Iniquity is pardoned

'Iniquity is pardoned'

— Isaiah 40:2

We are slow to receive it, and preachers are often afraid to proclaim it, but there is blessed comfort for sinners in the gospel. God commands his servants twice to proclaim that comfort. He says, emphatically, ‘Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.’ And he tells us plainly that the only source of comfort for sinners is the gospel of effectually accomplished redemption. ‘speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem [the people whom he has chosen], and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the Lord’s hand double for all her sins’ (Isa. 40:1-2). If you trust Christ, if you cast all your hope upon his righteousness and shed blood, if you are a guilty, helpless sinner whose only hope is an all-sufficient Substitute, this gospel is for you.

Your warfare is accomplished. By the sacrifice of his own beloved Son, God has ended his controversy with you. God reconciled his people to himself, satisfying his law and justice in the life and death of Christ as the sinner’s Substitute (2 Cor. 5:17-2 1). He sends his Spirit, applying the blood of Christ to the hearts of men by the gospel, creating faith and reconciling our hearts to him by irresistible grace and power (Col. 1:21). Peace was made by the blood of Christ. Peace is received and enjoyed by faith in that blood.

Your iniquity is pardoned. God has fully put away the sins of all his people by the sacrifice of his Son (Heb. 9:12). God will never hold any believing sinner accountable for sin. He held his Son accountable for us, and punished our sins to the full satisfaction of his justice in his Son.

You have received of the Lord’s hand double for all your sins. The justice of God which demanded your eternal ruin has been satisfied by the blood of Christ so that in Christ you are not only pardoned but also made perfectly righteous by divine imputation. Rather than being an enemy of God, subject to and deserving his wrath, grace has made you an heir of God, fully deserving of all his benefits in Christ.