God’s Writing 5: Forgiveness
So far in this series we have seen God writing in creation, in providence, in revelation and in judgement. God’s standard of justice is written in our hearts, it was written on tablets of stone and it is written in the books that record our actions, just as God’s verdict was written on the wall in Belshazzar’s feast. If this was the whole story of the Bible, there would be no good news and no hope. Yet to understand the message of the gospel we must understand the justice of God and His righteous wrath because of human sin. God will not and cannot ignore our sin – it is not only a violation of the laws of morality; it is a personal offence against God. When we measure ourselves against the standard of perfection described in the Ten Commandments, we inevitably find ourselves, like Belshazzar, seriously lacking. What hope is there, then, for us? As we come to the next occasion of God’s writing in the Scriptures, a word of caution is in order. ...