Lessons from Micah: Who is a Pardoning God Like Ours? II

Jeff Smith

Our Unique God of Incomparable Grace

Throughout Micah’s preaching of sin and judgment, there had been brief bursts of light, hope, and the grace of Jehovah. Now, here, at the conclusion of the book, instead of a brief burst of revelatory light, we have a steady, brilliant beam of glorious revelatory light. It comes down from God in heaven to the earth through the prophet’s words, showing us the gracious character and works of the one, true, living God, Jehovah.

His Astonishing Mercy

Who is a God like unto You, that pardons iniquity,
and passes over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage?
He retains not His anger for ever, because He delights in lovingkindness.

Micah 7:18

The prophet’s rhetorical question embodies his very name: Who is a God like unto You? The name Micah literally means Who is like Yah (i.e. Jehovah)?

As we said earlier, the meaning of his name is significant. Both by his name and by his words, Micah declares that there is none like unto the Lord Jehovah, the living God. Jehovah is unique. He is unsurpassed in all of His ways of grace and mercy.

Specifically, Micah declares here, in verse 18,

Jehovah pardons iniquity.

Just think of all that we have observed in this book of Micah, from chapter 1 into chapter 7—all of the numerous sins of the people of Israel and Judah—all of the sins of the inhabitants of the earth!

Yet, here, God Himself, through Micah, reveals that He pardons iniquity.

What does that mean?

According to these words, the iniquity—the perverted wrongdoings of the sinner—as well as his guilt, and the punishment which he deserves, is lifted up and carried away by Jehovah. When anyone—any sinner—turns from his iniquities and trusts in the Lord Jesus Christ alone for pardon, Jehovah lifts up all of those perversions, all of that wrongdoing and guilt, and carries it away into oblivion.

Notice also, in verse 18,

Jehovah passes over transgression

The Lord’s people (here called the remnant of His heritage) frequently fracture their covenantal relationship with Jehovah by breaking His commandments.

When they willfully transgress God’s laws (and, sadly, God’s people do this at times), they also, in that very occasion, reject (at least for a time) God’s authority over them.

Astonishingly, Micah declares that, whenever such a transgressor returns to Jehovah, confessing his willful violation of Jehovah’s laws, and repenting from his sin, Jehovah passes over those rebellious transgressions. Because of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ poured out in death on the cross of Calvary, Jehovah passes over those rebellious transgressions, as though they did not exist.

Thirdly, notice in verse 18,

Jehovah delights in lovingkindness.

Although the sins of His people righteously anger Jehovah, He does not “retain” or hold onto His anger forever (7:18).

Why? Why will God not hold onto His anger forever?

The answer God gives through Micah the prophet is astounding. He will not retain his anger forever, because God delights in manifesting His steadfast love to His erring, sinning people. He delights in pouring out His never-failing love—His faithful mercy, kindness, and goodness—to His believing and repenting people.

It is indeed for believing and repenting people. It is for anyone who does turn away from his or her sins—turn to God through Jesus Christ the Lord. When that confession of sin is brought up to God through Christ, here Micah’s words stand true, because they are God’s words: God delights in lovingkindness.

Jehovah demonstrated this lovingkindness for the people of Israel of Micah’s day, by having provided a sacrificial system which pointed forward to that final and perfect sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. It pointed to Jesus, Who obeyed all of the laws of God throughout His entire life, Who then took upon Himself all the sins of His people from all of the ages.

He then became the propitiatory sacrifice for their sins, dying on the cross, absorbing in Himself, like a blotter, all the righteous wrath of God due to each of His believing people. Jesus Christ thus made a full atonement for all of their sins.

Christ’s resurrection from the dead is proof positive that God indeed accepted Christ’s sacrificial death on the cross—His death in the place of any and all sinners who trust in Christ alone for pardon.

Because of the life and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, the unique God-man, Jehovah truly delights in showering His steadfast love upon iniquitous, judgment-deserving, sinners!

