If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O LORD, could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared. Psalm 130:3-4
Why does the forgiveness of God enable us to fear Him?
We often fear what can hurt us. We go to the doctor and listen to his words and peer at x-rays because want to make sure we are ok. We don’t want to be afraid of an unknown disease that could take away our lives.
Doesn’t this verse turn that on its head? God’s forgiveness frees us, pardons us, restores us to Himself. So, how can it be that there is a connection between God’s forgiveness of our “iniquities” and our fear of Him?
It makes you wonder. What is fear really for? Perhaps we were never meant to fear disease, or wild animals, or the unknown, or the dark, or anything else that could take away our life. I think we were designed to only ever really be afraid of the one who gives life. The one who forgives.
But how does that work? I’m not exactly sure. But here’s one thought. Let’s say you lived your whole life as a miserable thief. You robbed and stole and spent it all on drugs and sex, living a wasted life. Then, as you are dying in the hospital from overdosing, you call out to God for mercy, believing in Jesus and accepting his sacrifice for you, and He gives it. You are saved. None of your sins will be held against you.
What kind of Being has the power to do that? The power to forgive, and forgive without being unjust, is what true power really is. There is nothing more awesome, or breathtaking than’ that.
The forgiveness of God can pardon a murderer, a thief, a pedophile. It never quits, though you sin and fail in the same ways. Though you will never be able to measure up, God’s grace in Jesus Christ never runs dry.
The power of forgiveness is the power of God to save our sinful souls. And it is the power, if withheld, to damn them forever.
So, let us humble ourselves and admit that we are completely powerless to escape His anger toward our sin. Let us go to Him, ask for and accept His forgiveness. But let us tremble as we do. The gift we receive is not some insignificant toy. It isn’t a free pass, or an “it’s all good man.” It is a mighty weapon, a force of inexaustible power, forged in the fires of God’s wrath that were poured out on His own son as he hung beaten and bloodied on a rugged cross.Yes, there is forgiveness with God, that we may fear the One who holds our eternal destinies in His hand, and recieve life from Him.
Would a man drowning in the ocean calmly get his cell phone, type in the screen lock password and call 911?
OR, would he scream as loud as he could for help every chance he could before he sunk down to death?
Would someone experiencing a heart attack proceed to give himself CPR? Or would he desperately call out for help?
As obvious as these questions seem, they highlight an important fact of life – physically helpless people need to depend on others.
No one denies that there are times in our lives when we are physically helpless. However, we resist the idea that we are mentally, morally or spiritually helpless. After all, the body may fail but the human mind and will remains under the sovereignty of the individual, right?
Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.
Viktor Frankl discovered this as he suffered in the camps of Nazi Germany. No matter what his captors did or said to him or forced him to do, he was free within his own mind. They could not take that away.
This idea is, in fact, the cornerstone of the massively popular ‘self help’ genre. How do we tap into that individual freedom of our minds, and use it to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps?
It gives a certain amount of hope to people because it is partly true. We are free within our own minds in the sense that no one else can control our minds if we don’t want them to.
However, are we free in our own minds from ourselves?
“…there were an estimated 100,306 drug overdose deaths in the United States during 12-month period ending in April 2021, an increase of 28.5% from the 78,056 deaths during the same period the year before.”
“Research shows that mental illnesses are common in the United States, affecting tens of millions of people each year.”
But even without these statistics, we all feel deep down that there is a problem. We have to fight against our own demons constantly. We are not the men or women that we want to be. We aren’t the parents we feel our children deserve. We go into debt when we should save. We can’t stop eating things that are bad for us. We tell lies to our trusted friends. We don’t measure up to even our own standards of where we should be in life.
The fact is that we are physically helpless to some degree in every stage of life. We all know this and deal with it. That is why societies exist – so that we can help each other get through life.
But the truth is that we are also morally helpless as well. And while we are free (for the most part) from other people who try to control how we think, we are never free from ourselves.
We are constantly locked in a deadly battle with our own darker nature. And the darker nature is stronger. It always wins. It always drags us down into the depths of the ocean where we can no longer breathe.
This is what the Apostle Paul meant when he said, “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins.” (Ephesians 2:1) There is no way that we can overcome our own sin. We must instead call out to another for salvation.
The Good News
The Bible says that “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Romans 10:13) Great! Problem solved, right? Simply place a call to God and you’re all set? Not exactly.
While it is good news that there is someone we can call out to for mercy, it has been misunderstood in our day. How?
First, it must be said that ONLY those who call on the name of the Lord will be saved. Second, the “call” we are speaking of is not like making a phone call, but rather an urgent and profound plea for mercy while hating the thing that is killing you. Third, when God grants us mercy, He changes our identity, which leads to salvation in all areas of life.
