to Receive Forgiveness

How do we receive this forgiveness? Through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. There is no other basis for true forgiveness. When we cry out, “What must I do to be saved?” the answer is, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.” I have seen people go through all kinds of contortions to conceal their sin, but that is not the way to deal with it. “He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy” (Proverbs 28:13). All have sinned, and all sin is against God; therefore we cannot make any excuse or shift the blame, for God will not accept it. We must own our sin, confess that we cannot save ourselves, and seek God’s mercy and forgiveness for our sins in Jesus.

Praise God, there is a way to blot out our sins from God’s record, for with God there is forgiveness, and plenteous redemption. He himself will lift us out of the depths of our misery and the guilt of our sin! What, then, should we do? Cry out to God, who has descended from the heights into the depths of our hell, in Jesus Christ. He is with us to lift us up to heaven itself.

In Luke 18 we read about a Pharisee and a tax collector in the temple. The Pharisee prayed to himself, boldly and confidently trusting in his own self-righteousness. But the tax collector stood far off and beat on his breast. He would not even lift his eyes to heaven, for he understood that God’s law demands holiness and condemns sin. He realized that he could not be saved by the law, for he knew he was guilty of sin. “The law cannot save me. I am guilty. I am cursed.” He then trusted in the efficacy of God’s gift of atoning blood sacrifice. “Someone else is being sacrificed for my salvation. All my life, whenever I came to the temple, I have seen this blood.” So the tax collector cried out, “Lord, have mercy upon me, a sinner,” and Jesus says he went home justified.

That is what we must do also. Out of the depths we must cry out, “Lord, have mercy upon me, a sinner!” Repent, believe, and pray, until God saves you forever. In Revelation 7:9 we are told of countless multitudes from all tribes and nations standing in heaven, whose robes have been washed clean by the blood of the Lamb. They are praising God for his great salvation. God promises to save everyone who repents and believes on him.

The Nature of Forgiveness

What is the nature of God’s forgiveness? First, in verse 4 of Psalm 130 we read, “But with you, forgiveness,” in the Hebrew. The English translation reads, “But with you there is forgiveness.” That means right now. It is not “there was” or “there shall be in the future.” It is in the present tense. It is available to us now.

Second, we are not told that this forgiveness is unlimited. Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. It covers all our sins, every single one-sins we committed in the past, sins we commit today, and sins we may commit tomorrow. Imagine what it would mean if God forgave all our sins except one. That one sin would condemn us to hell. So this forgiveness is limitless, and it is for all believers of all ages.

Third, this forgiveness is immediate. When we cry out to God from the depths, we are forgiven instantly and immediately. There is no waiting period.

Finally, this forgiveness is eternal and irreversible. You see, people say, “I forgive you, but. . . .” A man may say, “Honey, I forgave him, but I don’t want to have anything to do with that person anymore.” But God’s forgiveness has no “but” attached. It is eternal and irreversible.

The Source of Forgiveness

Where does this limitless forgiveness come from? From the Supreme Judge of the Supreme Court of the universe, God himself. So we do not have to fear there is going to be an appeal and one day someone is going to reverse the decision. This will never happen. The offended party himself took the initiative to forgive the offenders. That is the amazing thing. It is from the very mind and heart of God.

Many scriptures declare this truth. In Isaiah 1:18 we read, “‘Come now, let us reason together,’ says the Lord. ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.'” Here we see that God makes our record so clean that if anyone looks at it, he would find not even one sin.

Isaiah 38:17 says, “Surely it was for my benefit that I suffered such anguish. In your love you kept me from the pit of destruction; you have put all my sins behind your back.” Praise God! When God forgives our sins, he sees them no longer. They are thrown behind his back forever.

In Isaiah 43:25 the Lord himself says, “I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.” Yes, God keeps a full record of our sins, but the moment we trust in Christ, it is wiped clean, blotted out. We are cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ and justified forever, just as though we had never sinned. That is how we come out of the depths. And not only that, he remembers our sins no more. Yes, God remembers everything. But it means he will never remember our sins in order to judge us on the basis of them. In Isaiah 44:22 we read, “I have swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist.” The sky is clear, for all our iniquity is gone.

Isaiah 53:5 says, “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.” Isaiah 55:7 says, “Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.” Free pardon for you and me! And in Micah 7:19 we are told he buries our sin in the depths of the ocean.

Are You Forgiven?

