Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
If there is anyone out there in the wide world who reads these little messages whose heart yearns for forgiveness, let Psalm 130 encourage you: "Out of the depths have I cried unto Thee, O Lord. ... Let Thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications." This was written especially for you!
The Bible becomes a living Book when you take it as the Lord's personal message to you. Be simple-minded, be naive if you please, but do believe it! Contact with Him is a life-or-death issue; you must believe that He hears someone crying from the "depths." You wrote this Psalm!
"If Thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord," if You chalk them all up against us, "who shall stand?" Even David the king (to say nothing of Bathsheba) will lose his soul unless You forgive! "But there is forgiveness with Thee." But you will never appreciate it unless you have cried from those "depths." And if you never have been there, it's sadly possible that you have never received forgiveness, much as the dear Lord has been waiting to give it. Every human being in the world for all time has been born with a sinful nature, and "all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God," including all the saints in the Bible. That means--they have all "out of the depths" cried out for forgiveness. And received it--in humbled, melted, thankful hearts.
And that's why God has freely given it to such, because verse 4 says that this "forgiveness" is "that Thou mayest be feared." What is the purpose behind His "forgiveness"? That we may learn who He is, that we might learn (out of our spiritual arrogance, which is natural for us all) to reverence the One who has died our second death, in order to save us eternally. "Feared" doesn't mean be scared of Him; it means your little selfish heart becomes "enlarged" to where you can appreciate "the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love (agape) of Christ" (Psalm 119:32; Eph. 3:18, 19).
Such forgiveness is no skin-deep rejoicing for a ticket fixed at God's traffic court; true forgiveness is no light matter. It puts you side by side with the repentant thief who was crucified with Christ. You must get there before you hear those words, "Thou shalt be with Me in paradise." It's not a works trip; it's a faith trip. You are forgiven not because you believed; you are forgiven so you can learn what it means to believe.
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: April 13, 2003.
Copyright © 2014 by "Dial Daily Bread."
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