HOW FAR REMOVED?

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 3, 1901

In his unrepentant state, the sinner is wedded to his sin. More than this, his sin is like the dead body to which, according to the ancient manner of punishing criminals condemned to capital punishment, they were chained, and being unable to free themselves from the putrefying mass, they themselves finally fell in death. This is a figure of the bonds of sin. By a still more striking figure, sin is the deadly leprosy, which has diffused itself through all the system, tainting every drop of blood, till its victim likewise sinks in a loathsome death. To the anxious and awakened sinner release from this terrible burden is the greatest joy. And the distance to which the sin can be removed is the measure of his delightful anticipation. And how far does the Lord say He will remove our transgressions from us? By the psalmist He says, “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us.” Ps. 103:12.

Now, how far is the east from the west? From the standpoint of our earthly reckoning, it may be illustrated thus: If two persons, starting from a given point, should go east and west respectively, they would meet on the opposite side of the globe, the very farthest point from the place of beginning. If they then continued their journey, they would, from that, approach still nearer the point of departure, till they came together again at the place of starting. So the distance from the east to the west is the utmost distance a person can make between any two points on this globe.

But this is only an illustration from a human point of view. We are not, however, to limit the expression to this little globe, but gauge it by God’s immensity and eternity. On that scale, how far would be the utmost distance between the east and the west?—A distance which would have no limit; an infinite separation, a distance which thought cannot measure, imagination cannot span. When thus separated, the sinner can bid a long farewell to the presence or thought of his sins; and even the Lord himself says He will forget them. “Their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.” Heb. 8:12.