The Incomprehensible Removal

“He is merciful and tender toward those who don’t deserve it; he is slow to get angry and full of kindness and love. He never bears a grudge, nor remains angry forever. He has not punished us as we deserve for all our sins, for his mercy toward those who fear and honor him is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth. He has removed our sins as far away from us as the east is from the west. He is like a father to us, tender and sympathetic to those who reverence him. For he knows we are but dust and that our days are few and brief, like grass, like flowers, blown by the wind and gone forever. But the loving-kindness of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting to those who reverence him; his salvation is to children’s children of those who are faithful to his covenant and remember to obey him!” Psalm 103:8-18

To remove something … requires both the authority to bring about any removal and the ability to carry out the action of removing the offending, irritating, obsolete, broken or useless article or thing. There are also times when people are removed from positions, roles or even relationships because of many and varied reasons and again, what is needed is both the authority and the will to remove the person and the ability or the plan to bring about the removal.

Our sin is offensive and painful to our God because of its damaging distancing effect and its ongoing consequences to our relationship with Him as the sin separates us from His perfect will and plans for our lives. Sin irritates our God because it takes us from the place of blessing and it puts us in the place of being a transgressor. Sin breaks us and it breaks hearts and lives around us as it lingers and damages other relationships as diverse as our daily work relationships to our friendships and families. Sin can leave us in difficult, sad and lonely places with little hope or promise in the future.

Yet it is here, in the damaged and separated place that the mighty God with a mighty love comes both to remove and redeem. It is God alone who has the authority to remove our sin and it is His love alone, which can carry out the removal of all our sin throughout all of our days. He does not just remove our sin as if to push it out of the way or set it aside in such a way that we might be facing it as a daily reminder of our foolishness or stubbornness but He casts it an incomprehensible distance away. We may deal with some consequences of our sin but His forgiveness is complete and total. He can do this and He does this, because of His enduring and steadfast incomprehensible love which exceeds the incomprehensible distance He has removed our sin from our lives.

What an amazing God we have! For He loves us with an amazing incomprehensible steadfast and enduring love! What an incomprehensible grace we have! A grace given both in our salvation and in our loving God’s continued redeeming of every sin and failure by His incomprehensible removal of our sin by casting it an incomprehensible distance away from our lives. Praise and thanks be our Heavenly Father that loves us with a love we cannot really comprehend.

Suggested Reading … Psalm 103