FORGIVENESS,
OF SIN

THE WONDERFUL thing about electronic calculators is that if wrong buttons are pressed and the calculation is thrown off, all is not lost. The problem does not have to be unraveled or figured out. By pressing “clear,” the calculation can be restarted.

Some people are in situations that they can’t unravel. Their lives are so twisted and turned that they can’t figure things out. They are too confused. The great thing about God is that He is ready and waiting to press “clear.” He’s ready to abundantly pardon.326

[Forgiveness, from God; God’s Goodness; Second Chances]

Eph. 1:7; 1 John 1:9

A DIRTY diamond is still a diamond; it just needs to be cleaned.327

[Sin, Contamination by]

John 13:8; Rev. 7:15

EVERY week, people have the habit of taking clothes to the cleaners that have been soiled. The job of the cleaners is to freshen them up and get them smelling good again. Jesus has a pick up cleaning service. He picks up dirty people—people who have allowed their lives to sink into the mud for one reason or another—and cleanses them.328

[Forgiveness, from God; Sin, Contamination by]

John 13:8; Rev. 7:15

THE BIGGEST bulldozer in the world is the D575A. It’s 16 feet long, 25 feet wide, and 41 feet high. It weighs 225,000 pounds. It’s a huge machine to bulldoze dirt. A couple of years ago it came to a county where there was an overload of garbage, and the bulldozer was brought in to dig a big hole that would collect the garbage and remove it from the lives of the citizens.

On the cross, God dug a hole so big He could collect the sins of the whole world—past, present, and future. On the cross, He gathered all the sin and took out His eternal wrath on Jesus Christ for you and for me. “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us” (2 Corinthians 5:21).329

[Cross; Forgiveness, from God; Sin, Victory over]

Ps. 103:12; John 1:29; 2 Cor. 5:21