Dear brothers and sisters
Our sins are paid for in full! Glory to God! Here is today’s scripture.
In Isaiah 40:1 and the first part of v2, God brings comfort to His people. He tells them that the trouble is going to end. Then He says about His people, Jerusalem, “her iniquity is pardoned… she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.”
“Double?” He is not saying that they have been punished for their sins twice. He is saying that the punishment for their sins exactly matches what their sins deserve. Sometimes, if you go to a shop and buy a large item like a bed or carpet, you get an invoice which has an exact copy underneath it. When you pay, the shop manager writes “paid in full” on the top sheet and then he/she tears off the bottom sheet, and on the bottom sheet it also says “paid in full” – an exact copy.
What God is saying here is that the payment for His people’s sins was met in full; the payment matched exactly, it was a perfect payment in full.
While in the Old Testament we see trouble coming on Israel directly as a result of their sins, we are under the new covenant now. Jesus Christ has died for us. Jesus Christ has “paid in full.” His suffering and death on the cross was totally 100% sufficient to cover every single sin in full.
Your iniquity is pardoned and He (that is, Jesus) has received from the Lord’s hand “double” (the punishment to pay in full) from the Lord’s hand for all your sins. That is truly amazing.
And it is important because trouble can lead us to question God’s love and to think that God is punishing us for our sins. He is not. He cannot, because Jesus Christ has paid in full.
He does allow trouble to teach us to trust Him, to stir us to prayer, to give us a greater desire for Him and for holiness, but He never gives us sickness or trouble to punish us. Jesus paid for your sins in full. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
So you can go in confidence to the Lord today and say to Him, “Lord, teach me Your ways that I may walk in Your truth. And, Lord, please heal me also. Make me well, that I can serve You.”
The best is yet to come 