Four times in the book of Psalms we find the same very pitiful cry made unto GOD. Do not hide Your face from me. (Psa 27:9, 69:17, 102:2, 143:7)
Imagine the terror in that scenario. GOD is hidden! The only thing I can compare it
to is the scene at the cross. When the
Savior shouldered the sins of mankind, the Father’s face was hidden from Him for
the only time ever. That is when we hear
Jesus cry out in agony, “Father, why have
you forsaken Me?”
Sin will do that. It will separate one from GOD. It will hide His face.
But your iniquities have separated you from you GOD; and hidden His face from you. Isaiah 59:2
Sin will hide the face of GOD from us. Habakkuk 1:13 tells us GOD is so holy that He cannot even look on wickedness.
There is a thrilling passage in Psa 51:9, where David addresses the idea of GOD’S face being hidden in a different way. Rather than GOD’S face being hidden from David, in this passage David asks GOD to hide His face from the sin.
Hide Your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities.
Scripture is filled with analogies of what forgiveness is like. David asks GOD to hide His face from the sin. It is as though the sin is between GOD and David. And David asks GOD to remove the sin, the obstruction between them, that which is hiding the face of GOD from him.
Micah 6:18, 19 paints the picture of GOD casting the sin into the depths of the sea. The reader is encouraged to read the post from March 20, 2012, entitled “Into the depths of the sea”, for further discussion of this passage.
Psa 103:12 suggests GOD removes the sin as far as the east is from the west. This represents an infinite distance.
Jeremiah 31:34 notes that with forgiveness GOD forgets the sin.
But of all the pictures of forgiveness and righteousness painted in the Scriptures, Colossians 3:3 is one of my favorite.
For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in GOD.
To the faithful child of GOD, to the one who has died to sin through the watery grave of baptism, to the one the Ephesian letter refers to as being “in Christ”, the Colossian verse says their life is hidden. All of their sins, all of their mistakes, all of their regret, is hidden.
There is an example from the Chinese language that will illustrate this verse. The Chinese language is made up of thousands of characters. Some accounts claim there may be as many as 60,000 characters in the Chinese language.
The Chinese word for “righteousness” is made up of two characters. One word is a lamb; the other word is me. But it is how these two characters appear as the word righteousness that is important. “The lamb” is written on top of “the me.” The Lamb over me. It is as though, when GOD looks down on me, He doesn’t see me, He sees the Lamb. Indeed, if I have died to sin, then my life is hidden to GOD because He sees not sinful Glenn but the sinless Lamb. Jesus Christ is my only hope of standing justified before GOD.
Romans 4:7, 8 describes the faithful child of GOD as one whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; a man to whom the LORD shall not impute sin.
As a faithful child of GOD, my sins are forgiven, my sins are hidden, because of Christ.
Thank You GOD for the gift of righteousness through Christ. Indeed, thank You for allowing the Lamb to cover me.