For any serious Christian, the matter of considering our sins before God can at times be overwhelming. 

With God’s Holy Spirit working in us, we can see the painful realities of sin and the high price of those sins paid for with the willing sacrifice of Christ.  While we must acknowledge and work with God to overcome sin, we also know that we cannot keep bringing up a sin that God has forgiven.  How do we find the balance?

In John 8:3-11 we have the recorded conversation between Christ and the woman taken in adultery. After Christ shamed the men into leaving by what He wrote in the dirt (what did He write?), the woman was asked if anyone has condemned her.  She replied “no one, Lord” to which Christ said “Neither do I … go and sin no more.”  What a tall order that is, and yet every one of us has accepted that instruction as a standard at our baptism – go and sin no more.  Left to our own ability this is an impossible standard, and yet with God all things are possible (Mark 10:27).

When our sins overwhelm us we need to remember verses such as Romans 4:7-8 (quoting from Psalms 32:1-2), “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered: Blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin.”  The bottom line is that once God forgives our sin, it is gone as far as He is concerned – “as far as the east is from the west” (Psalm103:12).  So how do we let go of sins God has forgiven?

In Genesis 19 we have story of Lot’s family and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.  After Abraham interceded for Sodom in “bargaining” with God, the angels tell Lot to take his family and leave.  Some of Lot’s family refused to go (verse 14) so the angels told Lot to take his wife and two daughters who still lived with him.  In verse 17 they further instruct Lot’s family not to “look behind you” as the fled lest they be destroyed as well.  The thought of leaving behind some of his family has caused Lot to hesitate, but God is merciful and takes Lot’s family by the hand to hurry them out.  All of this was too much for Lot’s wife (isn’t it interesting that we are not told her name?) and she looked back (verse 26) being turned into a pillar of salt.  Was this simply about looking back, or was it more a warning not to look back in longing? – for in verse 28 we are told that Lot himself “…looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah….”

The balance we find in seeing our sins and yet living in God’s forgiveness is found in the lesson of Lot’s wife.  Humanly we cannot forget perfectly as God does, but even if we consider our past sins since forgiven, God does not want us to long for them again.  Paul understood this in writing Philippians 3:13-14, “Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended, but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”  The Sabbath day is a perfect day for us to reflect on the future God has in store for us and all of mankind – let us press forward forgetting those sins behind us.