Total Forgiveness
at Once

“See, the stone I have set in front of Joshua! There are seven eyes on that one stone, and I will engrave an inscription on it,” says the LORD Almighty, “and I will remove the sin of this land in a single day.”  Zechariah 3:9

The stone was going to be engraved, and God promised he would take away all sin in one day. We know very well, of course, that sin isn’t taken away by anything except Christ’s suffering. His suffering would result in the forgiveness of sins, as Isaiah 53 states. Peter and Paul also teach the same in many places. So the engraving of the stone symbolizes the suffering of Christ, not his conception or birth.

God’s promise to remove the sin of the land shows that the sacrifices of the old priesthood were incapable of providing forgiveness of sins. Only Christ’s suffering can take away sin, nothing else. All good works are worthless and are even sinful before God. Only the engraved foundation stone can achieve forgiveness of sins for us, nothing else. God shows us just how strong and powerful this forgiveness is when he said he wanted to accomplish it all “in a single day.”This phrase means he wanted to accomplish this in one day—once and only once.

The forgiveness and reconciliation achieved on that day would be enough for the sins of the entire world—from its very beginning into eternity. God didn’t want to continually arrange for forgiveness of new sins on a daily or yearly basis, as was true under the old priesthood. The people of Israel had to regularly seek forgiveness through sacrifices and worship. But God wanted to provide complete forgiveness in one day. Christ’s suffering would be enough, satisfying everything. The author of Hebrews sums this up beautifully:

“By one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy” (Hebrews 10:14).

Source: Quoted in Faith Alone: A Daily Devotional, p. 168.  James C. Galvin. Zondervan (2009).