Forgiven — Not Just Our Sin, But the GUILT of Our Sin

One of our family’s favorite Psalms is Psalm 32. I really can’t imagine parenting without it.

As one example of why it is so necessary to us, years ago, my husband and young daughter were reading through The Hobbit and Fred had to correct her attitude on something.

I wouldn’t have even known about this little exchange because I was upstairs at the time, in an entirely different area of the house, preparing (“coincidentally”) for our women’s study that week on Psalm 32, but the weeping child roused me and I headed downstairs to see what was going on.

(BTW— meditating on Scripture, praying, and looking up theological terms that I could not easily define and distinguish from one another had really helped to prepare me to help when I came downstairs to find a weeping six year-old cowering under an end table and a husband looking at me with that, “Any ideas?” look that we often have in parenting.)

From Fred’s perspective, our daughter had apologized and he had forgiven her. It should have been a done-deal-forgiven-covered-“I’ve chosen not to remember this any more”-kind of situation. But she was inconsolable. She didn’t want to look at Fred (or me once I came downstairs). Even when she climbed up onto my lap, she kept her eyes closed tight. (Reminding me, in a pathos-laden way, of an ostrich avoiding life by hiding only its head in the sand.)

And so we did what we have to do for one another all the time too—we spoke truth to Sophia and gently urged her to believe truth more than her emotions. This is what I told her:

God not only forgives our sin, He forgives the iniquity (“awon”, perverseness, wickedness, crookedness, guilt) of our sin.

Christ made atonement on the Cross for our sin. Christ’s expiation of our sin means that He paid the penalty for our transgression and thus, it will no longer be held against us.

As a result of Christ’s expiation, God is propitiated. He is fully appeased. He is no longer angry with us. Though we are often sinful and unbelieving, by grace, by faith, through the finished work of Christ on the Cross, God’s attitude towards us is full of favor.

We don’t have to hide or be afraid. God is not a liar. Daddy is not a liar.

Believe truth more than your passionate feelings. Jesus is The Way and The Truth and The Life. You don’t have to be afraid any more. You are restored to full fellowship with God and with this family. Now. Let’s go on with our night.

(And then I gave into one of her favorite desires and tickled her until she laughed so hard she forgot how sad she was supposedly supposed to be feeling.)
 
Thank God for both expiation and propitiation!

Your grateful friend,
Tara B.

Psalm 32

Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven,
whose sin is covered.
Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity,
and in whose spirit there is no deceit …

I acknowledged my sin to you,
and I did not cover my iniquity;
I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,’
and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah

… Many are the sorrows of the wicked,
but steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the Lord.
Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, O righteous,
and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!