“They say that they got all of the cancer.”
The young mother was incredibly excited. Yes, they had to remove a breast, but the doctors were encouraged that they had removed every bit of the cancer and she would be able to fully recover. I conducted her funeral only a year later. The cancer returned, and this time with a vengeance.
I don’t share that story to make cancer survivors anxious. Thankfully we have come a long way in cancer research. A cancer diagnosis is no longer an absolute death sentence.
But even my disclaimer here is evidence of truth — when we think of removal and cancer, there is always a bit of doubt in our minds. Did they really get all of it? Does “removed” really mean removed?
We can be prone to think the same way about a precious verse like Psalm 103:12. There, we read that “as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.” What does that mean exactly? Does “removed” really mean removed? And how does God accomplish this?
The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us (Psalm 103:8-12).
How Far Is the East from the West?
If you took out one of those maps with a little key that said one inch equals a certain number of miles, you might be able to calculate the furthest eastern part of the map from the furthest western part of the map.
The circumference of the earth is 24,901 miles, so I suppose you could say if you picked a particular starting point on the map and only traveled east until you hit the same location, you would eventually hit your destination at 24,901 miles.
But notice the way that I had to word that paragraph. There isn’t actually a distance from the east to the west when you are traveling around a globe. How far is the east from the west when we are talking about a globe? It is infinite.
This is what God is communicating to us through David in Psalm 103. He has infinitely removed our sin from us. Never to return. But how is this possible?
How Does God Remove Our Sin?
In the Old Testament, in Leviticus 16, there was a procedure the Israelites engaged in on the Day of Atonement that was to symbolize for them God’s action of removing sin.
And when he has made an end of atoning for the Holy Place and the tent of meeting and the altar, he shall present the live goat. And Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions, all their sins. And he shall put them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who is in readiness. The goat shall bear all their iniquities on itself to a remote area, and he shall let the goat go free in the wilderness (vv. 20-22).
Of course, sin is not actually transferred to a goat. We know that “the blood of bulls and goats” cannot take away sin. But this act, and everything happening on the Day of Atonement, symbolized that God really did forgive and remove our sin.
We know now that this does not happen through ritual and sacrifice. Those events were pointing to the sacrifice of Christ. The Book of Hebrews outlines how the sacrifice of Christ institutes a much better and greater covenant, one which truly and finally removes sin. Our sin is gone.
In his commentary on Psalm 103:12, W.S. Plumer says, “No one puts away sin as God does.” I like that. As finite and sinful creatures, our capacity for things like forgiveness tends to be limited.
We know that we are told to forgive, and we often do for the most part, but we do not really put away sin as God does. This can cause us to be a little like the cancer patient fearing that “removal” doesn’t actually mean never to come back again.
But this is exactly what it means for God to remove our sin. It will be no more. It is as if it does not exist. It has been covered, paid for, dealt with, removed, blotted out, and exterminated.
It will never again, in the eyes of God, be held against you. If it has been paid for, if God has removed it, then it is gone.
How do you know if God has removed your sin? Are you in union with Christ? Have you asked God to forgive you and remove your sin?
If so, we know that He is faithful and just to cleanse us. We know that if we call upon God for mercy and ask for Him to remove our sin that He will do exactly this through His grace.
What Does This Mean for Us Today?
One of the first things to notice about this passage is that it is far-reaching, not only in its removal but also in what sin falls under the umbrella of having been removed.
David does not parse out certain sins as being unforgivable. It is all of his transgression which is removed. Spurgeon wonderfully draws this out in a sermon on this text in “Plenary Absolution”:
“Suppose it had said, ‘our willful transgressions,’ that would have been very gracious; but we should have said, ‘Ah, but what will become of our sins of ignorance?’ Suppose it had said, ‘our transgressions before we were converted,’ then we should have exclaimed, ‘Ah but how shall we escape from our sins since our conversion?’ But here it is — 'our transgressions’ — he hath removed them all, all, all! from the cradle to the tomb — they are all gone; sins in private and sins in public, sins of thought, word, deed, they are all removed. The moment you believe in Jesus they are all, all, all gone!”
What this text means for you today is that if you are in Jesus Christ, you are free from the guilt and condemnation of your sin. They have been removed. It is as if you had never sinned.
When we remind the Lord of our sin, when we stay in guilt and condemnation for the things we have repented of, we are punishing ourselves for sin, which has already been removed.
Live free.
Removed means removed.
For further reading:
What Does it Mean That Our Sins Are Swept Away? (Isaiah 44:22)
How Do I Deal with Guilt in a Healthy and Biblical Way?
If We Confess Our Sins, Will We Be Forgiven from All Unrighteousness?
Why Do We Ask God to ‘Create in Me a Clean Heart’?
Is There a Prayer for Repentance? How to Repent in Prayer
Photo Credit: ©iStock/Getty Image Plus/Vlad Yushinov
Mike Leake is husband to Nikki and father to Isaiah and Hannah. He is also the lead pastor at Calvary of Neosho, MO. Mike is the author of Torn to Heal and Jesus Is All You Need. His writing home is http://mikeleake.net and you can connect with him on Twitter @mikeleake. Mike has a new writing project at Proverbs4Today.
