The city is going crazy with joy – the whole community considers itself as having won. But can we say that the kind of happiness that different townsfolk have are all different? Of course, you would have a special joy, because you personally know the MVP of the game. But can your joy be equal to the joy and pride of your friends, the parents of that young man? And could their happiness be greater than that of the team or their son? Possibly it could. Because he has been doing so well of late, he could be due for a very lucrative contract – money. That makes some people very happy. The owner of the hardware store where the boy works is happy, but so are complete strangers. You are happy, the parents are happy, the coach and players of the team are happy – virtually everyone. But the emotions that those people possess are all a little bit different.
In our scripture this morning, Paul points a finger and says, “David described the blessedness of a man whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered.” The scripture to which Paul refers is Psalm 32, from which we read a few minutes ago. “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.” In both Greek and Hebrew, the primary original languages of the Bible, “blessed” means “happy.” But as in my little illustration there can be varying degrees and qualities of happiness. There can be smiles; there can be rapture; there can be satisfaction and peace. There can be a thrill which will never come to an end, and there can be a happiness which will last only until the team loses their first game next year.
In thinking about this, I began to wonder whether or not there were any clues about David’s blessedness. Can we know the kind and degree of David’s joy? Are there any clues? Well, the Hebrew word is used 45 times in the Old Testament. 40% of the time that word is translated – very simply – “happy,” which is a perfectly appropriate translation. But after looking at each of David’s references to this word, I am convinced that usually he meant much, more than just a delighted smile and warm heart. David was talking about an ecstatic, rapturous jubilation, whose source is in the Lord, and whose end is never reached – because it extends and grows throughout eternity.
I was surprised to discover that David used the word only six of those 45 times. I thought that he would have used it more. But every time that he used it, it was translated “blessed,” and all but once he tied that word to salvation from sin and to the special relationship to God that only the Lord’s special people enjoy. First there is Psalm 32:1-2 which I quoted just a moment ago, then … Psalm 34:8 – “O taste and see that the LORD is good: BLESSED is the man that trusteth in him.” Psalm 40:4 – “BLESSED is that man that maketh the LORD his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.” Psalm 65:4 – “BLESSED is the man whom thou choosest, and causest to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in thy courts: we shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple.” The only occasion when David may not have used the term to its fullest extent was in Psalm 41:1 – “Blessed is he that considereth the poor: the LORD will deliver him in time of trouble.”
In Romans Paul points to David and essentially says, “Listen to what our great Psalmist says about salvation by grace through faith.” He says that there is no greater joy than to have one’s iniquities forgiven and his sins covered. There is no greater joy than to know that to you has been imputed the righteousness of the Lord Jesus. There is no greater joy than salvation from sin.
In this scripture, and its context, Paul refers to five aspects of this blessed salvation – It is JOYOUS, it is DIVINE, it is THOROUGH, it is GRACIOUS and it is totally UNQUALIFIED. We’ve briefly looked at the first point, so now let’s move on.
Neither David or Paul is arguing that this blessed man deserves any blessings from God. Paul has thoroughly proven for a hundred verses that “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” Furthermore, he has before established that the man that David was talking about was incapable of fixing his sinful condition by himself. “They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.” “Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight.”
Yet despite the helplessness of this awful sinner, God has accounted unto him perfect righteousness. And at exactly the same time, the Lord has NOT accounted unto him the guilt of his sin. These two things are the front and the back sides of what the Bible calls “justification.” We’ve looked at justification several times recently, so I’m not going to expound upon it again. Simply put, to be justified is to be “declared RIGHTEOUS” by our Saviour-God. The sinner’s sins are no longer charged to his account. Rather they are charged to the account of Jesus Christ – our substitute. And the righteousness of Christ is at the same time credited to the account of that sinner. Obviously, this is something that only the Chief Accountant can do – upon the orders of the CEO – the Chief Executive Officer. Moses, who carried the Law to Israel, had no authority to cancel, over-look, or supercede God’s law. No High Priest, low priest, or Catholic priest ever possessed the right to decree a sinner to be righteous. And despite the pride of most sinners, not one of them can say, on his own authority, that his sin has been remitted, forgiven and erased from the books of God. David prayed and confessed, “against thee, thee only (GOD) have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight.” He was absolutely correct, even though he was speaking about murder and adultery. Since sin is foremostly against God, and HE is the only One who can forgive and justify that sinner.
But there is an interesting door opened by the language of verse 8 – “Blessed is the man to whom the LORD will not impute sin.” In David’s Psalm, the Hebrew word “LORD” was “Yahweh” or “Jehovah,” but Paul was writing in Greek and used the word “kurios.” And this word “kurios” is often, often, often used of the Lord Jesus Christ – reminding us that it was through the sacrifice of Christ on the cross that this justification takes place. The only way that God could be both just and the justifier of sinners, was for a perfectly guiltless substitute to be punished specifically for each and every one of them – a vicarious sacrifice. The Law cannot be ignored in this case and justice still be maintained. So it was the decree of God that the Son of God bleed and die for those whom the Lord chose to justify. God the Father imputes the righteousness of God the Son to those who become the most blessed people on earth. Salvation from sin can come no other way but from God.
