As the last article (Feb. 2012) showed, forgiveness is important. Forgiveness is a basic feature of the Lord’s long suffering and merciful character. The Law of Moses provides blood-shedding sacrifices through which God promised to forgive Israel of their sins. In Solomon’s prayer dedicating the temple, he repeatedly pleads for God to hear their prayers, and forgive them.
Forgiveness and the related topics of sin, confession, and repentance are fundamental to God’s plan of salvation. In this article we look at Scriptural meanings for these ideas. Although studying the definitions of original Bible words is sometimes boring, we find great blessings behind the words surrounding forgiveness. Their meanings can encourage us; they give us hope.
The example of David
The first series of words comes from David’s horrific sins relating to Bathsheba. David broke four of the Ten Commandments! God’s forgiveness of David could well be the greatest example of personal sin and forgiveness.
We benefit greatly from this history because in addition to the outward story line of his meltdown, we also get to “hear” David’s thoughts. The Psalms give us the internal drama that makes this an excellent example of a terrible sin. David reflects:
“I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgression unto the LORD; and thou forgave st the iniquity of my sin” (Psa 32:5).
How much richer is David’s vocabulary about sin than ours! When we mess up, even when we mess up big, we ask God to forgive our sin. That’s the extent of our vocabulary. Not David. In this, we see the texture and depth of his confession. This instruction has a powerful impact on us. We learn how to talk to our heavenly Father about sin, how to confess our sins to Him, how to ask for His forgiveness, how to repent. We learn God’s language for one of the most important conversations we need to have with Him, a conversation that recurs over and over again due to our sinful nature.
Definitions of sin
David uses three words, “sin”, “iniquity”, and “transgression”. The first, “sin”, means “missing the mark”. At first, this might not sound so bad. Who can always throw a rock and knock the can off the post? Yet, it is bad; it is the essence of sin. Wishing so much to obey and seeing our utter failure as our actions whiz right past God’s standards. The second word, “iniquity”, means “crookedness”. None of us considers ourselves a crook, or more to the meaning, perverse, but there it is. The third word, “transgression”, means “rebellion”. This is really making us squirm now. Am I rebelling? I’m a good kid, aren’t I? But no, each of us has done it “my way” over “His way”.
So we have three definitions and they are not pretty. Fortunately, herein starts the good news. Yes, we’re each rotten. But quickly we move to the three definitions of forgiveness that counter each one of these condemnations. Yes, all sins need God’s help and rescue; and in every way, and we mean every way, God has a counter blessing. The blessing is in the texture and depth of His forgiveness.
Definitions of forgiveness
David begins this Psalm by declaring,
“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 is no guile” (Psa 32:1-2).
Again, David uses three words, “forgive”, “cover”, and “not impute”, to counter the three words for sin. The first word, “forgive”, means “taken up and carried away”. We can each come up with our own visual for this. For example, a man going fishing is on his way back to the marina and on the boat there are unused anchovies that are no longer needed for bait. For fun he throws the anchovies up at the seagulls chasing the boat. They dive bomb and, snatching them midair, disappear off to shore. Do you think the man will ever see those anchovies again? Well, those anchovies are like forgiven sins, taken away, never to be seen again!
The second word, “covered”, means “concealed”. Oh how David tried to conceal the first of his evil deeds. Oh how politicians try to cover up their corrupt deeds. Oh how each of us tries to cover up our sins. Ultimately, these efforts are to no avail. In the end, the truth will come out if we try to do the cover up ourselves. In contrast, when God forgives our sins, they are truly covered. Isn’t that a huge relief? You don’t have to do it yourself. God will do it for you, if you confess your sins to Him, repent, and ask for forgiveness.
The third phrase, “not impute”, means “not think about, not consider”. Our God is infinitely greater than any man: when He forgives our sins, He forgets they ever happened. David celebrates these blessings in another Psalm:
“He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us” (Psa 103:10-12).
This concept continues in the New Testament where the word “justify” is used of God’s forgiveness as if the sins never happened at all. What a generous God!
I like to carry my own sins
God is so great and yet even in all this we like to carry our sins around for a while, even sometimes for a lifetime. There’s the story of an old man in early America. He’s walking down the cart path with a 50 pound sack of potatoes. A man in a horse-drawn cart comes along and offers him a ride. The old man climbs into the cart. As they go along, the driver sees that the old man is still holding the heavy sack on his shoulders. He asks the old man, “Why don’t you drop the potatoes in the back of my cart?” The old man replies, “No, I don’t want to make a bigger burden for your horse!” Isn’t that ridiculous? Aren’t we ridiculous? We carry our sins “righteously” we think, and the cart is there to drop them off. And no, it isn’t a bigger load on the horse! So, “let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us” (Heb 12:1).
