Forgiven

God is highly dangerous. We are sinful and He is holy. Sin can no more exist in the presence of God than darkness can exist in the presence of light. To stand before Him as we are is to invite destruction. If God were to keep a record of our sins, we could not stand in His presence.

In a cemetery not far from New York City is a headstone engraved with a single word:

FORGIVEN

The message is simple, unembellished. There is no date of birth, no date of death. no epitaph. There is only a name and the solitary word forgiven. But that is the greatest word that can be applied to any man or woman, or written on any gravestone.

The psalmist said. "There is forgiveness with You. that You may be feared" (130:4). That refrain echoes in both the Old and New Testaments. God is honored and worshiped because He alone can clear our record. If God could not forgive us, we could only flee from Him in terror. Yet the God whose holiness threatens us is the God who through Christ redeems us. This dangerous God offers forgiveness for all our sins. We need only to ask for it. Are you forgiven? -HWR

How Blest is he whose trespass
Has freely been forgiven,
Whose sin is wholly covered
Before the sight of heaven

SIN INVITES JUDGMENT; CONFESSION ENSURES FORGIVENESS