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Daily Devotionals
Discovering Christ Day by Day
Today’s Reading: Numbers 23-26
The Omniscient God Sees No Sin in His People
Numbers 23:21
We know that God almighty is omniscient. He knows all people and all things. Nothing is or can be hidden from His all-seeing eye. All the actions of all men, whether bad or good, are seen and known by God. He sees not only what we do, but why we do it. He sees the secret, inward, hidden things of our hearts, the fountain from which all our evil deeds flow like an open, overflowing sewer. His omniscient eye sees all the sins of His own people as well as the sins of the reprobate. There can be no debate about the fact that the omniscient God sees everything about everyone and everything (Job 34:21-22; Psalms 11:4-5; Psalms 139:1-7; Hebrews 4:12-13).
When the Scriptures declare, “He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath He seen perverseness in Israel,” the declaration has no reference at all to His attribute of omniscience, but rather to His justice. The meaning is simply this: Insofar as God’s law and justice are concerned, He sees no sin in His people. Debts paid and canceled are debts that the law cannot see. That which is no longer written against us in the book of God’s law cannot be seen by the eye of God’s justice. God’s eye of justice sees no sin in His people, because His hand of justice has blotted our sins out of His book, justice having been fully satisfied by the blood of Christ sacrificed for our sins (Isaiah 43:25; Isaiah 44:22).
As our heavenly Father, the Lord God certainly takes notice of our sins and is displeased with them (2 Samuel 11:27). Yet, I rejoice to declare to every believing sinner that God will never punish you for your sins, hold you accountable at His bar for your sins, or withhold any blessing of grace or glory from you because of your sins. For Him to do so, He must violate His own justice and overturn the satisfaction of His own Son. Either Christ bore the wrath of God for us, or He did not. Either He satisfied the justice of God as our Substitute, or He did not. Either He put away our sins, or He did not. If He has not done this for us perfectly, completely, effectually, and permanently, then we must bear the wrath of God for our own sins, pay for our own crimes, and perish in hell.
But this is certain: If the Son of God has satisfied the law, wrath, and justice of God for our sins, we shall never be punished for them. Justice will not allow it. God will not, in justice He cannot, and He declares that He shall not punish sin twice, both in Christ our Surety and in those for whom the Surety died.
Still, we must never imagine that God does not take notice of or is not displeased with our sins as our heavenly Father. It is plainly written in the Scriptures that “the thing that David had done displeased the Lord.” Only a very foolish father fails to see the faults, weaknesses, and offenses of his child. Though His justice forbids and prevents His wrath, our Father’s love will not allow Him to let His children live in rebellion to Him. In great mercy and lovingkindness, He chastises us for our sins, not to punish us, but to correct us (Psalms 89:30-33; Hebrews 12:5-11).
