A Word in Season: God's Great Pardon (Psalm 25:11)

The Gravity of Sin and the Need for Pardon

When a sinner becomes accurately and properly aware to some degree of their sin, we see its greatness, its magnitude, we see something of its vileness and its wickedness. What are we going to do about that sin?

Where will we turn? Nothing becomes more important than pardon for iniquity, that God's wrath should be turned away from us, that our sin would be cleansed and the punishment that we deserve would be averted.

And it is only God who can do that for us. When David said it was against God that he had sinned, it was therefore to God that he went for the forgiveness of sins. Now, how would you approach God? On what basis would you make your claim?

Perhaps for most of us the instinct would be to ask someone to forgive our sins, to pardon our iniquity, because it's not very significant. We might say it's only small, I haven't gone too far, I haven't done too much, I haven't overindulged.

Sure, I made a few mistakes here and there, but it's really nothing too much to worry about. Because it's small, pardon my iniquity. Precisely the opposite occurs in Psalm 25 and verse 11. And when we hear what the Psalmist says there, we might almost do a double take at the audacity of the man, because he reasons, pardon my iniquity, for it is great.

I mean, that's just not how you reason, surely. You don't go to somebody and say, look, I've transgressed your law so heinously, I've gone so far, I've gone so deep, I've done so much that is contrary to your will.

And especially when you're dealing with God, the High and the Holy One. He is the one who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. His antagonism against sin is pure and perfect. How can we go to him and ask, pardon my iniquity, because it is great?

Confession, God's Character, and the Glory of Forgiveness

Is this bravado and bombast? Is this man stupid enough to boast about the greatness of his sin? Now, this is the language of heartfelt confession. And in order to understand why faith's intuition works like this, we need to remember how he begins this plea.

You see, this is a man who's grasped something of the character of God, both merciful and mighty, a God who is ready to forgive sins. And he knows that there's really not much that reveals the glory of God as completely and comprehensively as when God acts to put away sin for his own name's sake.

God gets glory in forgiveness. He shows his heart of compassion. He shows his wisdom and his power and his justice and his mercy in ways that almost nothing else reveals. That's why there's so much beauty in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, because that's where the perfections of God are most clearly and harmoniously revealed.

There's never any tension between them, as it were, but we see them in all their splendor and in all their proper relation at the cross of Jesus Christ, where sin truly is put away, where pardon is granted, where God provides for himself that propitiating sacrifice by which his wrath is turned away from the hell-deserving sinner.

And so it is for the Lord's name's sake that we can plead with him. We're asking God to glorify himself in the way that he deals with us, to show the grace that is in him, the mercy that belongs to him, the love and the compassion that flow from the divine heart.

Broken-Hearted Sinners and the Greatness of God's Mercy

Our iniquity is great. That's the language of humble confession. But God shows himself greater still in putting away sin, in pardoning the iniquity of those who call upon him. So there's no hiding. There's no boasting.

There's no avoiding or averting. There's a recognition of sin in all its grievous ugliness and God in all his great graciousness. That's the plea then of every broken-hearted sinner as we come to God.

It's the comfort that we have that however far we've gone, whatever we have done, however we have sinned, that God is greater still and will reveal the glory of his name in pardoning the great iniquities of those who call upon him.