A God Who Is "Ready to Forgive"-Continue with How Completely Does Jehovah Forgive

Have you ever tried to remove a stain from a light-colored garment? Perhaps despite you best efforts, the stain remained visible. Notice how Jehovah describes his capacity for forgiveness:  "Though the sins of you people should  prove to be as scarlet, they will be made white just like snow; though they should be red like crimson cloth, they will become even like wool."  (Isaiah 1:18) The word "scarlet" denotes a bright red color.  "Crimson was one of the deep colors of dyed material.  (Nahum 2:3)  We can never through our own efforts  remove the stain of sin.  But Jehovah can take sins,  that are like scarlet and crimson and make them like snow or  undyed wool.  When Jehovah forgives our sins, we need not feel that we bear the stain of such sins for the rest of our life.

In a moving song of gratitude that Hezekiah composed after he was spared from a deadly sickness, he said to Jehovah: "You have thrown behind your back all my sins." (Isaiah 38:17)  Jehovah is here portrayed as taking the sins of a repentant wrongdoer and throwing them behind Him where He neither sees them nor takes notice of them anymore. According to one source, the idea conveyed may be expressed:  "You have made [my sins] as if they had not happened." Is that not reassuring?

Next time: A God Who Is "Ready to Forgive"-Continue with How Completely Does Jehovah Forgive? 

From the book: Draw Close to Jehovah