“From that time on Jesus began to preach, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near’” (Matthew 4:17).

I ask God for forgiveness so often that I often forget the weight of what I am really asking him to do.

When a fellow human being forgives me, it usually means that they have decided to overlook one of my indiscretions. Forgiveness means they agree not to be angry anymore, or at the very least it means they will refuse to act on their anger. To give forgiveness is often a form of self-restraint.

But when we ask God to forgive us, we are not asking him to overlook our indiscretions or restrain his anger. We are asking him to take the debt that our sin incurred (death) and transfer it to somebody other than us (Jesus).

Every time you pray to God and ask for his forgiveness, you are asking Jesus to cover the cost of your sins. And the cost was not small. When Jesus said to repent in our verse for today, he was saying that the lives of believers are lives of repentance. 

Jesus loves you so much that he invites you to lay your sin on him. He invites a daily repentance by which you continually ask him to cover the cost of all your sins. The amazing thing about his grace is that while you and I might hesitate to stop forgiving someone, he never refuses to cover the cost.