Amazing Love and Forgiveness

Psalm 103:11-12 (TEV)
"As high as the sky is above the earth, so great is His love for those who honor Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far does He remove our sins from us."

Can we imagine anyone loving us this much? Perhaps we can visualize the depth of the love of a parent or sibling, or even a dear friend without too much trouble. But thinking of how great the distance is from earth to sky, and how this compares to the extent that God loves us can be an incredible thing to contemplate. It is truly amazing that the great I AM would care so much for us.

But the passage goes on to say that this love comes to those who honor God. What does it mean to honor God? Honoring God means obeying His commandments. For Christians, under the benefits of the New Covenant, this means accepting Christ's once for all atoning sacrifice for our sins along with the gift of the Holy Spirit's presence to guide us into godly living, and loving one another as Christ loves us.

Since we can only offer at best an imperfect righteousness where perfection is required for salvation, it is necessary for us as Christians to take hold of Christ's garment of perfect righteousness and wear it. It is also necessary to accept Christ's rulership in our lives and to, by the power of the Holy Spirit, love our neighbor as ourselves.

An integral part of God's boundless love for us is His forgiveness of our sins when we turn to Him in repentance. It is like having a great boulder taken from our shoulders. Or like having a great financial debt paid in full be a wealthy, generous benefactor. Because God has forgiven each of us so much through the sending of His Son to die in our place, should we not learn to forgive each other as He forgives us?

Hopefully, we will allow the Holy Spirit to work in us so that we may love each other as Christ loves us, and so that we may forgive each other as God forgives us when we fall short of His glory and sin.

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