How Faithful Is God?
The reality of human sin is hard to deny. Just a brief look at the daily news underscores the depth of the problem. Indeed, Scripture stresses that sin impacts the entire world. Yet the Bible also identifies a divine corrective to human transgression. In the theological thought of the ancient Israelites, God’s covenantal faithfulness outweighs the burden of sin.
The Scriptures of Israel provide a clear illustration of divine mercy as a positive force against negative sin. When Ezra returns with an initial group of Jews from exile in Babylon, he prays, “I am ashamed and I blush to lift my face to you, my God, for our iniquities (עֲוֺנֹתֵינוּ; avonotenu) have increased to ascend over [our] head, and our guilt has grown to the heavens (וְאַשְׁמָתֵנוּ גָדְלָה עַד לַשָּׁמָיִם; ve’ashmatenu gadlah ad leshamayim)” (Ezra 9:6). Alongside Ezra’s negative picture of sin, however, Scripture has the psalmist pray, “I will thank you among the peoples, Lord, I will praise you among the nations. For your covenant faithfulness is enlarged to the heavens (כִּי־גָדֹל עַד־שָׁמַיִם חַסְדֶּךָ; ki-gadol ad-shamayim hasdekha), and your truth up to the clouds” (Psalm 57:10). Though human transgressions can stack up to the skies, God’s covenant faithfulness—hesed (חֶסֶד)—is a positive counterbalance that touches the highest possible point.
The earliest followers of Jesus inherit their Scriptures’ global scope of sin and identify the Messiah as its antidote. This is why John the Baptist declares of Yeshua, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29; cf. 1:36). Similarly, 1 John says that Jesus is “the atonement for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the entire world” (1 John 2:2). This Johannine view of the Father eliminating worldwide sin through the Son follows the biblical precedent of God combating sin by lifting divine faithfulness to the heights of heaven.
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