Pardon That Produces Reverence

 Pardon That Produces Reverence

Scripture: Psalm 130:3-4 (NIV)

"If you, LORD, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, so that we can, with reverence, serve you."

Devotion:

The psalmist writes from the depths, and from there he asks a question with only one honest answer. If God kept a record of sins, who could stand? The image is of a ledger, carefully maintained, every thought, word, and deed entered and nothing forgotten. Not the priest, not the king, not the most devout believer in the congregation could stand before such an account. Honest self-examination confirms the verdict.

Yet the psalm does not end with the question. It turns on one small word: "But." Between the ledger we deserve and the mercy we need stands this conjunction, and the whole gospel hangs upon it. With God there is forgiveness. The psalmist does not say sin is trivial or that God overlooks it. The guilt is real. But forgiveness is found "with you," in God's own character and provision. We know how it was secured: the debt was not ignored but paid, the record nailed to the cross.

Then comes the surprise of the final clause. Forgiveness exists so we can, with reverence, serve him. We might expect such a great pardon to breed casual indifference. Instead, the psalmist says it produces reverence, the awe of those who stand before a holy God who could have condemned and did not. Terror drives us from God; reverent fear draws us to him, and then into his work.  The reformer John Calvin distinguished a child's fear of offending a gracious father from a slave's dread of a harsh master, and the former grows from forgiveness.

This is a word the church needs. Some imagine that grace makes obedience optional. Others suppose holiness must be purchased by anxiety. The psalm refutes both. Pardon is the root, service is the fruit, and reverence is the soil in which both grow. We serve not to be forgiven but because we are forgiven, and we serve with trembling gladness because we remember what we deserved.

So, consider what you carry today. Is there a sin you cannot forget, or a failure you are tempted to hide? Bring it to the One who does not keep a record against those in Christ. Then rise and serve him, not as a debtor anxiously paying, but as a pardoned child, with reverence and joy.

Prayer:

Thank you, Father, for the undeserved forgiveness you give us. Help us always to revere you and live for you in our daily lives. May we know the joy of serving a God who is full of mercy and grace toward us. Help us tell the world what we have found in You, O God. May your praise always be on our lips. Amen.