His Unfailing Mercy

He will again have compassion upon us;
he will tread our iniquities under foot;
and You wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.

Micah 7:19

Jehovah will again have compassion upon us.

The word compassion refers to the tender mercies which a stronger covenant partner (in this case, Jehovah) feels toward a helpless partner (in this case, the believing sinner).

Sadly, God’s people can be unfaithful to God and His Word. Christians do sin daily. Christians at times make a mess of their lives by their sins and folly.

Yet, Micah declares, God will again have compassion on them. Again! How much is bound up in that little English word, again!

You as a believer may know very well in your own mind and heart how many times you have in this past week sinned again, and again, and again—sometimes in areas where you have promised before God, Lord helping me, I will not go down that pathway of sin in my heart again; and yet you failed and sinned again and again.

Here’s God’s Word for you the believer: Jehovah will again have compassion on you, when you turn back to Him, confessing your sins again, turning away from them, repenting of them, trusting in Christ Jesus alone—not in yourself, but in Christ and His blood. When you do that, God will again have compassion upon you.

Jehovah’s compassion for His sinning and erring people never fails. It never ceases. In gracious, faithful mercy, He does not “give up” on you, the believer. He does not cast you off.

Jehovah will tread our iniquities under foot.

He will tread down our iniquities under foot (7:19). He will overcome our iniquities; He will subdue them. That is what Micah means by the word that he uses here. He will bring into subjection the Christian’s numerous iniquities.

The foot is an anthropomorphism (ascribing to God some physical anatomy); for God does not literally have a physical foot. The foot of the Almighty will tread down and crush all the Christian’s sins. Isn’t that a wonderful truth to contemplate?

Yes, it hasn’t happened instantaneously in your life or mine; but, still, it has happened to a large degree in many areas of sin in your life and mine; and one day it will be fully accomplished by God Almighty.

What hope does a little ant have when the foot of a man comes down upon it on a concrete sidewalk?

That’s the way you need to think: what can your sin do when the foot of Almighty God comes crushing down upon your sin?

There are no iniquities of any kind—no matter how deeply rooted in your heart and life, no matter how longstanding their patterns may be in your heart and life—which cannot be trampled down and conquered by the gracious power of Almighty God.

You need to remember that in your battle with your remaining sin. You need to plead this very truth to God in prayer, asking Him to do that indeed for you in your life.

Jehovah will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea

The prophet speaks of a physical act (casting our sins into the sea) with reference to a spiritual reality, for our sins are not a physical thing which can be physically cast into the sea. This is a metaphor (a picture) which Micah used, in order to emphasize the fact that, when Jehovah forgives a sinner, He heaves his sins—hurls them. That’s the whole idea of the Hebrew language. It’s not that He just slightly tosses them aside. He takes them and He hurls them into the depths of the sea.

When Jehovah forgives, He does so through the Lord Jesus Christ alone. When any sinner, anywhere, turns to the Lord God Jehovah through Jesus Christ, his sins are forgiven.

You may even take these words from Micah 7:19 to Him in prayer, and plead, This is what you said you will do: do this even for me. No matter how rotten your sins have been, no matter how extensive they have been, when you turn to God through Christ, Jehovah Himself then takes your sins, removes them from you and hurls them into the depths of the sea.

All our sins are sunk into the depths of the sea; never to be seen again. They are out of God’s sight, as it were: never to be recovered or remembered again by our almighty and omniscient God!

God will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea—another little English word, all. It doesn’t say He will cast some of their sins into the depths of the sea: He will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.

The deepest part of the ocean in the world is called the Challenger Deep. It is located within the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean, southwest of the island of Guam. Its depth is 6.83 miles, or 36,200 feet, from the surface of the Pacific to the bottom.

Mt. Everest is 29,029 feet high. If it were placed into the Challenger Deep, Mt. Everest would be covered over by more than 7,000 feet of water!

