Just When I Thought I Knew What Forgivness was...

Kathy and I are doing daily Lenten readings from the Online Ministries page at the Creighton University website. Part of the daily exercise is a reading of the lectionary scriptures for the day. Just a couple days ago we had a reading from Isaiah 1, you probably know the passage, the one that opens with "Come let us reason together..." and then goes on to describe how the Lord can take sins that are scarlet and make them white as snow. Everyone quotes that verse every now and then when we find ourselves really in need of forgiveness and have that nagging suspicion that maybe this time we have gone over that line that marks the boundary of the unforgivable sin. It's a powerful verse or two but as we read the larger context of the scripture in our daily reading it suddenly became so much larger in its scope and power. Whatever I thought I understood as forgiveness seemed very shallow in the light of the whole chapter. For the first time in my entire spiritual pilgrimage I discovered who those verses were spoken to. We often have the annoying habit of taking any scripture and applying it to our own case and conditions, but often it helps to understand who the words were specifically written to. And in this case it is found in verse 10. "Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom; give ear to the instruction of our God, you people of Gomorrah." Now I understand that the prophet is probably speaking allegorically here....the nation of Israel had fallen so low as to become like the people of Gomorrah and its leaders like those in Sodom. But there is always layer upon layer in prophecy and I saw the Lord speaking to Sodom and Gomorrah, those cities whose sin cried out to heaven for God's vengeance, and He says to them "though your sin be scarlet, I can make it white as snow." My understanding of the power of God's grace suddenly became much larger than it has ever been. The prophet Jeremiah later asked, "Can a leopard change its spots?" The amazing answer is yes, and when it does God's forgiveness is present to affect the change.