Walk in the Light

At times, I’ve said, “I’ll never do that again,” only to do it again. At times, I’ve felt that my load of sin and guilt is so great that God could never forgive all of that. Which is worse? Repeating the same sin over and over or having multiple sins? Either one may have been behind David’s prayer,

For your name’s sake, O Lord, pardon my guilt, for it is great. (Psalm 25:11)

He didn’t make the same rash vows that I’ve made. He didn’t give up in despair that his great guilt was too great as I’ve sometimes done. He went to God for forgiveness. God said this sinner was also “a man after God’s own heart.” He teaches an important lesson to me or anyone who becomes overwhelmed with our human inability to win victory over sin, either a specific sin or the abundance of sin.

The lesson is to keep heading toward God and the Light He has revealed in His Word and through His Son, Jesus Christ. God forgives sinners. It is not because we deserve it. The repetition and sheer quantity of sins committed prove that. Nor does He forgive because there is something in sinners that God sees as precious. He forgives because the price has been paid. His wrath for sin has been poured out and received, paid for at the cross.

Jesus paid it all

All to Him I owe

Sin had left a crimson stain,

but He washed it white as snow.

Not only did the cross make forgiveness possible, it also makes cleansing possible, not just the little sins but also the great ones and the repeated ones. Cleansing means purged and purified. It means removal and freedom, victory over those repeated sins and victory over the great load of guilt that seems too great to be forgiven. For God, no sin is beyond His forgiving or cleansing power.

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. (1 John 1:7)

God is just. He is the supreme Governor and Judge of the world who requires the punishment of sin. The sufferings of Christ fully satisfied justice. He cried from the cross, “It is finished” — at that time a statement that was written across the paper of a debt that was paid. Christ did it. He paid for the sins I’ve committed, repeated, heaped up and moaned over. In the sufferings of Christ, all sin was punished and justice was fully answered.

Again, the lesson of David is walking in the Light God has given me. All the sin of those who go to His Light seeking mercy is forgiven. Our need to be guilt-free is satisfied. God is true and says this is true. We are forgiven and cleansed; “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). This is Light from God and the Light that I need to walk in — this day and every day.