In love you have delivered my life from the pit of destruction, for you have cast all my sins behind your back.
Isaiah 38:17
When you face an unexpected crisis and your faith is tested, you can say, “I am loved” and “I am saved.” Here is the third thing you can say:
I am forgiven
“You have cast all my sins behind your back” (38:17). Here’s what God has done in love so that you would be saved from the pit.
Godly people know that their sins are many. The closer your walk with the Lord, the greater your awareness of your own sins. The question that will determine your eternal future is not whether your sins are few or many, but whether they are before God’s face or behind His back.
Think about the word cast here. “You have cast all my sins behind your back.” In Christ, God removes our sins from us as far as the east is from the west (Ps. 103:12). He flings them out of sight, behind His back.
Matthew Henry says, “When we cast our sins behind our back, God sets them before His face. But when we set them before our face in true repentance, God casts them behind His back.” When God casts your sins behind His back, you can cast them behind your back as well.
Life is much less certain than we like to think. We make our elaborate plans, and an unexpected crisis throws everything up in the air. How marvellous it is to know that on the darkest day, you can say with confidence, “I’m forgiven! I’m saved! Nothing can separate me from the love of God in Christ Jesus.” With such a saviour, you can face any crisis.
Would you say you are more likely to cast your sins behind your back or to set them before God in true repentance?
