Torch, Summer 1995

{ {i~ur sins are ~o~given and your gmlt is taken away." These were the most wonderful and empowering words that Isaiah could hear. They enabled him to speak the well-recognized words, "Here am I; send me," in response to the Lord's question, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" (Isaiah 6:7-8) Isaiah, soon after, was commissioned by God as the first major prophet of the Old Testament era. Genuine forgiveness, following on the heels of genuine confession, was necessary in preparing God's servant for God's use. The power of forgiveness is the central message of both the Old and New Testaments. Forgiveness Torch 14 has been defined as "the act of setting someone free from an obligation to you that is a result of a wrong done against you." God has declared that if we confess our sins, He will forgive our sins: "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). God does not stop there. The Bible further states that when God forgives us, He no longer remembers our sins. Jeremiah 31:34 records, "For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more." The Psalmist said, "as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us" (103:12). The Scriptures are not informing us that God has a memory system malfunction. Our omniscient, immutable God is always aware of the event of our sin. Instead, when God forgives our sin, He chooses, by an act of His sovereign will, to never hold our sin against us again. He applies the righteousness of His Son, Jesus Christ, to our sin and forever treats us as if we had not sinned. Isaiah inscribed it so well, "Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool" (1:18). It is a sad fact that many Christians today live as though the cross of Christ never