How is Sin Blotted Out?

How is Sin Blotted Out?

Have you ever encountered a well-meaning pastor or some other Christian who teaches that “every one of our bad deeds recorded in heaven’s books will be erased by the blood of Jesus?” Some even go as far as to say that not even God will remember the sins we have committed while on this sin-filled planet.

For many people who experience guilt, shame, and regret over their poor choices in the past, this can sound like a dream come true. They’re overjoyed believing that no one in heaven will ever know or remember their sins—not even them!

But does it make any sense? Have you ever considered that, if true, what would it say about God? And if it doesn’t mean that our deeds are literally blotted out of heaven’s record books, then what could it actually mean?

Let’s take a closer look …

Making God the Problem
Growing up, the only way I ever heard “blotting out of sins” taught was that it meant erasing the records of our sins, our evil deeds, from “the books in heaven.” To support the claim, preachers would quote passages like Isaiah 43:25:

I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.

These preachers would then teach that when we confessed our sins, God would go to the “heavenly books” with the blood of Jesus and apply it to our record, thus removing the paper trail of our sins. This process was vital to our salvation, because, they claimed, these books would be opened in the final judgment, and if there were any sins that had not been erased, we would not only be excluded from heaven, but God would use His power to punish us for the unconfessed sins remaining in the books.

It’s no surprise that such a teaching incites a fear of—and not a love for—God in people’s lives. Instead of fixating on the Remedy, people become fixated on their sins and their fears of punishment: Is there something I haven’t confessed? What if I don’t remember my sins from years ago and they are still on the books?

This teaching also causes people to form belief systems that function to hide or protect them from God, rather than reconcile us to Him. Instead of saying God is the solution to our sin problem, this understanding says He is the problem we must address. It’s similar to the idea that being covered by the robe of Christ’s righteousness means that the perfect life of Jesus obscures our histories from the Father’s awareness and, thus, in the judgment, the Father doesn’t see our histories of sin; instead, He sees only the perfect life of His Son. This is necessary, it is claimed, because if the Father saw even one sin not hidden by Jesus, then God would strike out and destroy us.

Exodus 32:33 is another Bible text used to support this claim.

The LORD replied to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me I will blot out of my book.” 

Once again, this is taken to mean that “we either get our sins blotted out of the books of heaven or we get ourselves blotted out of the books of heaven.” This fear-inducing, legal interpretation happens because of two reasons:

  1. Believing the false premise that God’s law functions no differently than human law, which functions by imposed rules that require arbitrary and inflicted punishment
     
  2. A failure to see the reality behind the metaphor. 

Grasping the Metaphor
God is the Creator, and His laws are the laws upon which our reality is built to operate. Like the laws of physics, health, and gravity, God’s moral laws—the laws of love, liberty, worship, and truth—are designed to govern our reality. If you step out of harmony with the law of gravity by jumping off a cliff, then you will pay a natural consequence. If you violate the law of love by being selfish, then you will pay a natural consequence.

Ask yourself: Why is it wrong to commit adultery? Is your answer, “Because it breaks God’s law and His government demands that He inflict punishment on me or my legal substitute”? Or is it wrong because choosing to betray your spouse not only harms your spouse, it sears your conscience, damages your reason, warps your character, and incites fear and insecurity—which lead to lying, covering up, distortions, and, if not repented of, ultimately the destruction of your soul?

The latter answer is actually what the Bible teaches:

“Sin when full grown brings forth death” (James 1:15). And, “The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction” (Galatians 6:8).

In order to understand what the blotting out of sin really means, we must first reject the false imposed-law construct and, instead, worship our Creator God, whose laws are the protocols upon which reality is built to exist. In God’s universe, if He wanted to ensure that we suffer and die in our sins, He wouldn’t have to do anything—the natural outcome of unremedied sin is pain, suffering, and death. But God loved us so much that, instead of leaving us to die, He intervened to heal and save us.

Now we must move past the metaphor to reality by thinking abstractly.

What is abstract reasoning? It is the ability to see the reality behind a metaphor, simile, parable, illustration, object lesson, or type, rather than holding to the metaphor, as if the metaphor itself were real.

For instance, Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you” (John 6:53). We can all agree that Jesus is not talking cannibalism; rather, he is using a word picture to describe a larger reality. Yet the religious leaders—the theology professors of His day—did not think abstractly. They took Jesus’ words literally and were offended asking, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” (vs. 52). They used these words of Jesus, taking them “as they read,” to conclude something Jesus never meant—that He was promoting the literal eating of human flesh. By doing so, they were ultimately drawn to reject Jesus. 