The question was asked, “O Lord, if you kept a record of sins, who could stand?” Here is a way the record can be made completely clean, and the offer is extended to all people. There is no respect of person: Jew, Gentile, black, white, male, female, master, slave-whosoever believes on him-shall not perish but have everlasting life.

Have you received this forgiveness? God wants you look up from the depths and cry out to him. Cry and cry again, for with God is forgiveness of sins, and he will lift you up out of the depths. (PGM) That is what the incarnation of Christ was all about. God came from heaven into our hell to lift us up from our hell and to take us to be with him in the heavenly places.

No person should remain in the depths of misery. I urge you, therefore, to call upon the name of the Lord and be saved, for with the Lord there is forgiveness; therefore, he is feared.

How the Forgiven Should Live

1. Fear the Lord

   The first thing we must do is to fear the Lord. Verse 4 says, “But with you there is forgiveness; therefore you are feared.” God forgives sinners so they may fear him.

   Those who are truly forgiven of their sins will revere God by keeping his commandments. Why do people sin? Because they do not fear God. No one will sin if he truly fears God. In fact, we are told the fear of God will keep us from sinning. So if a son lies to his father, it is because he has no fear or respect for the father. If he revered and honored his father, he would not lie.

   Psalm 53:1 declares, “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.'” A sinning person is one who has no fear of God. Having eliminated God from his thinking, he treats God with contempt; therefore, he rejects his commandments as having any significance to him.

   In Exodus 20:18-20 we read, “When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance and said to Moses, ‘Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die.’ Moses said to the people, ‘Do not be afraid. God has come to test you so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning.'” A person whose sins are forgiven is one who fears God. The fear of God is always with that person, and so he will not sin. Proverbs 14:16 tells us, “A wise man fears the Lord and shuns evil, but a fool is hotheaded and reckless.”

   How can we sin against the God who loved us so much that he sent his own Son to die for our sins on the cross? Every time we sin, it is as though we are putting Jesus Christ back on the cross. We are saved to do good works, which are simply obedience to God’s moral law. We are saved that we may be wise, and the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. We are now a new creation in Christ Jesus, with a new nature and new capacities. When John Newton experienced God’s free forgiveness of all his sins, he wrote, “‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear and grace my fears relieved.” We are freed from the guilt of sin, the penalty of sin, and the power of sin. We are freed from death, hell, and Satan. What an amazing deliverance!

   How, then, can we continue to sin? “Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?” God forbid! How can we dishonor God by turning our back on his moral commandments? True forgiveness from God shall never cause a Christian to be an antinomian, a libertine. If you see a Christian who is careless in his walk with God and lives and practices sin, then you must draw the conclusion that he is not forgiven and not really saved. A truly born again person, one who has received God’s amazing grace and complete forgiveness, will be careful to follow the guidance of God’s moral law.

   So the forgiven person will fear God and live a holy life. Spurgeon said, “No one fears the Lord like those who have experienced his forgiving love.” In Deuteronomy 10:12-13 we are told how God expects a redeemed person to live: “And now, O Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the Lord’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?”

   The Shorter Catechism tells us the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. There is no way for us to have a good life without honoring God. The prophet Micah, quoting straight from the Deuteronomy passage, asked the same question: “He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” (6:8). That is what fear of the Lord is all about. God has saved us that we may revere him and honor him, that it may go well with us.

   In 2 Corinthians 5:15 Paul also addresses how the redeemed and reconciled people of God should live: “And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.” The pre-conversion, pre-regenerate life is a self-centered life. But the forgiven life is one lived for the glory of God.

   First Peter 4:1-2 says about the believer, “Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because he who has suffered in his body is done with sin. As a result, he does not live the rest of his earthly life for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God.” And where do we find the will of God? In God’s word. Verse 3 continues, “For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do-living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry. They think it strange that you do not plunge with them into the same flood of dissipation, and they heap abuse on you.” Everywhere in the New Testament we read that a person who is forgiven will live a life of moral purity.

2. Wait For the Lord

   Verse 5 gives further instruction about how a forgiven person should live: “I wait for the Lord.” Note, this person is not waiting for forgiveness. The Bible does not teach that we have to wait several days, months, or years before God forgives us. We already said that the moment we call on God, he forgives us. Neither is he waiting for some gifts, such as a healing or a promotion. But because he is forgiven, he now loves God, and if you know anything about love, you know that someone who loves another person will long for and wait for that person. We find this idea in the Song of Solomon, and later in the book of Revelation, where the church is portrayed as the bride of Christ, waiting for the bridegroom. That is the idea. The forgiven person is not waiting not for any thing, but for fellowship and communion with his God.

