Since we started writing Active Love devotions, we’ve reviewed a great list of things that love does. Love waits, listens, cares, rejoices, builds up, etc. But today, we get to one that is a bit harder for us to swallow. Paul puts it this way in 1 Corinthians 13:5, “Love keeps no record of wrongs.” Since this is an area that is harder for us to walk in, let’s look at it from God’s side first.
The Old Testament is basically an endless cycle of four things on repeat. People sin, God brings consequences, people repent, God forgives. God FORGIVES! Over and over. Why? Because he loves them. We shake our heads at those rebellious Israelites as we watch the story of their grumbling unfold and unfold and unfold. They just can’t seem to get it. We have to remember that each time is basically a new generation; they didn’t seem to be able to pass this lesson on to their children, each group had to learn it for themselves. Love forgives!
God went to great pains to give the Israelite nation a way to be forgiven via the ritualistic sacrifices so that he could ‘dwell’ among them. Disobedience requires punishment from a just God. The good news is that he is also merciful. He allowed them to have their sins forgiven through a substitute. And this sacrifice paved the way for us to be forgiven through the substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus.
This cycle in the Old Testament should give us great joy because it shouldn’t be too hard to see that same cycle on repeat in our own lives. And when it seems like we have messed up one time too many, we can take comfort in knowing that God always forgives when repentance is present. God even stayed his hand against the most evil king in the list of not so great kings – King Ahab (1 Kings 21) – when he showed true repentance and humbled himself.
What an amazing God we serve. He forgives and he forgets. Psalms 103 says:
11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his love for those who fear him;
12 as far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
God is love and love forgives! (over and over)
