Into the Depths — Micah 7:18-19

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Micah 7:18–19 (ESV)Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love. He will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities underfoot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.

What it is speaking to me:

Growing up, I loved reading about Robert Ballard and his discovery of the Titanic on the ocean floor on September 1, 1985. Scientists and deep-sea explorers had searched for it for more than 30 years, and advances like sonar and other deep-sea exploration tools finally made it possible for Dr. Ballard’s team to find the massive ship resting 12,500 feet below the surface. That is deep. No sun. No light of any kind. Just crushing darkness, black as night.

And that is the kind of depth Micah tells us our sins have been cast into. God metaphorically throws them into that part of the ocean—not the shallow end, but the depths, where nothing ever rises again. God had every right to keep the ledger on me, my sins, my failures. But he doesn’t.

Have you ever been around someone who does the opposite? Someone who remembers every slight, every misplaced word, every offense they have taken? You can almost see the spreadsheet in their head, with your name at the top. Then they turn to someone else, and you can see them mentally pull up the spreadsheet with that person’s name on it. I never could function that way as a human being; my memory is too poor. But I have known people who could.

Aren’t you grateful the Lord doesn’t treat us like that? He has perfect memory, perfect recall, can see all things, knows all things, and is wholly perfect Himself. Yet instead of a spreadsheet with my name on it, He has removed my sin from me and cast it into depths so deep that Dr. Ballard couldn’t have found them with the greatest equipment humans could ever make.

That’s the model of God’s love for us: a spreadsheet with my name on it at the bottom of the sea.

What is it saying to you?

What old sin has been plaguing you that you know God has already forgiven?

What are we going to do about it?

If you have been forgiven of a sin recently, make sure you aren’t pulling it out of the depths that God has placed it in. Walk in freedom.