   This longing is an intense longing-“more than watchmen wait for the morning.” All night the watchman goes without sleep, waiting for the dawn to come so he can stop his work. Likewise, a child of God who is forgiven and has experienced God’s salvation waits with an intense longing for his Lord to come: “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God” (Psalm 42:1). Again, we must note that this is not longing for a thing. Yes, God does give us things. But, praise be to God, he gives us more than just things-he himself comes and makes his dwelling with us. That is what life is all about-relational knowledge of God. “This is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent” (John 17:3).

   How does the psalmist know that the Lord he is waiting for will come? Because the word of God says God will come. So he says, “I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope” (v. 5). This great hope is spoken of throughout the Bible. After explicating the gospel in chapters 1 through 4 of the book of Romans, Paul writes in chapter 5, “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.” We have access to God through the Holy Spirit. That is the great blessing that the unforgiven sinner does not have. But now we are brought near to God, and that is a great reason for rejoicing. “And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.” The glory of God is the coming of Christ. “Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us” (vv.1-5). This is the hope of the Christian: “I wait for thee, O Lord. Nothing in this temporal world is attractive to me, for that which is seen is temporal, and that which is unseen is eternal.”

   Romans 8:22-23 also speaks of this hopeful waiting: “We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit”-we who have been forgiven, we who have been saved-“groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.”

   If you are a Christian who has been forgiven, what are you waiting for? Oh, we wait for the bus, we wait to receive notification from the universities, we wait for employers to call, and we wait to get a letter from our fiancée or spouse when he or she is away. That is all right; there is nothing wrong with waiting for any of those things. But if you are a Christian, you should pray, “O God, help me to wait for your coming, because nothing in this world is going to fill me with such intense happiness as the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, at which time we will be glorified and redemption will come to us.”

   Titus 2:11-13 speaks about the blessed hope, something which we do not hear preached about much any more: “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope-the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.” That is our hope. And while we wait, we are called to live a morally pure life, not one of antinomianism.

   We read the same thing in 2 Peter 3:11-13: “Since everything will be destroyed in this way”-there is going to be a new heavens and a new earth-“what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming.” This is the hope that we wait for. “That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.”

   What are you waiting for? If you say in all honesty, “Well, no, I am not waiting for the Lord Jesus to come,” then you must ask God to forgive you for somehow falling in love with this temporal world. We are to love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength. May God grant you a longing to meet the Lord and fellowship with him forever.

3. Proclaim the Lord

   In verse 7 we find a third thing we should do if God has forgiven us all our sins and granted us full redemption: “O Israel, put your hope in the Lord.” We are to fear the Lord, wait for the Lord, and proclaim the Lord. If God has forgiven all our sins, if God has saved us, if God has justified us, if God has erased all our sins from the book of record, we cannot keep silent; we have an obligation to tell others.

   If we are saved, we must tell others how to be saved. We must tell our friends, for they all are sinners too. They act as we once did, running after the things of this world, without God and without hope. Their hearts are restless and they have no peace. After all the revelry, they will come home and take their shoes off, but they cannot sleep, and they have to take pills just to get through the night. It is a miserable, hopeless life. We understand, for we were there. So we go and tell them, “O Israel, hope in the Lord. I was blind but now I see. I was a leper, but now I am cleansed. I was a sinner, but he has forgiven all my sins.” Tell them, “With the Lord there is forgiveness; with the Lord there is plenteous redemption.”

   “O Israel, put your hope in the Lord.” What are the reasons given here? “For with the Lord is unfailing love.” God loves sinners! “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son.” Jesus Christ is a friend of sinners. He can forgive any and every sin, including the sin of murdering the eternal Son of God.

   Let me ask you again: Are you forgiven? Have you been brought out of the depths of misery into the heights of joy? Have you experienced God’s love and redemption? Then you have an obligation to those who are sinners. You must tell them, “Trust in the Lord. Hope in the Lord.” Why? “For with him there is forgiveness and unfailing love. With him there is full redemption.”

