Daily Bread

Blessings of Forgiveness – Psalm 32:1

The whole chapter talks about God’s blessings for forgiveness. Yet, one question we should ask ourselves first before celebrating, what happened to the guilt? What happened to the feelings we felt before we are forgiven and the anxieties we have before we are declared ‘not guilty’ anymore? What happened to ‘owning up our mistakes’ principle?

For a simple thought, it is very right to just say that they are completely flushed down long ago since God has already forgiven us and that we should not live in our past. True! God has promised to count our sins no more and in fact, the other day’s reflection was all about not receiving condemnation anymore if we are in Christ. 

However, we are thinking in a different kind of outlook sometimes. We think that we will be able to grasp the depth of forgiveness by just celebrating the gift without acknowledging the cause. It is necessary for us to understand that in order to celebrate and deeply understand the depth of forgiveness is to know the burden of the guilt or to know the gravity of our mistakes. 

God’s blessings of forgiveness should drive us to confess our sins. Celebrating the outcome without itemizing the cause of it is just the same as celebrating the income of a business without acknowledging the expenses— shallow and obnoxious. The blessings of forgiveness are not the ‘obnoxious and shallow’ but it is us. God’s blessings of forgiveness is grace and mercy that was made possible by Christ’s shedding of blood. 

However, we are making it cheap and shallow by just celebrating it without really knowing the gravity of importance of why Jesus has to die. It is indeed a celebration that God has already forgave us from our sins but this should also impel us to confess our sins. True repentance means truly understanding true forgiveness. 

So what happened to guilt and anxieties? What happened to the ‘owning up to our mistakes’ principle? The answer is, it has already been lifted to God the moment we confessed it! We should not let the message of forgiveness overwhelm us to commit sins without being guilty because we know that God’s blessings of forgiveness is unending, instead we should use these blessings as a reminder for us to not commit any sins. 

Again, understanding forgiveness deeply should really make us confess our sins and depart from our sinful nature. Understanding God’s blessings of forgiveness means we understand how much suffering, guilt, shame and pain Jesus has to undergo for us. We should understand that David wrote this Psalm with a deep understanding of God’s blessings. We too, are expected to understand that forgiveness and our sins being covered is not our license to sin. 

We must always remember that the thing that was used to cover our sins was too expensive because it was the blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God. We are not just saved through a cheap price and we are not given a cheap grace. In fact, these blessings are very expensive and these are expensive grace because it was personally paid by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 

Therefore, may we always reflect on this and be blessed for we are so blessed by God’s forgiveness and that our sins are already covered by the blood of Jesus Christ. However, we must not use this as an excuse or a reason for us to continue sinning. We must not ‘not feel guilty’ as we sin just because we are forgiven. We must not make sinning as a norm where we can just get a free pass card after. We must not sin just because we have forgiveness to look forward to. Instead, we should use these blessings of forgiveness as our driving courage to confess our sins to God one by one and understand the depth of knowledge lying behind our unlimited forgiveness. 

May we always remember the cause of this outcome and be reminded that though we are celebrating forgiveness, the cause of this is our sins which cost us the blameless and holy life of Jesus Christ. May we not only celebrate the income we are receiving but we must also identify that to have this grace and income we have now, it was because at Christ’s expense. And Christ had to die because we are sinners and enemies of God. Again, these blessings of forgiveness would’ve been a fairytale without Christ who made all of these possible. 

How blessed we are that our sins are forgiven at the expense of Christ! Let us therefore, live our lives pleasing to God’s eyes and living it Christ-like.

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