GOD
SEES NO SIN IN HIS PEOPLE
“He
hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in
Israel.” Numbers 23:21
These
words do not suggest that there was no sin or perverseness in Israel. There was
an abundance of perverseness among them; but the Lord God did not mark the sins
of his people against them. He did not impute sin to his chosen. He did not
look upon their sins with the eye of his justice, but hid his face from them
and forgave them. That which God did for his elect among the children of
Israel, he has done for his elect in Christ, his true Israel, “the Israel of God.”.
Though
there is much sin in us and done by us, as every true believer readily admits
and confesses (I John 1:8, 10), yet God sees no sin in his people. The Lord
Jesus Christ came into the world to destroy, purge, remove, and take away the
sins of his people; and he has done it (John 1:29; Heb. 1:3; 9:26; I John 3:5).
All the sins of God’s elect
were laid upon Christ. He bore them in his own body on the tree, endured and
satisfied the wrath of God for them, and bore them away. The Son of God
redeemed us from the curse of the law, made an end of our sins, and justified
and sanctified us by his blood. God almighty has, through the effectual
atonement of Christ, so thoroughly blotted out our sins that he does not behold
them. He has cast our sins into the blessed, deep sea of divine forgetfulness.
He has cast our sins behind his back. He has removed them from us as far as the
east is from the west, and remembers them no more. Therefore, God sees no sin
in his people!
I
am fully aware that this doctrine is commonly rejected and despised by men. It
has been described by some as “a freak doctrine of perverted minds that leads
to licentiousness and sin.” Why? I simply do not know. I cannot imagine anyone,
who has tasted the bitterness of his own depravity and sin and has experienced
the blessed forgiveness of sin by the grace of God through the blood of Christ,
objecting to the fact that God “hath not
beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel.” The
fact that God sees no sin in his people, is a most glorious, comforting
doctrine of the gospel, “without which,” John Gill appropriately declared, “the
gospel must cease to be good news and glad tidings to the sons of men.”
Would
you have this forgiveness? What would you give to go to bed tonight knowing
that God almighty does not behold sin in you and will never charge sin to you,
to lay your head upon your pillow tonight with these words ringing in your
heart - “Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin?” If you are a sinner in need of such forgiveness,
come now to the Son of God. Confess your sin to God, trusting Christ, and go
your way, like the publican of old, justified. It is written in the Scriptures,
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful
and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (I
John 1:9). Both God’s faithfulness and his justice demand the forgiveness of
all who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Grace Baptist Church of Danville - Grace For
Today Radio Message #661
2734 Old Stanford Road -
Danville, Kentucky 40422-9438
Donald S. Fortner, Pastor -Telephone 606-236-8235 - Email grace@mis.net