Isaiah 55:7 “Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.”

Words like “wicked” and “evil” are strong words that we tend to reserve for the world’s worst criminals and killers, men whose crimes against humanity bring death and suffering to thousands. Maybe it’s hard to see how they apply to the people we know personally, or to you and me.

It’s not that some of us are worse than others. It is that we are the same as all the rest. The Bible tells us: “There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” There is no difference. Call it what you want. Sin, evil, and wickedness infect us all. They may show themselves in different ways. Some of them are subtler and can be more easily hidden. But there is no denying the problem. The day of our death proves it beyond any doubt. Sin is the reason we die–every one of us. “The wages of sin is death,” Paul wrote the Romans.

But Isaiah doesn’t leave us there stewing in our sin with no solution. “Let him turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.” Mercy is a “heart” word. It tells us that the Lord doesn’t merely follow some unbending rules or principles in the way he treats us. He isn’t merely following a formula in the way he runs our lives. When he sees our pain or our difficulties, it moves him. He feels for us and he intends to bring us relief. He hasn’t forgotten us. He knows how hard it is, and how hard it is going to be, and he promises his mercy.

That mercy starts with his forgiveness. “He will freely pardon.” We can create a lot of sin in our lives. The sum total of the world’s sin is immeasurably bigger. But God’s pardon, his forgiveness, dwarfs it all. There is no end or limit to it. It never runs out. How could it when we consider the price God paid to make it possible?

Our God knows what it is like to have a close member of the family die. He gave up his one and only Son. He sacrificed Jesus to pay for every sin ever committed. If he loves us that much, if he has made that sacrifice to pay for our sins, he is not going to become stingy in actually applying his forgiveness to his people. If he loves us that much, he will not be stingy with any of his gifts. Remember his promise in Romans 8: “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also, along with him, gracious give us all things.” God freely pardons. He freely gave up his Son to make it possible. And that means he will freely give us every good thing that we need for this life and the one to come.

This mercy and forgiveness God freely gives does not cost us a penny. This is what we commonly call his grace. Do you see how this assures us that he has only good things in mind for us, even after we sin? Mercy and pardon are waiting for us no matter what we have done.