   That is what David did in Psalm 51. After David sinned, he cried unto the Lord: “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me” (v. 10). The fundamental need of every sinner is a clean heart. That is speaking about regeneration. Then he prayed, “Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation.” The forgiven person is one who rejoices with joy unspeakable and full of glory. Then in verse 13 the forgiven David says he will do something: “Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will turn back to you.” David was dedicating his life to proclaiming the gospel that says, “With God is forgiveness, unfailing love, and full redemption.”

   When Paul received forgiveness of sins, this is what he said: “I am obligated both to Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish. That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are at Rome. I am not ashamed of the gospel. . . .” Why should we be ashamed of the gospel? We can see that the whole world is in darkness, death, misery and hopelessness. Although the world pretends to be happy in its pursuit of happiness, we know that it is false. So Paul writes, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: ‘The righteous will live by faith'” (Romans 1:14-17). Man’s problem is that he has no righteousness in himself. But a righteousness from God is revealed in the gospel, a righteousness that we can have just for receiving it. That is why we are obligated to preach the gospel.

No Guilt Will Be Found

“O Lord, if you kept a record of sins, who could stand?” Praise God, when God forgives our sins, our record is wiped completely clean. There is nothing in it, for Christ has blotted out our transgressions by his own death on the cross. In Jeremiah 50:20 we read, “‘In those days, at that time,’ declares the Lord, ‘search will be made for Israel’s guilt.'” A massive, thorough search will be made for our sins. I am sure it will encompass the heavens, the earth, and under the earth. But what does that search turn up?

“‘In those days at that time,’ declares the Lord, ‘search will be made for Israel’s guilt, but there will be none.” There will be none! That is amazing. Not even one sin will be found. Imagine if the search were made and the report came back: “All your sins are forgiven except one. Just one; that is all there is.” If that were the case, we would have go to hell, because that one sin is against God; therefore, it is infinite. But, praise be to God, search will be made, and no sin will be found.

We may have trouble believing this verse, because in our minds we can easily recall the wrong things we have done. We may have forgotten some things, but much of it is still in there, and gives us pain at the very remembrance of it, especially when it hits us at two o’clock in the morning. But we should meditate on this verse: “Search will be made for [your] guilt, but there will be none.” It is unbelievable. Amazing grace! Plenteous redemption! Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound-“grace that is greater than all my sins.” None will be found. And what is the reason? “For I will forgive the remnant I spare.” That is what you and I are-the remnant that God preserved, that he spared from destruction.

But there will be another search, which we find in Zephaniah 1:12: “At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps and punish those who are complacent, who are like wine left on its dregs, who think, ‘The Lord will do nothing, either good or bad.'” How many people think that God doesn’t see what we do, or if he does see, he will not do anything about it? No. Search is going to be made, and books will be opened and the book will be opened.

If you are a believer, your name will be in God’s book of life. And when a search is made in the other books, the record of sins, nothing will be found. But if you have not trusted in Jesus Christ, if you have not prayed from the depths, “O God, have mercy upon me, a sinner,” then I urge you to do so, because the day is coming when a search will be made with lamps, and your sin will be discovered, because you treated God with contempt. God is a moral God, and any and every sin is an offense against his very being. He must act, and he will act. That is why the Bible speaks about judgment.

While you are alive and breathing and able to think, I urge you to do the wise thing and call upon the name of the Lord. Cry out from the depths. Cry out with urgency and intensity. Cry, cry, and cry again, because with the Lord there is forgiveness of sins. What is the basis of this forgiveness? Christ died, Christ paid the price, and Christ went to hell in our place. That is why he cried from the cross, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” The one thing he most cherished and enjoyed was fellowship with the Father, and even that finally was cut off, because he took our sins.

What a privilege it is for us to have this knowledge: all my sins have been forgiven-past, present, and future! Suppose God forgave your past sins, but for the present and future sins, you had to work for forgiveness. Then it would be a hopeless gospel. But when God justifies us, he justifies us fully from all our sins – past and present and future.

A final question might be asked: “If all our sins are forgiven, then why must we repent of our sins?” Because if we do not, our fellowship with God suffers. We see this demonstrated in a home. When a child does not obey his father, his fellowship with his father suffers. Therefore, the son must come and say, “Father, I was wrong; please forgive me.”

Let me ask you: What will happen to you when the search for your sin and guilt is made? Can you say with certainty that none will be found? If you think some will be found, or a lot will be found, then I urge you to call upon the Lord. With him there is forgiveness. With him there is unfailing love. With him there is full redemption. Amen.