TUESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2011
DAVID WAS BROUGHT UP FROM THE DEPTHS BY REMEMBERING THE FORGIVING NATURE OF GOD by David Wilkerson

After all his weeping and crying out to the Lord, David ended up testifying, “But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared” (Psalm 130:4). The Holy Spirit began to flood his soul with memories of God’s mercies, and suddenly David recalled all he’d learned of the Father’s forgiving, pardoning nature. “Thou art a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness” (Nehemiah 9:17).

Soon David was rejoicing, reminding himself, “For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee” (Psalm 86:5). “Who forgiveth all thine iniquities…” (103:3). Here is one of the foundational promises of the New Covenant. Jeremiah declares, “I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more” (Jeremiah 31:34). And Paul adds in the New Testament, “…having forgiven you all trespasses” (Colossians 2:13). God has promised us his forgiveness, for every sin!

Oswald Chambers gives context to the word from David Wilkerson above, in the 19th November extract from My Utmost for His Highest.



WHEN HE IS COME

"And when He is come, He will convict the world of sin. . . ." John 16:8 (R.V.)

Very few of us know anything about conviction of sin; we know the experience of being disturbed because of having done wrong things; but conviction of sin by the Holy Ghost blots out every relationship on earth and leaves one relationship only - "Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned!" When a man is convicted of sin in this way, he knows with every power of his conscience that God dare not forgive him; if God did forgive him, the man would have a stronger sense of justice than God. God does forgive, but it cost the rending of His heart in the Death of Christ to enable Him to do so. The great miracle of the grace of God is that He forgives sin, and it is the death of Jesus Christ alone that enables the Divine nature to forgive and to remain true to itself in doing so. It is shallow nonsense to say that God forgives us because He is love. When we have been convicted of sin we will never say this again. The love of God means Calvary, and nothing less; the love of God is spelt on the Cross and nowhere else. The only ground on which God can forgive me is through the Cross of my Lord. There, His conscience is satisfied.

Forgiveness means not merely that I am saved from hell and made right for heaven (no man would accept forgiveness on such a level); forgiveness means that I am forgiven into a recreated relationship, into identification with God in Christ. The miracle of Redemption is that God turns me, the unholy one, into the standard of Himself, the Holy One, by putting into me a new disposition, the disposition of Jesus Christ.