What God Would Do with Our Sins
J. A. Kerr Bain, M. A. Micah 7:19 He will turn again, he will have compassion on us; he will subdue our iniquities… "Our iniquities." "Our sins," — is it possible for us to be quite rid of these? This great question finds in the text a still greater answer. The words are two clauses of promise, each with its own shade of figurative meaning — a strong shade, and a stronger. I. THE DIVINE ONE AS EFFECTING THE CONQUEST OF HUMAN SINS. "He will subdue our iniquities"; that is, He will tread them down, will trample them in triumph under His feet. The very sound of the words suggests that it is no easy enterprise, this managing of our sins. We are apt to think lightly of sins. We underestimate the terrible capacity of wrong and death which lurks in them, and in each one of them. We yield them quarter, rations, parole, friendship. They swarm round us, and we cannot subdue them. Give your welcome, then, to Him who conquers this haunting throng on your behalf. Here He stands, at your side and mine. With Him beside us the whole matter passes beyond mere hopefulness into utter assurance. "But," it may be asked, "is it not an arduous and a daring task for any one to undertake for me?" It is so much this, and so much more this than you can think, that only the One need attempt to undertake it. You may safely entrust the great task to Him. See the comprehensive completeness of the conquest. Christ not only conquers all the bad legions that had mustered around us during bygone years, but He tramples down the up-springing legions as they venture to arise, — thinning their ranks and enfeebling their energy, and impoverishing their condition, with the sure prospect for us that soon the hour will have struck when He can look back upon nothing but conquest, and forward upon nothing to conquer. II. THE DIVINE ONE AS EFFECTING THE DESTRUCTION AND OBLIVION OF HUMAN SINS. The new figure substantially repeats the sense of the other; yet it advances further, and is more vividly full of the gracious truth upon this subject. "Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea." "Sins," not "iniquities" only, but the gravest as well as the lightest violations of Divine law. "Into the sea," and into the deep places of the sea; far to seaward, where the sounding line descends in miles — buried, without resurrection, for evermore. Some who have entrusted themselves to God's grace are still timid and doubtful as to whether it can really be all, and once for all, and irrecoverably, settled about those sins of theirs. Be sure that when God pardons at all He pardons altogether, The sins of a Christ-trusting man are not only lost, but are what may be called securely lost. A thing is most safely gone, not when it is banished we know not whither, but when, knowing where it is, we are sure that it is absolutely irrecoverable. Apply. Never dream of managing your sins yourself. When God has put our sins into forgetfulness we ought ourselves no more to remember them. (J. A. Kerr Bain, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. WEB: He will again have compassion on us. He will tread our iniquities under foot; and you will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.