GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
2 CHRONICLES 6:22-25
Click to listen to this devotion.
22 “When a man sins against his neighbor and is required to take an oath and the oath is sworn before your altar in this house, 23 then hear from heaven and act. Give justice to your servants. Repay the guilty by bringing what he has done down on his own head. Declare the righteous to be righteous and deal with him according to his righteousness.
Since God is forgiving, why does he still punish sin? He would not be forgiving at all if he allowed sin to go unpunished, since the Lord “will by no means leave the guilty unpunished” (Nahum 1:3). The forgiveness we have in Christ is only in Christ. When someone rejects Christ, he calls down his entire record of sin back on himself, digging up what should have been buried and forgotten about forever, and he says in effect, “May my sins be on my own head!” (Matthew 27:25). There is a doctrinal error in “Hamlet,” in which the ghost of Hamlet’s father says (about his own murder) “No reckoning made, but sent to my account with all my imperfections on my head: O, horrible! O, horrible! most horrible!” Of course, a man with faith in Christ would not speak so, but this is exactly what a man condemned to hell on account of his unbelief would say, begging for any relief from his torment, “because I am in agony in the fire” (Luke 16:24).
This is why God chastens sinners who do not repent, so that they might turn finally away from themselves and to Christ alone for their forgiveness. God told Moses: “If he has sinned, he is guilty” (Leviticus 6:4). The guilt of that sin will weigh on his conscience. Solomon’s prayer is simply that God will act with justice. “Repay the guilty by bringing what he has done down on his own head” (verse 23). The goal of this chastening is to turn the sinner away from sin and toward Christ. God talks about this in similar language in many places. “You hate all who do wrong” (Psalm 5:5). “Since Judah gathered her gifts from the wages of prostitutes, as the wages of prostitutes they will again be used” (Micah 1:7). “He punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation” (Exodus 34:7). “Swing the sickle! So great is their wickedness!” (Joel 3:13). And Job warned: “Wrath will bring punishment by the sword, and then you will know that there is judgment” (Job 19:29).
Consider in your prayers today what a great God we have who despises and condemns sin, yet forgives sinners like us for Jesus’ sake. There is nothing in us to merit such love and compassion, yet God has been compassionate. God has loved, and God loves, and loves, and loves.
24 “When your people Israel have been defeated by an enemy because they have sinned against you and then they turn back to you and confess your Name, praying and seeking your favor in this house, 25 then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your people Israel and bring them back to the land you gave to them and to their fathers.
Is it possible to be loved by God and yet suffer defeat? Of course it is, for we do not see all of his ways, or all of his plans for us and for the way the gospel will go out into the world. Would Paul ever have preached the gospel on the island of Malta if he had not been shipwrecked there as he was being transferred as a prisoner from Caesarea to Rome (Acts 27:27; 28:1)? And yet he spent three months there, preaching, teaching, and performing miracles among the pagan islanders (Acts 28:7-9; 28:11). Would Job have confessed his faith in the resurrection if he had not been so oppressed by the Devil that four of his friends came from distant places to try to comfort him (Job 19:25-27)? And yet he did preach to them. He felt close to death, and his wife had even despaired of his recovery, telling him to curse God and die (Job 2:9), but he still proclaimed his faith. And yes, when God confronted him in the end, asking him who he was to question the Almighty, Job the man of God repented and humbled himself. “I know that you can do all things,” he told his Maker. “No purpose of yours can be thwarted” (Job 42:2). And God’s judgment of Job’s friends was: “None of you has spoken correctly about me, as my servant Job did” (Job 42:8).
And what defeat is greater than the defeat of being put to death for a crime one did not commit? Jesus, innocent and righteous, permitted himself to be crucified for our sakes. And that is why Solomon could pray with confidence, “Hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your people.”
In Jesus, this forgiveness covers over the sins of all. The blood of God’s Son is enough, far more than enough, infinitely more than enough, to spatter the sides of the altar and to flow over its corners in atonement for the sins of mankind, his creation. “Here in Christ we have a rich Lord, who is certainly sufficient for you, and who will not let you come up short in anything” (Large Catechism). His blood covers over all.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Listen or watch Bible classes online.
Archives at St Paul’s Lutheran Church and Wisconsin Lutheran Chapel:
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – 2 Chronicles 6:22-25 forgive the sin