Romans 4:7-8 Blessed and happy and to be envied are those whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered up and completely buried.
8 Blessed and happy and to be envied is the person of whose sin the Lord will take no account norreckon it against him. Amplified Bible (AMP)
I chose these verses for today after reading them in relation to a devotional from Romans 4. I read them first in the ESV which simply stated "blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven". The Amplified Bible does a good job of relating to us how we should feel inwardly about it - blessed and happy and to be envied.
Verse seven tells us that our sins are covered. We might think that they are covered in the way that we are "covered" with insurance against an accident, in this case a sin. But we don't say "the sinners prayer" as an insurance policy against future sin and then go about living our lives. We are saved by grace through faith. That grace includes forgiveness and pardon, but it also comes with the power not to sin, the power to change, and the power to overcome. It is an ongoing process.
I read the following quote yesterday from Tim Chester in "You Can Change" that explains that process - "We become Christians by faith in Jesus, we stay Christians by faith in Jesus, and we grow as Christians by faith in Jesus.' That change comes in our lives through faith. Because of God's grace, our sins are covered, "completely buried" as the Amplified Bible states, they can't be dug up and won't be used against us in God's eyes (though Satan may want to do so). They are gone. I remember the following song that we sang in Sunday School years ago. They are still true today.
Gone, gone, gone, gone,
Yes! my sins are gone,
Now my soul is free and in my hearts a song,
Buried in the deepest sea,
Yes that's good enough for me,
I shall live eternally,
Praise God, my sins are G O N E gone.
Can you sing that song today? If so, consider yourself fortunate (The Message) and praise God!
Romans 4:7
The Message (MSG)
6-9 David confirms this way of looking at it, saying that the one who trusts God to do the putting-everything-right without insisting on having a say in it is one fortunate man:
Fortunate those whose crimes are carted off,
whose sins are wiped clean from the slate.
Fortunate the person against
whom the Lord does not keep score.
whose sins are wiped clean from the slate.
Fortunate the person against
whom the Lord does not keep score.
Do you think for a minute that this blessing is only pronounced over those of us who keep our religious ways and are circumcised? Or do you think it possible that the blessing could be given to those who never even heard of our ways, who were never brought up in the disciplines of God? We all agree, don't we, that it was by embracing what God did for him that Abraham was declared fit before God?
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