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t is one thing to believe that God is willing to forgive
sins. It is quite another thing to
recognize that I am currently in need of His forgiveness. Yet, neither of those two commendable realizations
are enough to complete the transaction.
God has to do something to make forgiveness available... and, we have to
do something to make it applicable. For
us to be forgiven, God has to justify us...
He has to simply declare that we are righteous, although we know that we
are not. Enters: redemption through the
blood of Christ (Romans 3:24-26). Not
that David or other Old Testament saints knew how God was going to put their
sins away... then again, maybe they did.
But either way, however He was going to do it, God had to be their
justifier. David had to have known that
much, because he said so in Psalm 32:1-2.
But wait a second, God's willingness to forgive and even
God's provision for forgiveness (and even our knowledge of those things) does
us no good unless we repent of our sin and confess it to God. Again, David hit the nail on the head in
Psalm 32:5. Repentance and confession
function as our signature on a contract of grace which was written by God alone
and which He alone can execute.
Now, you might ask, "Where
is faith in Psalm 32:5? Isn't faith also
essential?" Indeed, it is! Faith in God is absolutely necessary (Hebrews
11:6, Romans 4:3, Galatians 3:6 & James 2:23). Faith may not be named in Psalm 32:5, but it
is certainly present. Notice the 2
little prepositional phrases, "unto
thee" and "unto the
Lord" - David's confession UNTO the Lord implies clearly that God was
the one in whom he trusted.
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