Gone Forever

When we come to the subject of sin, something that we unfortunately are all familiar with, we have two ways to approach it. We can confess it for what it is, turn from it, and know the happiness of being forgiven. Or, we can conceal and hide it and know the misery of ultimately being found out and reaping what we’ve sowed.

In the Book of Deuteronomy, God posed a challenge. He said, “Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live!” (30:19 NLT).

God was saying, “You can walk with Me, or you can walk away from Me. You can live, or you can die.”

It’s amazing that some people consciously would choose death. But that is essentially what we do when we choose to go against God and His Word.

Sin is attractive. The devil knows how to present it so that it will have a certain appeal. Sin is a lot like candy-coated strychnine. It’s sweet on the outside until you bite into it. Because of the short-term pleasure that sin offers, many people don’t think about the long-term repercussions.

Yet the Bible warns, “You may be sure that your sin will find you out” (Numbers 32:23 NLT). Sometimes this happens immediately. And sometimes it happens after a period of time.

A few years ago, I saw a news story about someone who wanted to steal gasoline from a motor home. The thief stuck his hose in the tank and began the syphoning process. But he had put the hose into the sewage tank instead of the gas tank. The owner of the motor home found him curled up outside, vomiting.

His sin found him out.

King David is rightfully known as one of the greatest saints in Scripture, identified uniquely as the “man after [God’s] own heart” (1 Samuel 13:14 NLT). But it is also true that David is known as one the greatest sinners in Scripture.

On the one hand, we remember him for his heroic exploits and his tender heart toward God and others. But on the other hand, we remember him for his sins of adultery and murder and his attempt to cover them up.

Ultimately, the prophet Nathan confronted David about his sin and told him, “From this time on, your family will live by the sword because you have despised me by taking Uriah’s wife to be your own” (2 Samuel 12:10 NLT).

But thank God for second chances, because this was during the time that David wrote Psalm 32, which begins, “Oh, what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sin is put out of sight!” (verse 1 NLT).

David had tried in his own ability to cover his sins but with no success. But when God covers our sins, they’re gone forever. We can’t cover them, but God can. We can’t get rid of them, but God can.

God not only covers our sins; He cleanses them.

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