What does it mean that God has removed our sins from us "as far as the east is from the west" (Psalm 103:12)?

Now we must be reminded that there is an infinite difference between our own frailty and the greatness of the One who shows marvelous mercy toward those who are so far below Him. But that distance is used only to emphasize the greatness of that mercy, — mercy as high as the heavens are above the earth (v. 11). Also, the immeasurable distance between east and west is utilized by God to illustrate the total and absolute removal of our transgressions (v. 12). What tender compassion moves the heart of our God and Father in reference to our own utter infirmity!

Upon the head of the live goat, in virtue of what is set forth typically in the death of the goat which was the LORD'S lot, the High Priest laid his hands, and confessed the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions, putting them in that symbolic way on the head of the goat, and then sent him away by the hands of a fit man into the wilderness. In this highly spectacular way was typified how thoroughly sin is put away - clean gone, never to be seen again. It reminds us of Scriptures that show how thoroughly God deals with sin. We read, "As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us" (Ps. 103:12). "Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea" (Micah 7:19). "Thou hast cast all my sins behind Thy back" (Isa. 38:17). "Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more" (Heb. 10:17).

Their sins and iniquities had become the occasion of showing that His mercy and grace is greater than man's sin, even “as the heaven is high above the earth.” Thus it is seen that God is not indifferent to the sins of His people. He shows mercy to His people, but He deals with them on account of their sins and removes their sins “as far as the east is from the west.”

Then follows the burst of praise from Psalms 103, 104, 105, — all praise from earth. When God has done it, there is nothing to do but to light the censer of praise, and waft it back to God who has done it. David could praise, not of David, but of God. I have done nothing, he would say, nothing but failure; but thou hast done it all. "Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy name." When we can speak of nothing else, we can speak of God. In Psalm 103 David is tracing up to the root of things. Higher and higher the soul mounts in scaling, as it. were, this mercy, which, after all, is beyond all measure. Thou hast redeemed my life from destruction, fed me, cared for me, guarded me; but, after all, I cannot measure it: "As far as the east is from the west." Man's widest span would be but a poor rule for that mercy which is from everlasting to everlasting. Verse 13 shows that the tenderness of His love is parental: "Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him." Such being His mercy, the practical claim upon the heart is founded on it: "Bless His holy name."

This is substitution. Jehovah laid the iniquity of His people upon Christ, and judged it all upon Him. God only could do this. He only could separate sins from us and lay them on Another. This He did to the praise of the glory of His grace. For this we praise Him now, and, in millennial days, Israel will triumphantly celebrate this goodness of Jehovah; for not only will they bless Jehovah because He forgiveth all their iniquities and healeth all their diseases, but they will add, "As far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us." (Ps. 103:3, 12.) They will see that their sins were taken by Jehovah from them and laid upon Christ, and that He was wounded and bruised for them. This is substitution; and the same principle of dealing with our sins is set before us in the New Testament. Our Lord said that His blood was shed for many for the remission of sins. In the Hebrews we are told that Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and if an ancient prophet declared "He shall bear their iniquities," the apostle to the circumcision says, "Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree … by whose stripes we are healed." (Matt. 26:28; Heb. 9:28; Isa. H. 11; 1 Peter 2:24.) Here we have substitution plainly set forth. Our sins laid upon Jesus, He Himself bearing them, and we healed by His stripes. Elsewhere we read that He "once suffered for sins, the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God;" "that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures." So far we see how truly the Lord Jesus Christ has been our substitute as the bearer of our sins, and also of the righteous judgment for which they called.

And is it not a blessed thing to know that God is glorified in the putting away of our sins? We may ask, Where are our sins? Put away. By what? By that act of Christ upon the cross in which God has been eternally glorified. Thus it is. The two goats, on the day of atonement, give the double aspect of the one act. In the one, we see God's glory maintained; in the other, sins put away. The one is as perfect as the other. We are as perfectly forgiven as God is perfectly glorified, by the death of Christ. Was there one single point in which God was not glorified in the cross? Not one. Neither is there one single point in which we are not perfectly forgiven. I say "we;" for albeit the congregation of Israel is the primary object contemplated in the beautiful and impressive ordinance of the scape-goat; yet does it hold good, in the fullest way, with respect to every soul that believes on the Lord Jesus Christ, that he is as perfectly forgiven as God is perfectly glorified, by the atonement of the cross. How many of the sins of Israel did the scape-goat bear away? "All." Precious word! Not one left behind. And whither did he bear them? "Into a land not inhabited" — a land where they could never be found, because there was no one there to look for them. Could any type be more perfect? Could we possibly have a more graphic picture of Christ's accomplished sacrifice, in its primary and secondary aspects? Impossible. We can hang with intense admiration over such a picture, and, as we gaze, exclaim, "Of a truth, the pencil of the Master is here! "