Sadly, this same problem exists today when people, viewing the Bible through the imposed-law lens and taking illustrations and metaphors “as they read,” conclude that the “blotting out of sin” is the literal blotting out of historical deeds from the books in heaven, in order to hide our misconduct from God.

So, what is the truth—the reality—behind the metaphor? Where does sin happen? In record books or in the hearts and minds of people? From where does God want to erase our sin? From recorded history or from the minds, hearts, and characters of His people? 

King David had this concept right:

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity. Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me (Psalm 51:1,2, 9, 10).

David knew from where his sin truly needed to be blotted out: from his heart, mind, and character—his inmost being! And this is exactly what God did for David; He created a new heart and right spirit within David and erased the sinfulness from David’s character. History did not get erased, as evidenced by the Bible and its ongoing record of David’s sin that we are all still reading about today.

So, if the heavenly records are not a long list of historical deeds that need to be erased, then what is recorded there and what is being erased? Revelation reveals the answer:

He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels (3:5).

What is recorded in the heavenly records is not a list of sins of each person, but rather the “name” of each person. And in Bible symbolism, a name doesn’t mean a monogram, the word people use to call you to dinner. In the Bible, a name means character. This is why Jacob, whose name meant “deceiver,” had his name changed to Israel-“one who, with God, overcomes”-after he overcame his selfishness.

Under the imposed-law view, the records of heaven are seen as lists of deeds. But the truth, under the design-law reality, is that the records in heaven are like medical records; they document the actual condition of each person’s character. And I believe that more than this—more than just a description of our character—the records are something like a computer server on which you back up your hard drive. Our actual characters are being recorded in the books of heaven. Thus, when we open the heart to God and allow Him in, something truly miraculous and wonderful happens. Notice what He will do and why the sins are erased:

This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more” (Hebrews 8:10–12).

What is happening? Sinfulness—not sins—is being blotted out of the hearts, minds, and characters of God’s people. And in its place, God writes in His perfection. And because the records in heaven are the perfect record of each of our characters, the sinfulness that used to be in our characters, and thus in the records of heaven, is removed both from our characters and, subsequently, the record of our character in heaven. In other words, the only way to have sin removed from your record in heaven is to trust God, to open your heart to His Remedy, and to have sinfulness removed from your character here on earth.

Those who refuse to allow God into their hearts to remove sinfulness and write in His righteousness will, instead of having their sins blotted out of their hearts, and therefore their records, have themselves blotted out of existence; thus, they will be removed from the heavenly records. This is precisely what the Scripture means in the Exodus 32 passage, “Whoever has sinned against me I will blot out of my book.” 

Or, as the psalmist says:

“May they be blotted out of the book of life and not be listed with the righteous” (Psalm 69:28).

Finally, for those who think the actual memory of our sins will be erased from our minds and those of others, consider Jesus’ response to those who criticized the woman who anointed His feet with expensive oil: “Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little” (Luke 7:47).

Imagine your child was dying of cancer and your regular doctor said there is nothing more that could be done. But then, a new doctor enters and gives your child a pill and, within minutes, all the cancer is gone and your child is restored to perfect health. Would you appreciate the new doctor? But what would happen if, the next day, you awoke and your child was completely healthy, but you had no memory of their sickness and, therefore, didn’t remember the healing? Would your appreciation and love for the doctor be diminished? Of course it would!

This is what Jesus is saying in Luke 7:47: If we don’t remember from what Jesus has delivered us, we will appreciate Him and love Him little. This is why Revelation tells us that the 144,000 sing a song only they will be able to sing—no others in all the universe will be able to sing this song (Revelation 14:3). Why? Is it because no one else has the musical skill? Is it because God forbids others to sing it? No! It is because it is a song of their experience, and only those who have the experience can sing of the experience. And the only way they can sing of their experience is if they remember their experience.

So, don’t fall for the legal lie—the idea that sins are merely bad deeds that require erasure from record books. It instills within us the belief that sin is mostly a behavioral problem, rather than a heart problem; it also says God is the One we must fear, because He will punish us for any unconfessed sin, instead of fearing sin itself and what it will do to us if we don’t take the Remedy.

Embrace the truth that God wants to erase all sin, all defects, and all deviations from His design from you and restore you to His ideal! And He will do it if you trust Him!

