The Weight of Sin, the Power of Redemption

I spent some time writing a letter to someone today. This person and I, plainly, do not yet have a relationship one could call “intimate” or “close,” but “friendly” seems more appropriate. This person is a Johnny, but one I didn’t have much interaction with until the end of the semester. The letter, though, was very personal, very deep, very heavy, and also very brief. It described my sin, my humiliation, my anger, my folly, my sorrow, and my repentance; and all this to a person who does not yet believe what I believe about the gravity of sin and the tremendous blessing of Immanuel’s birth, death, and resurrection. As I was writing I became flummoxed while trying to describe the sensation I feel, something deep within me. Earlier today I had told another friend that my soul was “heavy.”

Why are you in despair, O my soul?
And why have you become disturbed within me? (Psalm 42:5, et al. NASB)

I wanted to express the intensity of my reaction to sin, but also to convey what God is teaching me about redemption. And I found, how fitting, in the Davidic psalms an exact articulation of what I was trying to express:

How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven,
Whose sin is covered!
How blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity,
And in whose spirit there is no deceit!
When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away
Through my groaning all day long.
For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me;
My vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer. Selah.

I acknowledged my sin to You,
And my iniquity I did not hide;
I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD”;
And You forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah.

Therefore, let everyone who is godly pray to You in a time when You may be found;
Surely in a flood of great waters they will not reach him.
You are my hiding place; You preserve me from trouble;
You surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah.

I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go;
I will counsel you with My eye upon you.
Do not be as the horse or as the mule which have no understanding,
Whose trappings include bit and bridle to hold them in check,
Otherwise they will not come near to you.
Many are the sorrows of the wicked,
But he who trusts in the LORD, lovingkindness shall surround him.
Be glad in the LORD and rejoice, you righteous ones;
And shout for joy, all you who are upright in heart. (Psalm 32)

The redemption of God is amazing. When David wrote, “Many are the sorrows of the wicked,” he was writing about me in my sin, but indeed my sorrow has illumined the truth in my life; “sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death” (II Corinthians 7:10). And when he wrote, “Rejoice, you righteous ones,” he was writing about me in my needful state, depending utterly on the provision of God through Jesus Christ. Indeed “He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:13-14).

This post is an incomplete thought, but not one forgotten.
Praise God.