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Spurgeon: The God Who Blots Out Sin

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“I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto Me; for I have redeemed thee.”
(Isaiah 44:22)

THE INSTRUCTIVE SIMILITUDE

Attentively observe THE INSTRUCTIVE SIMILITUDE: our sins are like a cloud. As clouds are of many shapes and shades, so are our transgressions. As clouds obscure the light of the sun, and darken the landscape beneath, so do our sins hide from us the light of the Lord’s face, and cause us to sit in the shadow of death. They are earth-born things, and rise from the miry places of our nature; and when so collected that their measure is full, they threaten us with storm and tempest. Alas! that, unlike clouds, our sins yield us no genial showers, but rather threaten to deluge us with a fiery flood of destruction. O ye black clouds of sin, how can it be fair weather with our souls while ye remain?

THE NOTABLE ACT

Let our joyful eye dwell upon THE NOTABLE ACT of divine mercy—”blotting out.” God Himself appears upon the scene, and in divine benignity, instead of manifesting His anger, reveals His grace: He at once and for ever effectually removes the mischief, not by blowing away the cloud, but by blotting it out from existence once for all. Against the justified man no sin remains, the great transaction of the cross has eternally removed His transgressions from him. On Calvary’s summit the great deed, by which the sin of all the chosen was for ever put away, was completely and effectually performed.

THE GRACIOUS COMMAND

Practically let us obey THE GRACIOUS COMMAND, “return unto me.” Why should pardoned sinners live at a distance from their God? If we have been forgiven all our sins, let no legal fear withhold us from the boldest access to our Lord. Let backslidings be bemoaned, but let us not persevere in them. To the greatest possible nearness of communion with the Lord, let us, in the power of the Holy Spirit, strive mightily to return. O Lord, this night restore us!

(from Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening devotional, available FREE at Blue Letter Bible)

Comments

  1. “cloud” – I searched the words usage in scripture using BLB search engine and found it appears 112 times in 98 verses in the HNV from Gen 9:13 HNV to Rev 14:16 HNV. In these I found the word “cloud”, except for a small percentage that are in metaphoric reference to atmospheric occurrence, was to a fault in reference to the Ever-present Creator of all things, YEHOVAH the GOD of Abraham, Isaac and Israel and HIS appearance and / or dwelling. I did not find it in reference to “sin” or “transgressions” as the author of the post sees it in Isaiah 44:22 HNV.

    J.

    P.s. sometimes for the sake of having something to say, we are willing to see something in scripture that is not necessarily there. Scripture interprets scripture, Isa 44:5 NLT.

  3. I see what you’re saying, Jerry! But still the word “cloud” is used twice in the verse. Once referring to the Lord’s presence, the other referring to the mist-like nature of sin that the Lord can smite. (see the commentary you refer to)

  4. Right or wrong on the perfect beautiful and often figurative language in the Bible; God does blot out sin. As Spurgeon suggests God blots out sin personally. The way God blots out the sin of His own He does make it personal in a relationship. The person from whom God has blotted out sin may well describe thoughts of a cloud or fog removed.
    Praise God for His blotting out of my sins.

  5. I absolutely agree that we need to be diligent in our faith. Appreciate the conversation, Jerry, but a vast number of commentaries and language studies would say that the Spurgeon/Henry/JFB understanding is not a mistake, nor misapplied.

    p.s. I was referring to the JFB commentary (which says the same), not the Matthew Henry one.

  7. Minutes before reading this, I read Genesis 15:16, “And in the fourth generation they shall come hither again; for the wickedness fo the Amorites is not yet full.” And that so resonated with what Spurgeon says here, “They [our sins] are earth-born things, and rise from the miry places of our nature; and when so collected that their measure be full, they threaten us with storm and tempest.” Interesting to note here that God waits for their measure to be full before a fierce judgement, whereas in the new testament, we learn that God is patient toward us, and would have no man to perish, but would all men to come to repentance.” 2 Peter 3:9.

  8. As for blotting out, part of my reading today took me to Colossians 2:13b-15, “forgiving you all your trespasses, And putting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, he then took it out of the way, and fastened it upon the cross…and hath triumphed…” This makes me think that blotting as a cloud is similar to the use of white out, which makes me think of Isaiah 1:18, “…though your sins were as crimson, they shall be make white as snow: though they were red like scarlet, they shall be as wool…” which makes me think that we shall be made as pure as the lamb. Praise God for the blessings of His Word!

  9. Jesus used so many different pictures of who He was (i.e. Living Water, Bread of Life, Manna Coming Down Out of Heaven, The Vine, and truly The Resurrection and the Life).
    What God does in and for us is similar to the picture drawn here: we are the clay He molds, the gold in the Refiner’s fire; or better yet the prostitute or wayward wife He would forgive and purchase back again bc of His love for us. There was a price for us and even against us, and though He owned us, He redeemed us again. Of course it is wayward Israel, but that is what He has done for me and you.
    I have a huge cloud of sins that generate from the world around me that affects me. From my own lasciviousness and waywardness that comes from my imagination and leanings, my sins rise before Him in a black cloud. Add to this cloud my self-righteousness that rises like a smoke in His nostrils that He detests. My sin and even my own efforts to right the wrongs I commit mingle into this dark, smelly, growing and stormy death-cloud.
    The thoughts and actions we all have committed rise before God. In His patience, and in His love, He redeemed us and took away the ugly cloud of wrongs we have built up. The scales, the points against me, my lack of plumb, the balance of my errors and witnesses against me in the Court of Justice all condemn me. He redeemed me, anyway. Thanks be to the Redeemer of my soul!
    Thank you for bringing out this wonderful image for me in a verse I would otherwise normally have overlooked. Del

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