The Comfort of God's Pardon
“Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her iniquity is pardoned; for she hath received of the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.” — Isa. xl. 2.
How strange a sound of comfort! Is there not something grotesque about it? To be told that I am pardoned is doubtless consolatory; but to be told that I am pardoned because I have got double punishment is surely fitted to irritate rather than to please. Nay, but it is not the punishment God speaks of; it is the reparation. Is there any pure soul that would like to be pardoned without atonement, without paying back even more than he took away! If I have done my brother a wrong and there comes to me a voice through the silent air, “Be of good cheer, it will be all forgiven,” would that really give me cheer? Not if mine were a pure soul. I would ask something more than my pardon — the reparation of my wrong. I would ask to pay, to pay more. I would ask not only to be allowed to restore, but to be allowed to enrich — not simply to fill the coffers I have
emptied, but to place a larger treasure in their room. There is no sweetness in my pardon until I am told that my deed has been washed away.
From Thy hands alone, O Lord, can I receive a pardon that shall comfort, because from Thy hands alone can they whom I have injured be recompensed. Men speak of Thy forgiving love in redeeming from the fires of hell, but there is no fire so hot to me as the remorse for yesterday. I have injured my brothers a hundred times. Some of them are beyond the reach of my remedy. Who shall make it up to them when they have passed out of my hands! If it cannot be made up to them, it will not be made up to me. Pity will not do it; mercy will not do it; pardon will not do it; love will not do it; heaven itself will not do it. If I have caused eternal pain, I think I would rather have pain than joy. How could I sit beside Lazarus if I knew that I had helped Dives to his seat below! Thou alone canst satisfy me, O Lord. Only from Thy hands can I receive the reparation of my sin. Many of my victims have passed beyond me; but they have not passed beyond Thee, Thou boldest all things in the hollow of Thy hand. Make it up to them, my God! Pay them what I owe! Recompense their loss! Compensate their tears! Mitigate the pain which I have brought them! Nay, better, turn the pain into a glory! If I have sent Jacob to He on a pillow of stone, make it to him a place for angels! If I have driven Joseph into a dungeon, lead him through it to a throne! If I have cast Moses on the rude waters, bear him on their bosom to a happy shore! If I have helped to wound the Son of Man, make His cross the world’s crown! My pardon shall be perfect comfort when Thou hast redeemed my sin.