Thomas Boston
1. Blotting out sin.
“I, even I,” says Jehovah, “am He that blotteth out thy transgressions for Mine own sake” (Is 43:25). This is an allusion to a creditor who, when he discharges a debt, scores it out of his account book. Sin is a debt, the worst of debts. We cannot pay it; we cannot escape the hands of our creditor. And, alas, we are ready to deny our debt; we will not come to count and reckoning, as long as we can get it shifted. So the debt stands in God’s book. But the sinner being apprehended, as is said, he is brought to count and reckoning. God produces the large account. The sinner’s heart fails at the sight; he falls down, confesses his debt and his inability to pay, flies to the great Surety, saying, “Undertake for me” (Is 38:14); and Christ says, “All thy wants be upon Me”. Then God takes the pen, dips it in the Mediator’s blood, and cross-scores all the sinner’s account, (Acts 3:19, Col 2:14).
2. Not imputing sin.
“Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity” (Ps 32:2). This is a metaphor from merchants who, when a rich friend undertakes for one of their poor debtors, make no charge in their accounts any more to him; they will seek him no more for the debt. God took Christ’s single bond for the debt of all that would put themselves in Christ’s poor roll by faith. So as soon as a sinner comes to Christ by faith, and gives in his name as a broken man unable to pay his debt, accepting of Christ as surety, God imputes sin no more to that man. Whatever accounts have been taken on by the sinner, he leaves the Son to clear with His Father. This is sustained in the court of heaven: the Creditor and the Surety take the matter between them, and the debt is charged no more on the sinner.
3. Taking the burden of sin off the sinner
(Ps 32:1; Hos 14:2). Sin is a heavy burden to the unpardoned sinner, a burden increasing every day. It sank the angels down from their first habitation, and is a weight that they and the damned in hell are wrestling under at this day, but are unable to get it off. The unawakened sinner does not find it; but when the conscience is awakened, it burdens the sinner all over; it is a burden on his head, on his spirit, on his back. In the day of pardon, the sinner falls down under his burden, looks to Christ the great Burden-bearer, and God comes and takes his burden off his back and bids him stand upright. No one else can do it (Num 14:17-19).
4. Washing the sinner.
“But ye are washed” (1 Cor 6:11). They that have unpardoned guilt on them, they not only have a heavy, but a foul, filthy burden on them. And they must be washed, and thoroughly washed, for it sticks closely to the soul. “Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin” (Ps 51:2). Hence the Lord offers, “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool” (Is 1:18). In the day of pardon, the Lord sprinkles the sinner with the Mediator’s blood, and he is made clean; indeed He dips him in that fountain (Zec 13:1); and he is purged and purified from all sin (1 Jn 1:7).
5. Dismissing, or remission of, sin
(Mt 6:12, Rom 3:25). God does not only take it away, but sends it away. The sinner’s guilt is laid over on Christ, as the scapegoat who bears it away, never to return on the sinner. Sin is a strong tie, whereby the sinner is bound down to the pit, so as he cannot lift up his head to the Lord with true confidence. Pardon brings a relaxation to the sinner, cutting asunder these cords of death.
6. Dispelling a thick cloud
(Is 44:22). Sin is a cloud rising from below: a watery cloud, a black cloud, a thick cloud, which once drowned the whole world, except those in the ark. It hangs night and day over the head of the unpardoned sinner, go where he will. He cannot see the face of God through it; it veils His mercy, wraps Him up in blackness of darkness, so that he can have no communion with heaven. But pardon, like the shining sun, breaks through the cloud and dissolves it; and like a mighty wind, there is a breathing from the throne of grace that rends the cloud and scatters it, be it never so thick; so that all the sinner’s guilt vanishes away as a cloud and appears no more. Thus the soul is restored to the light of God’s countenance, and may look up with confidence and joy (Job 33:24,26).
7. Casting sin behind the Lord’s back
(Is 38:17). David says that his sin was ever before him (Ps 51:3) – before him, as the accuser stood before the accused face to face. Praying for pardon, David prays that God would hide His face from his sin (Ps 51:9). A pardoning God will not look on the sin of the sinner that is in Christ; “He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath He seen perverseness in Israel” (Num 23:21). The believer carries his trial from the throne of strict justice to the Lord sitting on a throne of grace. When Satan gives in his accusation against the believer, the Lord takes it and casts it away behind His back, so as not to look on it, nor charge the believer with it.
8. Casting sin into the depths of the sea
(Mic 7:19). O the fulness of that expression! The Lord will not cast sin into a brook, or river; what falls in there may perhaps be got up again; but He will cast it into the sea, where we reckon a thing that falls there to be dead. But there are some shallow places in the sea; He will cast them into the depths of the sea, these devouring depths. But what if they do not sink? He will cast them in with force and power, so that they shall go to the ground and sink as lead in the ocean of the blood of Christ.
9. Covering sin
(Ps 32:1). This is an allusion to what the Lord commanded the Israelites in their camp in the wilderness (Deut 23:14). It is the same word in the Hebrew. It is a covering of it so as to hide it, that it shall not appear. Sin is the worst of pollutions, but a pardon spreads a cover over it, that it shall not appear any more. God condemned sin in the flesh of Christ (Rom 8:3), and therefore, as soon as the soul takes hold of Christ, the word of pardon goes out of the King’s mouth, and sin, like the face of Haman, in such a case is covered, never to see the light any more.
10. Not remembering sin,
which crowns all (Jer 31:34). What can be said more to show the fullness of pardon? Many forgive, but they will never forget the offences done to them; but our God, when He pardons, not only forgives but, as it were, forgets the injury done to His glory by the sinner. It is true, God’s perfections cannot admit a proper forgetting; but the believer’s sins are forgotten in law. There is an irreversible act of oblivion passed upon them all in the court of heaven; and God will not only not exact the punishment of them, but will treat believers as kindly as if they had never offended Him. Looking on them through Christ, He beholds them without spot.
Behold the way to be secured against sin finding you out in wrath. O unspeakable benefit! Well may we sing and say with David: “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile” (Ps 32:1-2).