The Lord casts all of your sins into the depths of the ocean. Once you descend below 3,280 feet into the ocean, there is no sunlight, only total darkness. Nothing can be seen. It is into such depths of darkness and forgetfulness that God has hurled all of your sins, dear believing and repenting Christian.

He has hurled them down into the Challenger deep of the Mariana Trench, never to be seen again by you, or even by omniscient God. They are buried there in the depths of the darkness and forgetfulness of the Challenger Deep, for God has hurled them into that depth.

Lesson 2: Lay hold of God’s incomparable grace through Jesus Christ.

We have already considered Jehovah’s astonishing and unfailing mercy (7:18-19). In those verses, the Lord heaps up vivid words, descriptions, and pictures of what He does when He forgives sinners who turn to Him for mercy through Jesus Christ.

He pardons iniquities; He passes over transgression; He does not retain His anger; He delights in steadfast love; He shows compassion again; He subdues our iniquities; He casts all our sins into the depths of the sea.

He’s not a stingy God. His mercy is thorough and complete. He’s not some mean-fisted, mean-hearted God sitting in heaven. When He forgives sin through Jesus Christ, He forgives all sins. No sin, no iniquity, no transgression is excluded.

Whenever the sinner confesses his sins to God through Christ, abandons his sins from the heart and life, and pleads for mercy on the basis of the righteouness and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ alone, God freely, fully pardons, forgives, cleanses, and accepts in the Lord Jesus Christ.

This includes the sins which you commit, dear Christian, in ignorance. This includes the sins which you daily commit in your mind, with your eyes, with your tongue, and with your hands and feet. They are all pardoned when you turn back to the Lord through Christ.

The Christian’s sins when he fails to do what God has commanded him to do are forgiven in the blood of Christ.

The sins of your heart, such as envy (such a rotten sin!), jealousy (such an evil sin!), bitterness, lovelessness, hatred—sins which are not seen by others, but which God sees fully, and you know about, are pardoned. When you return to God through Christ all of your sins and iniquities, all of your transgressions are pardoned, are passed over—because of Jesus Christ, of course.

Sins of arrogance and presumption, gross sins, the so-called ‘little’ sins, even the blackest of sins—all are forgiven through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God.

Many times Christians struggle in this very area: am I forgiven? You see—you understand—how much sin is in your heart and life; and then you say, Am I a Christian? Am I not a Christian? Am I truly trusting in Christ? Am I not? and you waver back and forth.

Go to a passage such as Micah 7, verses 18 and 19. Take these truths to yourself.

That is a right thing to do. It is not presumption to do that. It is an act of faith to say, No, these Scripture truths are for me. God has given them in His Word for me. Indeed, they are for anyone who would take them to himself.

Jehovah pardons iniquities; He passes over transgression; He does not retain His anger; He delights in steadfast love; He shows compassion again; He subdues our iniquities; He casts all our sins into the depths of the sea.

If you are a Christian, such truth should overwhelm your heart with gratitude to God for His unparalleled, comprehensive grace, mercy and love for you the sinner, in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus has paid the price of all your sins: you bear them no more.

You should rise from your contemplation of God’s love for you in Christ and say, Lord, what would you have me to do? What would you have me to do to serve You where you have planted me right here and now? Lord, help me to honor You by living a life of service and a life of holy obedience to You in this world.

If you are not a Christian, you should call upon the Lord Jesus Christ right now. It doesn’t matter what your sins have been or what they are. Turn away from your life of disobeying God. Confess your sins to God through Jesus Christ. Ask Him to forgive you for all of your sins.

Cast yourself upon Christ. Ask Him for this wonderful grace—this unique, faithful and comprehensive mercy from God in Christ. He will indeed hear and answer such prayers of anyone who comes to Him through Jesus Christ. Ask Him now.

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Lessons from Micah: Who is a Pardoning God Like Ours? I