“I’ll forever wipe the slate clean of their sins.” – Hebrews 10:17 The Message
Are you old enough to remember chalk on blackboards? Before smartboards and dry-erase whiteboards, there was a blackboard in front of every classroom. The work that was done on the blackboard could be erased, but it always left some trace of what was written along with a coating of chalk dust. The only real way to get it perfectly clean was to wash it. I don’t know how often this was done, but I do know that on the last day of school, we would leave a dirty blackboard behind, only to return in the fall to one that was crisp and clean with no trace of what was written on it before.
This is what God does with us. God wipes the slate clean. While we may continue to dwell on our sins and mistakes, God doesn’t. God chooses not to remember them. The Lord washes the stain of our sin away and gives us a fresh, clean start. And this can happen anytime we seek God’s mercy. We don’t have to wait for the start of another school year. We can have a fresh start right now. How amazing is God’s grace!
“But I wipe away your sins because of who I am. And so, I will forget the wrongs you have done.” –Isaiah 43:25 Contemporary English Version
Pastor Mark