How Is It That God Sees No Sin In His People?

Numbers 23:21

The sweet and blessed fact that God sees no sin in us does not in any way imply that we do not sin or that God’s omniscience fails to observe it. This is a matter of Divine justice. The record books of heaven record no iniquity, no transgression, and no sin against God’s elect. God will not impute sin to His saints, or require satisfaction from us, because our sins were made Christ’s and were justly imputed to Him when He was made sin for us. He paid for them. Our sins have been forever expunged from the book of God’s offended justice by our Savior’s precious blood. Read the testimony of Holy Scripture and rejoice (Romans 4:8; 8:1, 33, 34; 2 Corinthians 5:19-21). Let all who trust Christ get hold of this blessed, glorious fact: — “He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel.” Rejoice in it. Give praise to God for it. And walk in the blessed comfort and assurance of it all the days of your life.

            The Lord Jesus Christ has, by the sacrifice of Himself, put away our sins, all of them: past, present, and future. They were imputed to Him, laid upon Him, punished in Him, and put away by Him (Isaiah 53:4-6). He made an end of our sins (Daniel 9:24). He removed all the iniquity of His people in one day, by one sacrifice (Zechariah 3:9). In Him we are fully justified from all things, so much so that in the eyes of God’s holy law and justice we have no sin (Acts 13:38-39; 1 John 3:5). By His one great sacrifice for sin, the Son of God has made all God’s elect perfect in His sight (Hebrews 10:11-14).

            God the Father has, upon the ground of Christ’s blood, righteousness, sacrifice, and satisfaction, freely and fully forgiven all the sins of His people. The blood of Christ, like the blood on the mercy-seat, covers our sins, so that our sins are not visible to the eyes of God’s holy justice. The blood of Christ has blotted our sins out of the ledger book of heaven, so that justice cannot see sin in us. For Christ’s sake, the holy Lord God has cast our sins behind His back and into the depth of the sea, so that they are not only forgotten, but gone insofar as His law and justice are concerned (Jeremiah 50:20).

            In God’s esteem all believers are, as the church and bride of Christ, the very perfection of beauty and holiness. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit look upon us in Christ, washed in His blood and robed in His righteousness, as beautiful, perfect, complete, holy, unblameable, and unreproveable. Read what He says about the matter (Ezekiel 16:14; Song of Solomon 4:7, 9; Ephesians 5:25-27; Jude 24-25).

            The fact that God sees no sin in His people is, to borrow the words of John Gill, “the glory of the Bible and the marrow of the Gospel.” It is this which most fully displays the riches of God’s grace, the efficacy of Christ’s blood, the completeness of His righteousness, and the fullness of His satisfaction. This blessed fact is the foundation of all solid, biblical hope of future happiness. It is the very foundation of our confidence and faith before God, the abiding comfort of our souls, and will be the ground of our triumph in the hour of death.

Don Fortner

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