[An audio recording of this devotion is available at http://www.redeemerclc.info/audio-devotions]
Saturday, June 18, 2016
1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness....
THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS--THE MOST PRECIOUS GIFT (6)
Not long before she died in 1988, Marghanita Laski, a secular humanist and novelist, was interviewed on television. She was quoted as saying: "What I envy most about you Christians is your forgiveness; I have nobody to forgive me."
How sad is such a statement! By contrast, how blessed we Christians are to know that we have a loving, gracious, and forgiving God! No other religion teaches the holy truth that forgiveness is simply to be believed; that through the atoning work of Jesus Christ, our God-Man Substitute, we have been redeemed, justified, reconciled to God!
It sounds too good to be true, which is why we need to hear it regularly and faithfully. Pity the poor souls, says Luther, who yawn and go to sleep when these precious truths are taught. Truly: "Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sins is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity..." (Psalm 32:1).
Having confessed our sins, we hear the absolution by the pastor, which (as Luther puts it in the Catechism) "is as valid and certain in heaven also, as if Christ, our dear Lord, dealt with us Himself."
Blessed are the Sons of God, They are bo't with Christ’s own blood;
They are ransomed from the grave, Life eternal they shall have;
With them numbered may we be Here and in eternity!
They are justified by grace, They enjoy the Savior's peace;
All their sins are washed away, They shall stand in God's great Day:
With them numbered may we be Here and in eternity!
(The Lutheran Hymnal, 391:1-2)
