“Help us O God of our salvation, for the glory of your name, and deliver us and purge away our sins, for your names sake.” Psalms 79:9
As we continue to walk in the paths of righteousness, hand in hand with Jesus our Shepard, He shows us that He is the God of our salvation and He helps us for the glory of His name.
God is glorified when He helps His children as they walk with Him.
But notice, He delivers us from our sins and He purges away our sins for His name’s sake. These are two different things.
To deliver us from our sins is to deliver us from their power.
“But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound…For sin shall not have dominion over you: for you are not under the law, but under grace.” Romans 5:20, 6:14
Grace is not mercy. Grace is the power of the Holy Spirit and it is by His Grace that He delivers us from the power of sin. In other words, there is no sin that God’s power cannot deliver us from.
To purge us from our sins is something else altogether. Here he removes our sins from us. How does He do this?
By Grace? Yes.
By the power of His blood? Yes.
But for the child of God who is walking with (or wandering away from) their Heavenly Father is purges us through discipline.
In part II I quoted Amos 3:3, “Can two walk together, except they be agreed?” But look at this verse in the context of verse 2.
“You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities. Can two walk together, except they be agreed?”
Once we know Him we are His family. We are His child. And motivated by His great love, He disciplines and corrects us along the way that we might be purged from the sin within us. Because He desires that we walk with Him in THE paths of righteousness He punishes us.
Consider the following passage from Hebrews:
“And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.”
It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.
Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness.
For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”
(Hebrews 12:5-11)
God Bless you as you walk with Him.
Please let us know your thoughts!