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What Does God Do With Our Sins?

July 11, 2020

    A young woman sat down on a park bench and dropped a large bag at her feet.  She had been carrying it so long.  Her arms ached and her back was stiff.  Oh, to be rid of this load of garbage.

    She never looks in the bag now.  She used to, sometimes, but what she saw repelled her.   So she’s kept it closed ever since.  What else could she do.  Others couldn’t help her carry it because everyone else had their own load.

    As she rested for a moment she saw a mother leading a child with one hand dragging a trash bag heavy with guilt.   She hadn’t been a good parent.  Then a very old man passed.  His trash bag was so long it hit the back of his legs.  It was filled with regrets .  He had neglected his family and his children hated him.

    A car stopped and a man got out pulling a bag lumpy with resentments.  He draped it over his shoulder and cursed the weight.

    A teenage girl walked by and volunteered an answer before the question was asked.  “Rage!  That’s what I’m carrying.  Rage at my mother and rage at my father.  But I’m tired of this anger.  He said he’d take it.  She motioned to her bag.  So I’m going to give it to him...

    The woman on the bench sees others who seem to be walking in the same direction.  One tramp smelled of alcohol.  He’d slept in his clothes.  Another was an ex-con with numerous crimes in his past. 

    The woman decided to follow and see where these burdened people were going.  Finally she saw a man with a kind smile and open arms.  As each person approached, he reached out and said, “May I take your burden and may you never carry it again.”

    When it’s her turn, the woman hesitates, but his eyes draw her forward.  She doesn’t speak, but neither does she turn away.  Then she hears those gentle compassionate words, “You have a bag of shame, too many wrong partners and too many wrong choices.”  She braces herself for the scorn she expects to hear, as if she needed more shame.  She awaits judgement, but it never comes.  Instead, his voice is warm and his question is honest.  “Will you give me your trash?”

    He reaches out and takes it from her.  “You can’t live with this,” he explains.  “You weren’t made to bear such burdens.”  “Come to me, all of you who are tired and have heavy loads, and I will give you rest” (Matt.  11:28, edb*).

    This is the universal story.  We all have trash.  We all have garbage.  We all have shame, guilt, regret, resentment and rage.  We all have mistakes and problems and weaknesses.  The Scripture says, “Everyone has sinned and fallen short of God’s glorious standard” (Rom.  3:23).

    The wonderful promise of the gospel is that we don’t have to carry the load forever.  We don’t have to pay for these sins.  God will forgive them and remove our burden.  The Scripture includes three interesting descriptions of what God does with our sins:

I.   FIRST, HE CASTS THEM INTO THE DEPTHS OF THE SEA.

    The Pacific Ocean is actually the world’s largest “landfill.”  Garbage which floats between Hawaii and California is estimated to be twice the size of Texas.  The Scripture uses “the ocean” as a symbolic dumping ground for a different kind of waste disposal.  God casts our forgiven sins there.  Micah said, “You will have mercy on us again; you will conquer our sins.  You will throw away all our sins into the deepest part of the sea” (Micah 7:19, edb).

    Bible commentators draw a comparison between this and the destruction of Pharaoh’s army in the Red Sea.  Not a single Egyptian soldier survived when God cast them into “the depths of the sea;” so no sin can survive.  “The enemy bragged, ‘I’ll chase them and catch them.  I’ll take all their riches; I’ll take all I want.  I’ll pull out my sword, and my hand will destroy them.’  But you blew on them with your breath and covered them with the sea.  They sank like lead in the raging water” (Exodus 15:9-10, edb).

    Sins are not simply cast into the sea, but into the depths of the sea.  If they were carelessly tossed from the shore, they might wash back up to be seen again.  Or, they might be visible at low tide.  But, there is no chance of that happening in this case.  They are forever buried at such a depth that they can never be discovered.

    Someone said, “God threw our sins in the deepest sea and then put up a sign that said, ‘No Fishing’.”  So we’re not supposed to keep beating up on ourselves for our past mistakes; and we’re not to keep judging others for their past mistakes.  There is no fishing for our own sins, nor for the sins of others. When we give our burdens to Christ, they are gone forever.