Definitions of confession
Next, we’ll look at two definitions of “confession”. The first is from the Old Testament: the Hebrew word “yadah” literally means “to hold out your hand” and can mean all sorts of things. One meaning is hiding stolen candy from the candy jar and your mommy telling you to reveal what you are hiding in your hand. A second is illustrated by the following word picture. Suppose you are walking through a jungle and you fall into a pit that is hidden by jungle leaves. You are deep in this pit and you panic, trying as you can to get out. But you can’t! You try everything. You are desperate. Looking for roots, rocks, footholds, try as you might you cannot get out. Finally you give up; you cannot get out by yourself. Then in that moment of despair you lift up your hand towards God and His hand meets yours and He lifts you out. You have held out your hand to make peace with God and He extends His hand to meet yours.
The lesson is to stop trying to crawl out of the hole we are in, because God’s hand is always within reach.
The second word is from the New Testament: the Greek word “homologeo” combines “homo” meaning “same” with “logeo” meaning “logic” to form the concept “to think the same”. It’s that epiphany we have when we have messed up where we slap our forehead and say, “What was I thinking?” Finally, we agree with God and realize our thinking was flawed.
Confession pitfalls
Here are a couple examples where our confession thinking is not the same as God’s. The first type is the “backhanded confession”. Have you heard something like this? A man says to his wife, “Honey, you’re so pretty I don’t even notice the 25 pounds you’ve put on!” How do you think that will go over? In the guise of a compliment it is really a jab, a big one. We must watch our confessions because they can go just like that. “Yes, God, I messed up, but they were so bad too.” “Yes, God, I went over the line, but they were teasing me.” “Yes, God, I was gossiping, but everyone was doing it.” Do these confessions sound ridiculous to you? We’ve all done them; sadly, we routinely catch ourselves doing them. Think three times before confessing to someone. The first two will likely have some backhandedness to them.
The other example of confession mis-thinking is that many confessions are not specific. If your son came to you with bruises and a broken steering wheel in his hand and said he’s sorry, but that’s it, how would you feel? You are going to be curious about what happened and demand some kind of explanation. Maybe we do well in our private prayers in this regard, but at least sometimes, perhaps when it’s late and we’re tired, we resort to a common non-specific line, “God, forgive me for all my sins.” Have we really “held out our hand” to God? In our public prayers, what kind of detail is in them? The public prayers of Nehemiah, Daniel, Ezra, and others were quite graphic in their confessions of the sins of Israel.
Definitions of repentance
There are three Bible words (two Hebrew and one Greek) for “repentance”. The order these are revealed in Scripture is likely an intended progression. The first word “nacham” means “to breath out, groan, lament”. It is a gasp, an emotional discharge because you are sorry. The second word “shuwb” means “to turn back, go to the starting point”. A modern way of saying this is “a do-over”, or in golf terms, “a mulligan”. If a police officer has ever given you a warning instead of a ticket, you know the idea. After it happens you become a model citizen. You got a do-over and you learned your lesson. This is the idea. The third word “metanoeo” means “to think differently”.
If you put these three words together you get a complete picture of repentance, and it reflects all that we can do. The sigh is the emotional element, the turning back is the action element, and the changing our thinking is the intellectual element. In doing these three things, we mirror David’s repentance. Audit yourself to prove it.
A rich language
David’s phrases in Psalm 51 provide a rich vocabulary for penitence; the following phrases are taken from the KJV, NIV, The Message, and other translations:
“Have mercy upon me, O God…Wipe out my bad record… I know how bad I’ve been – my sins are staring me down… Against You, God, only have I sinned… Cleanse me with your forgiveness and I will be clean… Scrub me, and I will be whiter than the snow… Hide your face from my sins… Blot out my iniquity… Create in me a pure heart… Renew a steadfast character from the chaos in my life… Do not cast me from your presence… Or fail to breathe holiness in me… Restore in me the joy of your salvation… Grant me a willing spirit to sustain me… Save me from bloodguilt… Going through the motions doesn’t please you… A flawless performance doesn’t please you… You desire of me a broken spirit, a contrite heart.”
Conclusion
Sometimes we think there is some insidious checklist and if we don’t score 85% or higher then God will be displeased with us. So if you take all these definitions and see your deficiency, well, that’s what it’s all about. You do lack. Your confession, forgiveness of others, and repentance are not complete. Think of it this way. When your lovely child comes to you and is crying and full of remorse for something they’ve done, don’t you find yourself eager to comfort and encourage them? They will not say the perfect words; they will not restore the prized coffee mug to an unbroken state, but you will be forgiving them even before their inadequate words can be spoken. So much more is our heavenly Father eager to forgive us: “Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him” (Psa 103:13). Confession and repentance are the essential starting points for forgiveness. Give up on the do-it-yourself approach and hold out your hand to God. He will lift you up and fill in all that is lacking!
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One