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Online Truth
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Are Sins Blotted Out? Do we really believe what is said in John 1:29? Do we believe it with all of our heart? John 1:29 The next day John sees Jesus coming to him and says, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! (I Corinthians 15:3 NASB) For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, But what does that mean? Does it mean for everyone all at once? From so many scriptures we understand that the sacrifice of Our Messiah is applied as each comes to repentance. At that time, the sins of that individual are covered by the blood of the Lamb and are washed away. Later, during our walk, we still sin. When we do and repent and change, that sin we have committed is again washed away. So the question has been asked, “What happens to sin when there is repentance?” Again, there are so many scriptures that explain—and this is foundational and fundamental to the belief of those who are called out. In this age a modern technology, we are blessed with so much information. Many of us have lap top computers and we have Bible and Bible Help software. We have E-Sword, Nelson’s, or more expensive software. And that is great. But there is a simplicity in the understanding of the fundamentals of the teachings of Messiah. One doesn’t need E-Sword, or Nelson’s works, or more expensive software to understand these foundational fundamentals. Let’s look at Acts 3:19-20 19 Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, 20 and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, The concept here is that when repented of, sins are blotted out—they no longer exist. Psalm 51:1-2 A Prayer of Repentance To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David When Nathan the Prophet Went to Him, After He Had Gone in to Bathsheba. God is the only one who can blot out sin, the guilt of sin, and any reminder of sin 1 Have mercy upon me, O God, According to Your loving-kindness; According to the multitude of Your tender mercies, Blot out my transgressions. THE BLOTTING OUT OF OUR TRANSGRESSIONS Isaiah 43:25, tells us something supremely important about God and also about ourselves. Isaiah wrote: “I, even I, am the One who blots out your transgressions, for My own sake, and I shall not remember your sins.” The prophet said this although the people of Judah had been wicked, and although they still had to face stern discipline. Three verses later God still says through Isaiah, “I shall disgrace the dignitaries of your temple. I shall consign Jacob to destruction and Israel to scorn.” Cities in Israel had been practicing idolatry. God would not ignore His Word. He had said, many years before, that, if the people of any city worshipped other gods, the other Israelites had to put them to the sword and destroy the city completely (Dt 13:12-15). To “blot out” is from the Hebrew word H4229 מחה mâchâh maw-khaw' A primitive root; properly to stroke or rub; by implication to erase; also to smooth (as if with oil), that is, grease or make fat; also to touch, that is, reach to: - abolish, blot out, destroy, full of marrow, put out, reach unto, X utterly, wipe (away, out).
The Hebrew word for “blot out” was used in an instructive range of contexts. It was used for a person wiping his mouth (Prv 30:20). It was used for wiping tears from the face (Is 25:8). In Numbers it was used for curses that had been written on a scroll, and washed off into bitter water to be drunk, to test whether a man's wife had been unfaithful to him (5:23). In order to spare Israel after they had worshipped the golden calf, Moses interceded for them. He said that if the Lord would not forgive them, He should blot out his own name from the book that He had written (Ex 33:32-33). We can hardly imagine anyone who would volunteer such a thing. The picture of wiping off was a very vivid one when God denounced the idolatry of King Manasseh of Judah: “I shall wipe Jerusalem as someone wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down” (2 K 21:13). The word for “blot out” was often used in contexts of judgment. God threatened through Moses that, if anyone heard God's stipulations, but congratulated himself and thought, “I shall be safe even if I go my own stubborn way”, God would blot out his name from under the sky (Dt 29:19-20). This does means complete removal from this present life. The same Hebrew word for “blot out” had the same meaning as “exterminate.” God sent the flood to blot out all existing things (Gn 7:23) together with human lives (Gn 6:7; 7:4). Full erasure from the face of the earth was also the meaning of this verb “blot out” in contexts of judgment. After the worship of the golden calf God had said, “Let me alone, that I may destroy them and blot out their name under the sky” (Dt 9:14). People whom God forgives do not have to live righteous lives for a set time before they can be forgiven. Those whom God forgives continue to sin because of their sinful natures—but this is not the intent, or a habitual thing. God is eager to forgive. This is an amazing truth about Him, in spite of His justice and His wrath against sin. He had revealed His nature to Moses on Mount Sinai: “The LORD, the LORD, the merciful and compassionate God, slow to anger, abounding in unfailing mercy and truth. He preserves mercy for thousands, and forgives wrongdoing, rebellion, and sin.” YHWH’s merciful nature runs like a silver thread through the book of Isaiah. He had said, “Although your sins are like scarlet, they will be as white as snow (Is 1:18). This is a powerful description of how forgiven people look in God's sight. It helps us appreciate the picture of blotting out transgressions in 43:25. Another picture is used in the next chapter: “I have swept away your offences like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist” (44:22). Isaiah had used another picture in 40:2: “Her sin has been paid for.” The sins