This blessing-bestowing God – is God – in every possible way. He is omnipotent – possessing absolute power and complete authority over all things. And He is omniscient – it is impossible for Him not to see or know anything in His creation – whether it be large or small. So He knows all about each and every transgression that we have made against His law. He knows about those lies which you uttered that were never detected or questioned by man or mother. He knows the details of every cheat that you have committed. He is aware of every angry thought and bad wish that you flung upon a neighbor which went unspoken. This is a terrible thought when put into the perspective of God’s judgment. But on the other hand it is a prodigiously blessed thought when it comes to salvation from those sins. There is nothing that the Lord has missed and which has not been covered by the blood of Christ. Not Satan, not Moses, not a divorced spouse, angry neighbor or spiteful employee … can ever come to the Lord and point back at you accusing you of some foul deed. The Lord knows the sins that you have committed but about which those sinners know nothing. And still, all our iniquities and all our sins have been covered over and forgiven.
Think about Paul’s comment about covering for a moment. “Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are COVERED.” There is a variety of sin-covering which is worse than having it published in the newspaper. Cain tried to cover his sin, it but it festered in his life for over half a century. David tried it for a while, but he said that it was like a bone disease, rotting away his insides. Ananias and Sapphira covered their sins, but that didn’t last very long at all and resulted in their deaths. But the covering to which Paul and David referred was not a blanket of deception, silence or fraud; It was a God-proscribed covering of blood. David and Paul were both talking about the ATONEMENT, which God had ordained centuries ago.
On the Day of Atonement – Yom Kippur – after meticulous preparations and procedures, the High Priest, as a picture of Christ, brought special sacrificial blood into the Most Holy Place within the Temple and sprinkled it on the Mercy Seat in the presence of God. That blood was also representative of Christ – the blood that He eventually shed on the cross. According to the description that God Himself gave, the sprinkling of that blood, covered the sins of the people of Israel for the previous year. Despite the omniscience of God, He declared that the sins which were under that blood were no longer recognized in Heaven – they were covered, they were atoned. The Day of Atonement was one of the most joy-inducing celebrations of the Jewish calendar. And both David and Paul say the same thing about the atonement covering the sins of individual sinners. Exuberantly joyful is the man or woman whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are atoned.
Human depravity makes the average person insane – at least spiritually insane. There are millions of people who ignorantly hate the idea of grace. They want to somehow contribute and participate in the removal of their sins, negating grace, and if they don’t get some sort of credit for that cleansing then they don’t want any of it. Because they don’t understand, the very thought of God’s grace makes them upset. But in reality, if we could realize how sinful we all are – If we could come to understand how hopeless and helpless before the Law we are – If we knew that all our efforts and all our personal righteousnesses are as filthy rags before God – And that there is no other means of deliverance from eternal death except by God’s unmerited favor – Then the thought of grace would fill us we joy unattainable in any other way.
Here stands Christ the at the center of a clean, white sheet of paper. On His left is His Law and on the other side of the Law is eternal judgment, with fire and brimstone, torment, excruciating pain and agony unimaginable by any of us. But then on the Lord’s right hand is the Saviour and grace and a few souls saved through that grace. The more we understand the left side of that sheet of paper and the judgment for sin, the greater is the joy and blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works. The worse the Hell, the greater the blessedness for those who have been delivered from that Hell. And that deliverance is due entirely to the sacrifice of Christ and the grace of God.
One word that Paul uses here is “forgiveness” – a beautiful and wonderful word. The debt that we owed to the Law because of our sin – was something impossible for us to pay. You may picture your sins as small, but your impression doesn’t matter. What matter is what the Lord thinks about your sin. And the only way that you could pay your debt against God’s righteousness is through never-ending judgment. But grace has arranged for the forgiveness of God’s elected people. That doesn’t just mean the cancellation of the debt, but its removal, reapplication to someone else and its complete erasure. Let us give “thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins.” And what is the source of this forgiveness? God and His grace. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, To the praise of the glory of his GRACE, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his GRACE.”
There is one other point that Paul makes about this prodigious joy:
Abraham eventually received and accepted the ceremonial sign of God’s covenant. But it was given to him two chapters after it was said that “he believed God and it was accounted unto him for righteousness.” In other words, the religious rite of circumcision had nothing to do with Abraham’s deliverance from sin. And today, salvation has nothing to do with circumcision or baptism or church membership. It is a result of pure, divine grace, not the works or relationships of human beings.
Which brings us back to where we began. Since there is nothing that we sinners can do to either incite or hinder God’s salvation – Since it is all of grace – Then to be blessed by that grace should make us, of all people, the most joyful and happy in all creation. I read somewhere that when God pardons us, He doesn’t just pay our debt, He bestows an eternal legacy.
David describes the blessedness of the sinner to whom this legacy has been given. But there is no enjoyment of this blessing unless it is truly felt. And there is no feeling this joy until it is actually known. There is no knowing it unless it is possessed. And there can be no real joy unless there are no doubts about it.
We may and should have no doubts about our salvation, when we enjoy it by unhindered, unfettered faith. “The righteousness of God is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe.” Salvation is by grace through faith. Is your hope and faith for salvation on Christ? Or are you trusting something else, or something else along with the Lord? If your trust is in anything besides Christ, then you are still in your sin and lost for eternity.