The exclusivity of the call for help.
Only those who call on God will be saved in the end. No one else.
The primary reason God has not wiped the human race off of the face of the earth is that He desires to show mercy (2 Pet 3:15). And He ONLY gives mercy to those who ASK. Those who will be saved are the ones who “call on the name of the Lord” and not those who refuse to call.
Important: If we refuse to ask God for mercy, then we are negating the basis of God’s provision of mercy. God loves truth! (Psalm 51:6) And what is the basic truth of the human race? Are you ready? Here it is: We are broken in such a way that it is impossible for us to fix ourselves; in fact, God Himself has determined that “fixing ourselves” will never work (Rom 11:32). FLASH: If you don’t get this, then you will NEVER understand the universe.
And you will never understand your own life with all its shortcomings and failures.
God is in control. He has hidden His face from us and has delivered us into the power of our iniquities (Isa 64:7). Why is this the BEST news you could ever hear? Answer: because it opens the possibility that you might tell God the truth, and ask Him for His mercy – which He ALWAYS grants! ONLY those who call for mercy are the ones who get it.
How should one ask God for mercy?
The plea for mercy, this “call” we are speaking of is not the casual call to your landlord that a drain is plugged. It is not a transaction, as though God were gaining the pleasure of your company through saving you.
The plea for mercy is not just a philosophical contemplation. It is the certain and clear understanding combined with a sense of urgency that if I don’t get help from outside myself, then I am doomed.
The picture of a drowning man is very helpful. The drowning man HATES the thing that is killing him and wants immediate deliverance. Knowing that he must be rescued or else perish, he wholeheartedly gives up any false notion that he can save himself and urgently and energetically devotes his whole person to crying for help – in other words, for mercy.
Mercy is not something you deserve. It is not something you can demand. You must ask for it, or you will not get it. If you ask for it, you will receive it. If you do not receive it, you are lost. So ask.
Can we say it any clearer? If you maintain any hope that you can make progress in life by “self-improvement” then you are a liar, and you are maintaining the very self-delusion that will PREVENT the God of the universe from helping you.
How the Mercy of God Changes Us
When we make this plea to God, and He graciously responds (as he promises to do), He changes our deepest identity, which leads to salvation in all areas of life.
The foundation for all personal growth is a call for mercy. “Having begun by the Spirit, are you now perfected in the flesh?” (Galatians 3:3)
Only those who walk by the Spirit will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. So I ask you: Will your fleshly lust for “self-improvement” be honored by God? OF COURSE NOT! Whenever we make an attempt at earning our own righteousness, we revert back to making ourselves an enemy of God! Such efforts guarantee that we will fail (Jas 4:6).
We cannot do a single thing to make ourselves better in anyway. In fact, the very desire to change can be the thing that keeps us from changing. The desire to improve can turn into what is most important to us, an idol, something that is more important than God. And when our personal growth takes God’s place, it actually becomes sin.
Imagine a man wants to go on a journey from his home to some destination on the other side of the country. But, to get there, he must travel through an impassible desert, save for the single train that snakes through it.
To cross the deadly sand, he must abandon the idea of attempting to cross the desert using his own two legs. That will never work. He will die without ever reaching the other side. Instead, he must get on a train, and sit still for hours, not moving a muscle (except perhaps to stretch his legs and admire the view from the window).
In fact, the only way to cross the desert is to stop trying to cross it on your own. You must give up on the idea of effortful change and sit down on the train.
The train is the mercy of God. The only real way through this life to the other side is through resting in that mercy.
Our sin makes us enemies of God. He will surely unleash his wrath against us unless we ask Him to show us mercy. If we ask, He will. Why? Because Jesus Christ, God’s perfect son, died on a cross, taking God’s wrath in our place. When we look to that sacrifice, and ask that God show us mercy, He will not refuse to do so.
“Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Romans 10:13)
Now we are forgiven of our sin. Now we are on the train. Our whole situation has changed. Our very identity has changed. (Colossians 3:1-4)
As we continue to look to Jesus and trust in the power of God, we receive the power to live life differently than we used to before. The word “receive” is important. Life is no longer about trying to change or “grow” or improve. It’s about resting in the mercy of God and receiving the grace that allows us to live in a way that pleases God.
For thus said the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.” Isaiah 30:15
So what is the path forward? It is simple. Ask God for mercy. Tell Him the truth about your situation, and delight in the fact that the very reason you are struggling is that God wants you to know (again) that you can only move forward by resting in His mercy.
