Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.
Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity
and in whose spirit there is no guile (deceit).
Psalms 32:1-2
The only true and happy people are those who have received forgiveness of their sins from God, so that the guilt of their transgressions does not weigh upon their hearts and minds and their consciences are no longer troubled. Such blessedness is open to all sinners who come to the Lord. Jesus said in Matthew 11:28-29 “Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart and ye shall find rest unto your souls.” As long as we come to Him and accept Him as our Lord and Savior, He will forgive our sins/transgressions and we will be at rest; for then we will have learned of Him.
The psalmist describes God’s forgiveness in three ways here in verses 1 and 2:
- He forgives the sin (that is, to pardon it); we also know that “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins…” (1 John 1:9).
- He covers the sin (that is putting it out of sight); we are told that “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,” (Romans 8:1).
- The sin is not counted against him (that is God does not impute the iniquity, or, the guilt is concealed from the record). We know from the Scriptures that “Blessed are those whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord will never count against them.” (Romans 4:6-8)
Forgiveness comes when we ourselves come to a point of acknowledging that we have come up short of the glory of God and we confess sin with an honest, sincere, and repentant heart. This will always result in God’s gracious pardon, the removal of guilt, and the gift of His abiding Presence.
God treats sincerely repentant sinners as righteous not because righteousness is something they earn through works but rather they receive as a gift when they confess their sins and believe in the Lord.
In my previous blogs I shared how we gain righteousness. And I wrote, “When Jesus Christ died He saved us when He rose from the dead; He made us righteous through Him. So righteousness is not a thing that we attain by working tirelessly to earn it.” It was imputed (freely given) to us by God through the resurrection of Christ Jesus.
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Father, we come to You with our sincere and honest hearts seeking Your forgiveness in all our transgressions and sins. May we walk in Your truth for righteousness’ sake. In Jesus’ name we pray.
Amen.
