Be gracious to me, O God, according to your loving kindness; according to the multitude of your mercies blot out my transgressions. Psalm 51:3 Hebrew World Blot out – Technology has changed our conception of forgiveness. In a world where we can simply backspace or press the spell-check button, we don’t think of any word…
Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin my mother conceived me. Psalm 51:5 NASB Sin – We all know that Hebrew and Greek have many words for “love.” Both languages make distinctions that can’t be captured in a single English word. In order to understand what the Scripture says, we have to…
Thus he shall purge the Shrine of the uncleanness and transgression of the Israelites, whatever their sins; and he shall do the same for the Tent of Meeting, which abides with them in the midst of their uncleanness. Leviticus 16:16 JPS In the midst of – Where is God when we sin? Do we banish…
And YHWH Elohim formed Man out of dry, loose earth dirt Genesis 2:7a (my translation) Formed – We’ve learned that this occurrence of yatsar contains a double Yod. The rabbis tell us that this indicates the two impulses of Man, the yetser ha-tov and the yester ha’ra. It’s pretty clear that tov (good) and ra…
And YHWH Elohim formed Man out of dry, loose earth dirt Genesis 2:7a (my translation) Formed – Something very odd occurs in this verse. In fact, there are two rather unusual linguistic events here. The first is about how we were made. Normally, the verb yatsar (to form, to fashion, to shape) is spelled Yod-Tsadde-Resh. …
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9 NASB Confess – “What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus,” wrote Robert Lowry in this famous hymn from the 19th Century. He was absolutely right. Nothing…
He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. 2 Corinthians 5:21 NASB Who knew no sin – Once upon a time Adam knew no sin. That doesn’t mean Adam didn’t know the difference between right and wrong. Adam knew true…
My little children, I am writing these things to you that you may not sin. And if anyone does sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; 1 John 2:1 NASB May not sin – Seriously now, does anyone out there really think it is possible not to sin? My guess…
They feed on the sin of My people and direct their desire toward their iniquity. Hosea 4:8 NASB Feed – This one is difficult. It’s difficult because of the Hebrew and it’s difficult because of its implications. It’s one of those verses we might wish to remove. It’s even difficult to comment on this verse…
And His disciples asked him, saying, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man, or his parents, that he should be born blind.” John 9:2 NASB Who sinned – Someone has to be at fault! Life doesn’t go the way we want it to. Someone’s to blame! “Lord, this isn’t fair. I don’t deserve this. Who made this…