of the people of Judah had not been trivial. Quite often the Hebrew word for “transgression” is appropriately translated as “rebellion”, or “revolt.” We get closer to the meaning of blot out in Is 43:25 in another series of passages where this Hebrew word is used. In this verse “blots out your transgressions” is parallel to “I shall not remember your sins.” Blotting out from one's memory means obliterating from the memory. David asked that God would no longer remember his transgressions against him (Ps 51:1). Further in the psalm he prays: “Blot out all my iniquities” (51:9). How comforting, then, for sinful people that God wants to be known as the One who blots out sinful people's transgressions or rebellious acts, and does not remember them. The complete removal is put in another way in Ps 103: “As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us” (v.12). If we ask, “Why does God do such a thing?” this verse answers, “For My own sake.” There is nothing in sinful people to motivate God to act in this way. He does it for His own sake. It is His nature and His desire to blot out transgression. If anyone asks, “How can this be squared with the New Testament, which says that God justifies, or forgives, “for Yashua's sake?” the answer should not surprise anyone. Yahshua Messiah is the same Lord who said “I am” at the burning bush, and who told the Israelites at Sinai, “I am: the LORD, your God, and I have brought you out of slave quarters in the land of Egypt” (Ex 20:1). Prophets foretold Jesus Christ as “the LORD, our righteousness” (Jer. 23:6). When anyone forgives, he chooses to pay the cost himself. The cost of the Lord's blotting out of sin and erasing it from His memory was His own divine life, the shedding of the blood of His incarnate body in pain and shame. He blots out sin for His own sake, indeed! *** This concept of not remembering sin any more is the heart and core of the New Covenant, which Jeremiah foretold (Jer. 31:31 Jer 31:31 Behold, the days come, says Jehovah, that I will cut a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah, Jer 31:32 not according to the covenant that I cut with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which covenant of Mine they broke, although I was a husband to them, says Jehovah; Jer 31:33 but this shall be the covenant that I will cut with the house of Israel: After those days, says Jehovah, I will put My Law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. Jer 31:34 And they shall no more teach each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, Know Jehovah; for they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says Jehovah. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sins no more. Also in Hebrews 8 under the subtitle “A New Covenant” it quotes from Jer. 31. Hb 8:12 Heb 8:12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities I will remember no more."
Recently I was reading an article that deals with this topic. It says: This has a good deal to say about why Christian people go to church. They certainly do not go to congratulate each other for being such fine, righteous-living people. They are not particularly outstanding. They go primarily to hear the good news about God's forgiving nature and the self-effacing work of Yahshua Messiah, who earned this forgiveness for them at great cost. However, it is more than hearing about it. God is also particularly rich in the ways in which He offers, conveys, and seals His forgiveness to sinful people—who are brought to repentance: through the heard assurance of the Gospel in the readings and the preaching of God's Word, and through the mutual encouragement of fellow-Christians. The confidence that God in Messiah has wiped out their own sin is the reason why Christians also pray, “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who trespass against us.” The Scriptures use a rich number of ways in expressing this central article of the forgiveness of sins. Forgiving means that God does not credit our sins against us. Justification means that God credits us with the obedience of Yahshua Messiah Himself. Alongside these is reconciliation. God has Himself removed His just wrath against His enemies and proclaimed His peace (R 5:9-10). There is also the picture of being adopted, yes, even born anew, as children of God. In His parables Jesus used a series of concrete images for God's forgiveness: debts wiped off, a lost sheep found, a prodigal son's being given the best garment, shoes for his feet to make him different from a servant, a ring for his finger, (the equivalent of our right to sign checks), and the prime calf butchered for him in a feast of joy. There is joy in the presence of God over a sinner who repents. God Himself rejoices when He forgives and restores. Praise God that in Messiah He blots out our transgressions and erases them from His memory! The greatest need of man is forgiveness Step 1 – Admit (confess) our sin Step 2 – Repent – be sorry—Godly sorrow (enough to change) Step 3 – Receive God’s promised forgiveness. Our sins are obliterated, completely blotted out, and erased from YHWH’s memory—for all time—never to be remembered or brought up again. We all need to be LIKE God – freely receiving His grace and then GIVING out God’s grace to others These things I believe from the bottom of my heart. I believed this while young, still living at home. It is at the heart and core of my beliefs that the Messiah’s excruciating death paid the penalty for my sins. Those sins repented of are blotted out—obliterated, and removed from memory on earth and in heaven. Some who have committed horrific sins—and my sins were as horrifying as anybody’s—cannot fathom that YHWH could forgive their sins—even after repentance. Some continue to believe their sins still exist. That is unfortunate. I do not believe that. I do not believe that about my past sins—or the sins of anyone else who has repented.
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