The pardon for our sin is a double necessity. It is necessary for us and it is necessary for God.
Outside the New Testament no one states the grace of God more clearly than Isaiah.
Isaiah 43:25, "I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins."
Isaiah 44:22, "I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto me; for I have redeemed thee."
The ultimate grounds of our pardon is God’s initiative. The reason for forgiveness rests not in us but in Him.
I. God’s Action In Forgiving Us.
A. Forgiveness rests on God’s initiation.
1. We stand forgiven because He took the first step.
2. He is sovereign in this initiative: "I, even I, am he. . . "
3. The threefold repetition of God’s name points to His lordly, kingly decision.
4. God did not have to forgive sin.
5. In His majesty He chose to do so.
6. My pardon rests on a decision in Him, not in me.
7. He is unilateral in this decision.
8. He decided to forgive when we were not even seeking forgiveness.
9. In its beginning the decision to forgive is entirely one-sided.
10. God’s decision to forgive is unmerited by us.
a. His people refuse to give Him worship or prayer (43:22-24).
b. In spite of this rebellion, God decides to forgive.
B. Forgiveness rests on God’s motivation: "For my own sake."
1. God’s motivation in forgiveness is entirely personal, it is first for His own sake.
2. The motive for forgiveness rests entirely in Himself.
3. The movement of His love toward us began in Him, not in us.
4. It stands written, "Not to us, not to us, O Lord, . . . but to your name be the glory" (Ps. 115:1).
5. The sole motive for Gods patience and endurance rests in His respect for His own name.
6. He will not let His own name be defamed by the way He treats His own people (Isa. 48:11).
"For mine own sake, even for mine own sake, will I do it: for how should my name be polluted? and I will not give my glory unto another."
7. Far from making God seem selfish, this is the most beneficial ground for our pardon.
8. If our forgiveness rested on anything within us, it could have never been.
a. If God’s continuing pardon rooted in my consistency, performance or merit He could never pardon me.
b. He does it for the name of His dear Son, Jesus.
II. God’s Method in Forgiving Us.
A. God forgives by removing.
1. This removing is like the eradication of something that is written and the dissipation of a cloud in the sky.
2. God erases from His book the writing that is against us and God sweeps out of the sky the cloud that stands between Him and us.
3. God erases from His book.
a. There are books in heaven (Rev. 20:12).
b. Whether or not there is a literal library, there is most certainly a record.
c. The whole of God’s Word informs us that we will meet that record.
d. It will be read in the presence of God and perhaps others.
e. We are writing an autobiography in the presence of God.
4. How does God forgive?
a. He promises to erase from His book.
b. When He forgives He removes the record.
c. In Christ Jesus He canceled the writing that was against us by nailing it to the cross of Christ (Col. 2:14).
"Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;"
5. Life’s ledger is more than balanced by what Christ did.
6. God sweeps away the cloud between us and Him.
B. Satan seduces us into sin.
1. Then he convinces us that our sins can never be forgiven.
2. They are so dense and dark, says he, that they can never be caused to vanish.
3. Yet God can deal with sins like the wind removing a cloud from the sky.
4. Because of God’s gracious acts, our sins are as temporary as mist, vapor, or fog.
5. Do not make unmoveable what God can move away!
6. The heavy cloud of a morning looks like forever; the sun will burn it off before noon.
7. Let the Son remove the cloud.
C. God forgives by forgetting.
1. He "remembers your sins no more."
2. When forgiven, your sins are no longer in God’s mind.
3. They are rendered to oblivion.
a. This means that God does not meditate on your sins.
b. We brood over wrongs done to us.
c. We nurse them.
d. Indignation turns to fury which becomes the desire to retaliate.
e. God is not like that.
1) He does not upbraid us for our sins.
2) He does not drag them up to remind us.
3) No one can call them to His attention.
4) Sometimes we forget a wrong done to us only to have it brought up by another and it suddenly revives with all of its pain.
4. God cannot be reminded of our sins which He erases and forgets. 5. What is even better, He treats us generously.
a. A mere human may look you in the eye and tell you he forgives you.
b. But in his eyes are a contradiction.
c. God not only forgets, He restores us to a place of honor.
1) Look at Peter.
2) The denier of Christ becomes the preacher of Pentecost.
3) God not only forgets, He honors us.
6. How does God do this?
a. He paid the price of a ransom.
b. "Return to me, for I have redeemed you" (44:22).
c. It is not until Isaiah 53 that we understand the cost to God in order to forgive with justice.
"The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all". Isaiah 53:6
d. What Isaiah saw only dimly, we see totally in Calvary.
Have you experienced the forgiveness of God? He stands ready to forgive us, if we only will accept His expression of love on Calvary.