II.  NEXT, GOD EXPORTS OUR SINS.

    Some of our country’s trash has been exported to poor countries, who either felt they could salvage something from it, or felt the price they were paid was worth it.  Even so, God exports our sins.  The Scripture says He removes them from us “as far as the east is from the west,” (Psa.  103:12).

    It’s interesting that God did not say, “as far as the north is from the south,” because you can only go so far north and then you must go south.  Therefore, the distance from the North Pole to the South Pole is a specific distance—12,403 miles.  But east will never meet west.  You can go east for the rest of your life and never begin to go west.  How far is it from east to west?  It is infinite.   That is how far God removes our sins from us!  Isaiah explained redemption.  He said, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isa. 53:6, kjv).

    Paul said, “He is so rich in kindness that he purchased our freedom through the blood of his Son, and our sins are forgiven” (Eph. 1:7, nlb);
    “We have our redemption through His blood, [which means] (we have) forgiveness of our sins” (Col. 1:14, amp).  So, when we give our burdens to Christ, they are gone forever.

III.  FINALLY, GOD OBLITERATES OUR SINS.

    Some types of rubbish, such as military munitions are destroyed by exploding them.  In other words, they’re absolutely obliterated.  You could say that God obliterates our sins.  They are erased from his memory.  Jeremiah said, “People will no longer have to teach their neighbors and relatives to know the Lord, because all people will know me, from the least to the most important,” says the Lord.  ‘I will forgive them for the wicked things they did, and I will not remember their sins anymore’ ” (Jer.  31:34).

    The writer of Hebrews repeated this promise.  “I will forgive them for the wicked things they did,
and I will not remember their sins anymore” (Heb.  8:12).

    One man complained to his coworker about a fight he had with his wife the night before.  “She got really worked up.  In fact, she eventually got historical.”

    His friend laughed and said, “Don’t you mean hysterical?”

    “No!  I mean she got historical.  She brought up every mistake I have made in the ten year history of our marriage.”

    Sometimes we claim to forgive, but instead, we keep a mental record of offenses and bring them up again later.  But God is not like that.  Forgiven sin has no “history.”  Our sins are erased from the official file.  Isaiah said, “I have swept away your sins like a big cloud; I have removed your sins like a cloud that disappears into the air.  Come back to me because I saved you” (Isa.  44:22, edb).

    Since they are obliterated, they cannot be imputed.  Paul said, “Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.  Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin” (Rom.  4:7-8, kjv).

    That is, God does not reckon this sin against us.  The word “Impute” is a mathematical or bookkeeping term.  When God forgives us, the ledger has a zero balance.  Ezekiel said, “ They will not be punished for any of their sins. They now do what is right and fair, so they will surely live” (Ezek.  33:16, edb).

    Tabloids and gossip columnists like to dig up dirt on politicians and famous people.  An old verse says:

    Lives of great men oft remind us
    As we o’re their pages turn,
    That we too may leave behind us
    Letters that we ought to burn. 

    God does that.   Our sordid past is burned up.

    There’s an old story about a little Catholic girl who insisted she had visions of Christ.  Her priest was skeptical and told her, “Okay!  The next time you see the Lord, ask him what terrible sin I committed as a teenager.  If he answers that, I’ll believe you.”

    When she returned to church the priest asked, “So, what did he say?”

    “Oh Father,” she replied.  “He just said, “My child, didn’t You know, I have forgotten all his sins.”

    When we give our burdens to Christ, they are gone forever.

    All of us have bags and burdens.  Are you the young woman on the park bench with a bag full of shame, because of wrong choices?  Are you the mother with a bag full of guilt, afraid you haven’t been a good parent?  Are you the old man with a bag full of regrets about past mistakes?  Are you the driver with a bag full of resentments?  Are you the teenager with a bag full of rage?

    Have you had alcohol or drug problems?  Have you committed crimes?

    It doesn’t matter what’s in your bag.  God wants to take it and destroy it.  You don’t have to carry it any longer.  He said, “Come to me, all of you who are tired and have heavy loads, and I will give you rest” (Matt.  11:28).

    So, will you let go of your past?  Will you, with Paul, “(forget) those things which are behind;” and press on toward a joyful and productive future.  (See Phil. 3:13-14).

(WordCount1744)
*EDB is the Everyday Bible distributed by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, based on the New Century Version.  I do not list it as NCV because there are some differences.
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