“Repent therefore, and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out” (Acts 3:19). In an old, one-room, country schoolhouse years ago, a boy was doing very poor work. About halfway through the school year, though, something the teacher said inspired him. He diligently applied himself to his work. His grades improved. His assignments were neat and attractive. He finished the year with very good marks, and his parents were quite proud. On visitation day at the end of the year, however, the boy’s heart sank as he saw his mother looking at his workbooks from that school year. He knew that the first half of those workbooks were full of messy work and unsightly blots. He watched as his mother leafed through them and was surprised that his mother was quite pleased as she called his father over to examine them. He discovered that his kind teacher had removed all of his work from the first half of the year and only left the work that was neat.
The point in life where we have a change of heart is called “repentance.” Sometimes in the Bible this change is simply called “turning” (Acts 3:19). When we make an about-face, God covers up all of our shabby deeds from the past. He forgives, which means he removes them from the record book. In ancient times, writing was removed from leather scrolls by washing or sponging the ink off, and this metaphor was employed frequently in the Bible. The Psalmist prayed, “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions….Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities” (Ps. 51:1, 9). We can relate with the psalmist in feeling the remorse and guilt of sin. Many have cried out with a burden of guilt. “Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips…” (Isa. 6:5). “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, ‘Men and brethren, what shall we do?’” (Acts 2:36-37). “For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do…O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Rom. 7:19, 24). We all have been there at some point in our lives, and perhaps we will again. It is important to remember that we can have confidence before the throne of grace (Heb. 4:16), if we will repent or turn away from doing sin. God declares, “I, I am He who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins…I have swept away your transgressions like a cloud, and your sins like mist” (Isa. 43:25; 44:22).