How far is the East from the West?

How Far is the East from the West?

The dictionary defines "to blot out" as to "destroy utterly, to annihilate". The picture I get when I think of blotting is taking a chemically treated rag and removing a stain.It is soaking up or absorbing a spill. Can you picture God taking the rag of his righteousness, soaked thoroughly with the atoning blood of Christ, and reaching into your heart to "blot out" the sin you've confessed to him? 51:1 “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.”

Not only does God faithfully blot out our sin, he conceals it from his own face. Psalm 51:9 “Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities” I sometimes hide away any extra cash that may come my way to save for a birthday or Christmas gifts for my family. I recently went to one of my favorite places to conceal extra cash and discovered it wasn't there. I knew I had hidden it away but I forgot where I had put it. God conceals our sin. It puts it away and promptly forgets where he put it. Jeremiah speaks of the sins of Judah, and declares "they shall not be found..." (Jeremiah 50:20)

While on a cruise a few years ago I leaned over the side of the ship and looked down into the deep green sea. I placed the strap of my camera over my neck realizing that it would be gone forever if I dropped it into such a vast body of water. It would not be possible to ever find it. When Christ forgives us of our sins he puts them where he can never find them again. I know that this is an anthropomorphism. This is God speaking after the manner of men. But, he condescends with language we can understand. Micah 7:19 "he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.”

I'm so relieved to know that God does nothing in a half-way manner. He goes all out in all he does. If two angels separated somewhere out there in the universe and one flew westward and another to the east...how far would they fly in opposite directions? Psalm 103:12 “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us”

Spurgeon said of this verse: "....it (our sin) is moved so far that the distance is incalculable... If sin can be removed so far then we can be sure that the scent, the trace, the very memory of it must be entirely gone.”Isaiah 1:18 "...though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”

How can one experience such cleansing? 1 John 1:9 "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness”