Psalm 51

We need more than a ceremonial God. We need a God of credible mercy for our worst moments. We need a powerful Lord who has steadfast love for us, a God who will blot out our transgressions. The cleansing that we require must be more than outward. It must be thorough.

But do we even know our sins? God is able to show us what we have done. He is even able to reveal to us that our sin was against Him, and not just against those who were most obviously offended by our attacks. The Lord is the God of all that He has made. If we harm another person, we first offend Him. God can make us see this. Otherwise we would never own up to the seriousness of what we have done.

The Lord can keep our sin before us until we are brought to a deep recognition not only of our fault, but of Him. He can use the occasion of our offense for the purpose of a deeper work of grace. We see the truth of what we have done, of our sin against Him personally, and of His readiness to heal and to forgive. Amazingly, our experience of His greatness and His commitment to us can be greatly enhanced by an honest look at our worst failures.

Though the Lord is sovereign over all, He is blameless concerning sin. He is the one working good for us in all things. All responsibility for guilt rightly belongs to the man who has committed the offense. When God makes His judgments, He is righteous and blameless. To blame God for our sins will never result in a closer walk with the One who is our only hope for life.

There is no point in trying to evade the fact of our guilt. We began our lives with the stain of sin. The transgressions of those who went before us have had their imprint upon us. Sin came into the world with our first ancestor's disobedience, and much murder and covetousness has been added to that first deadly offense. A little baby in the womb of his mother would do best to one day own this truth: “In sin did my mother conceive me.” To weigh the innocence of a newborn child only in comparison to the guilt of a man who has learned the way to steal and to lie would be to miss a deeper truth of human guilt. To minimize the sickness is to miss out on the best cure.

The best way to measure transgression is to consider the One against whom we have transgressed. God is the offended party and He is perfect in holiness. He delights in truth, and He is well aware of our deceptions. He can teach us wisdom, but for the fullest work of His grace, our sin against Him must be exposed.

Do we worry that we will be crushed by condemnation? He does not commune with us to leave His beloved children in guilt and shame. His Son has come for us as our Redeemer. We have a credible answer for the deepest transgressions. We will not run out of the healing power that flows from the wounds of Jesus. He shed His blood for us.

God exposes sin to our conscience in order to purge the poison from us and then to heal our wounds. We will be pronounced clean, and we will be clean. Our stains will be gone. We will be whiter than snow.

But the one who will not hear of sin, the one who is offended by the topic, or paralyzed by the specifics of his transgression, will resist a good gift of God. Far better to hear God's word regarding iniquity and to admit the truth. Far better to see again what Christ has taken from us in His death, and to consider again the power of the resurrection. This is the best way to receive joy and gladness. We know the healing of God best when we admit our pain. Has God broken bones? His purpose was a better healing. Those broken bones will rejoice.

The Lord will not stare at our sin forever. His intention is to help us to be honest about guilt and about grace. He will create in us clean hearts. He will renew in us an honest and stable spirit. Has He claimed us by giving us His Holy Spirit? He will not abandon us now. Has Christ suffered the pains of hell for us on the cross? God will not cast us away from His presence. The Lord saved us for the honesty of eternal fellowship with Him.

To confront sin may be painful for a moment, but the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is more than enough to restore us. God will bring back the joy of our salvation. He will uphold us with the gift of a willing spirit. He is willing to keep us forever, and He can make us willing to honestly confess sin and to serve Him again with a glad heart.

The one who has experienced transgression can better teach transgressors the Lord's ways. He can comfort others with the comfort with which he has been comforted. He can have the joy of seeing other sinners return to the Lord. He can point out to them the road back home as one who knows what it is to wander and to be rescued.

Is your sin too deep to be forgiven? Nonsense. God can deliver a man from the guilt of murder. He can lead that man to praise Him. A restored child of God loves much because he has been forgiven much. His tongue sings aloud of the righteousness of God.

The Lord is pleased in the sacrifice of His Son. The way to remember His grace today is to let your heart be broken and contrite about your sin, but then to be healed by the righteousness and death of Jesus.

The Lord will bless His people. He will built up the walls of Jerusalem. He will receive our worship through His Son. He will forgive our sins forever.