 

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Your unique way in spreading the truth is what we all need today. Most of us don’t recognize the contamination coming from all the lies and selfishness in the world. Because of our fear of death, we forgot how to live. Lies left and right. I was losing hope and faith, because of so many ideas that are always contradicting each other – so many questions answered by other, more complicated, questions – until I found your channel on YouTube.

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I was born [into the church], then I left it for many years. 10 years ago, I came back, but I could not take the hypocrisy and the lack of answers to the missing pieces. I struggled, but I did not abandon my commitment to know the truth. God is leading me to the simple understanding of his relevance and I am relearning what the church taught me as a youth… that he loves me, that he has led me to a knowledge of him such as I have never known. He is using Dr. Jennings to connect the dots that are now so apparent and hiding in plain sight!

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M.T., USA

 

Testimony 46

Over the past couple of years God has been expanding my view of Himself and His character. Along my approximately 40-year journey, I have often had questions, but was hesitant to voice these and step outside the traditionally accepted thinking, for fear of admitting that I may in fact be eternally lost. In the recesses of my thinking has been the thought – if one blindly accepts (which is widely regarded as “real faith”) and does not question, is this really ‘truth?’ I often find it challenging to grapple with very theological ‘speak,’ but Dr. Jennings has a real gift of explaining spiritual concepts with clear practical examples. The weekly discussions are growing my Christian experience and slowly changing my view of how to live as a child of God in today’s complex world. Finally the whole Old Testament sanctuary teaching moved in my mind from fantasy to reality!

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I am blown away by the truth that you present. God’s Design Law makes so much sense! You have validated my impression that, if God is love, He would not kill those who don’t want to know him. If God gives us choice, then how can He destroy us if our choice is not to follow him. Thank you for opening my eyes and heart to the pure love of God seen through Jesus. The love I now have for Jesus is deeper and free from condemnation. My heart has been opened to love others as Jesus loves me. May God continue to bless your God-given insight into His word and your ministry. The truth has set me free!

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You have helped make sense of thirty two years of confusion. The material you freely provide reorganized so much of my life into such a beautiful pattern that has always been hinted at from within, but misguided with my training and what I was experiencing externally. My filipno parents, who were converted from Catholicism to SDA, were sincere and did their best to raise me the right way and I have deep respect for them. However, being immigrants and not understanding the language made for a difficult transition as I was growing up, which also applied to my spiritual growth as I learned the patterns of religion. I have been listening to as many bible study classes and reading blog posts as my time in a work truck will allow, searching for the practical applications of where spirituality and reality meet, and I thank you for helping me find that. You have helped me reach a point in which I can truly say that I love God, that I believe He loves me, and, like David, I delight in His law. God bless.

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I came into the church at 21, but that is as far as it went. I was so confused about what love is. I couldn’t find it in the bible, because I am not a person that can read between the lines. I have no logic. I have read many, many books; trying to figure out the crux of the matter. They were helpful, but something was still missing. I have become very frustrated to the point of crying out to God, “Where can I go?”  I needed some basics.

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God lead me to your book “The God-Shaped Brain” while I was searching for another book about the brain and then to your interview about your book on HeartWise Ministries [where] I found out about [Come And Reason Ministries]. I’m now devouring the webcasts of your Bible studies. I have been so greatly blessed and I thank God so much for your courage to speak the Truth in love no matter what. Listening to you contrast the two opposing systems (laws) and digging deep to unearth the hidden treasures in the Bible makes me so incredibly happy and I feel very blessed to be part of your Bible Study Group although I live far away. I am just so excited that there is a group of people that is spreading the Truth about the character of God and it saddens me how few realize what our Father in Heaven is really like.

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I wanted to thank you very much for presenting your understanding of God. I’ve always been troubled by this question: Why did Jesus have to die? Since my conversion I understood that The Father & Jesus are one, I did not have issues with that. But was there not any other way to save us than for Jesus to die? I guess I actually had a question about God – if He is so wise, how come He did not find another way? I did not see the real ‘beauty’  in the cross. Only when you explained the picture in the medical context, Jesus providing medicine for my selfishness, have I started to finally ‘see the light’. Thank you so much. Your seminar, “Healing the Mind,” are absolutely marvelous & have shared them with my family and many other people, including colleagues at work. Thanks, thanks, thanks. May God bless you abundantly in your ministry.

M. W., Australia