History Deleted

“…as far as the east is from the west, so far does He remove our transgressions from us.” 

—Psalm 103:12

As we stand at the threshold of another year, many would like to forget this past year altogether. Whether it’s been a financial setback, a job loss, change of career, a broken relationship, the loss of a loved one, or some other ordeal, many would like to simply hit the “delete” key when thinking of this year, as if it were some bad electronic document that we wanted to get rid of and start over again. And for some, this year has simply been a struggle because of sins that won’t let them go. Clinging to our spirits are sins that seem to be part of us, like a tick in the summer, parasites of dirty passions that suck us dry while injecting poison into our weary souls. Like a baseball bat, past sin cripples even the most fervent believers, and it’s only those who have bathed themselves in the grace that God supplies who can be freed from it.

Our passage for today talks about the extent of God’s forgiveness of our sins. The psalmist writes, “…as far as the east is from the west.” How far is the east from the west? No one knows. There are no definite points that differentiate between the two. There is a definite point for the North Pole and a definite point for the South Pole, and when one is standing at either, there is a definite distance between the two. Not so with the east from the west. Because there is no exact place where differentiation occurs, it is unending, infinite, and unable to be quantified. That’s how great God’s forgiveness is and how far He removes our sin from us.

Consider this illustration: If you are reading this, you are on the Internet. And the browser that you use to surf the Net contains a record of every single website that you have ever visited. It doesn’t matter what the site was or how long ago it was. If you have a feature that enables you to log your online history, then everything you have ever done on the Internet is logged. But, there is also a feature that enables you to delete your browser history. And when deleted, it’s gone, never to be remembered ever again. God takes the history of your sins and deletes them through Christ. While the physical, mental and emotional scars of past choices and sins may plague us; God can take sin’s spiritual scars away from us. Spiritually speaking, it’s only His memory that counts in the recollection of sins. God is omniscient, meaning He knows everything that we have ever done, thought, or will do. But as today’s verse teaches, God chooses not to hold our sins against us, He deletes our history files through Jesus’ sacrifice, and we don’t have to be haunted by them ever again.

My brother or sister, I pray that this coming year will be a year of great victory in your life. May the history of sin that fills your spiritual browser be deleted completely, removed as far as the east is from the west, and may we all walk in newness of life and victory in and through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.