And let me add (a reflection that has occurred to me with much comfort), that there is a greatness in God, in the sense of which we should much exercise our hearts. There is no straitness in Him. The psalmist appears to give himself to this thought in Psalm 36. All that he there sees in God, he sees in its proper divine greatness and excellency. His mercy is in the heavens; His faithfulness unto the clouds; His righteousness is like the great mountains, and His judgments are like the deep; His preserving care is so perfect that the beasts as well as men are the objects of it; His loving-kindness so excellent, that the children of men hide themselves as under the shadow of His wings; His house is so stored with all good, that His people are abundantly satisfied with its fatness; and His pleasures for them are so full, that they drink of them as of a river. All this is the greatness and magnificence of God, not only in Himself, but in His ways and dealings with us. And, beloved, this is blessed truth to us. For our sins should be judged in the sense of this greatness. It is true, indeed, that sin is exceeding sinful. The least soil or stain upon God's fair workmanship is full of horrid shapes, in the eye of faith that calculates duly on God's glory. A little hole dug in the wall is enough to show a prophet great abominations. But when brought to stand, side by side, with the greatness of the grace that is in God our Saviour, how does it appear? Where was the crimson sin of the adulteress? where the sins that had, as it were, grown old in the Samaritan woman? They may be searched for, but they cannot be found. They disappear in the presence of the grace that was brought to shine beside them. The abounding grace rolled away the reproach for ever. God Who taketh up the isles as a very little thing, and measures the waters in the hollow of His hand, takes away our sins far off "to a land of separation." Lev. 16:22.

The mind and thought of God Himself towards the sinner whom He forgives. On the ground of the sacrifice of Christ, God not only ceases to hold those who have faith in Christ's blood as guilty before Him, but His favour is towards them. "Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more." Heb. 10:17. Thus all sense of imputation of guilt is gone from the mind of God. "God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you" (ἐχαρίσατο, graciously forgiven). Eph. 4:32. So in the O.T., "I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely." Hosea 14:4.

The guilty one is released, forgiven. "That they may receive forgiveness of sins." Acts 26:18. "As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us." Ps. 103:12. "Your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake." 1 John 2:12. Hence it is true of all Christians, that their sins are forgiven. Another thought is included in the forgiveness of sins, namely, that having redemption by Christ, which brings into a new state, the whole guilty past is forgiven, removed from us, so that there is no hindrance to the enjoyment of that into which redemption brings.

The last words of Jesus to the woman are very emphatic — "Go in peace." The first is a remarkable word — "Go." I often think of it. Some persons never seem to learn its force in their experience. They may be sincere believers, but they are always hanging about Christ with doubts, not knowing forgiveness of sins and present peace; they are constantly asking to be made whole, hoping to be pardoned, etc., when Christ says to them, You are forgiven: "Go." They do not credit the glorious truth of present forgiveness and liberty of sonship; they are, therefore, in bondage and fear. Jesus would have it otherwise. He says, "Thy faith hath SAVED thee; go in peace!" As much as to say, Have no more doubts, fears, or misgivings; you are made whole, pardoned, reconciled, a child of God, a sinner saved. "Go in peace." Dear reader, if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus, take your right place before God and before men as saved! Wherever you go, go in peace as to your salvation, knowing that Christ has removed your transgressions from you as far as the east is from the west; and your sins and iniquities, God says, He will remember no more.

Coming to subtraction, we think of the great act of taking away our sins. "Ye know that He was manifested to take away our sins" (1 John 3:5). This the Lord Jesus Christ has done so completely that God says to us: "Your sins and your iniquities will I remember no more" (Heb. 10:17). In the Old Testament ritual, on the Great Day of Atonement, the scapegoat had confessed over him, and laid upon him by the high priest, all the sins and transgressions of the children of Israel. The goat was then led away into the wilderness to an uninhabited place, so that Israel by this ceremony might learn that their sins were gone altogether. Our sins, too, have been removed by Him Who came into this world for that purpose.