If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? — Psalm 130:3
I remember watching a court case on television some time ago where the jury was rendering the verdict. The person was charged with a whole list of crimes that I could never recall if I tried. What caught my attention was when the judge decided to group some of the charges together and throw out some of the others. It was as if the judge was willing to overlook some of the crimes to make sure a conviction was reached on the others.
The jury did find the person guilty of the crimes. The judge reminded the person that the penalty would have been much more severe had he not taken action. So many times we are quick to say “throw the book at them.” In watching the court system in action, the judge knew what should happen and that the person would be locked in prison for the foreseeable future.
As I reflected on that case, I was reminded of this verse in Psalm 130. The psalmist writes that if God were to truly take a look at everything that anyone had ever done wrong, how would anyone stand? In other words, if God were to hold everything that we had ever done wrong against us, there’s no way we would ever reach the point of forgiveness.
We know that we serve a God who hates sin, but thankfully our God loves the sinner. He could have condemned us all for our sin and given us no path to forgiveness. But our God loved us so much that He chose to overlook our sin through Jesus!
If not for the forgiveness of God, we would have no hope. Our lives would be in vain and our souls doomed for an eternity in hell. But God chose another plan!
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