If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness,
that you may be feared. (Psalm 130:4 ESV)
Numbers
Infinity and countless are not the same thing. For instance, the number of stars is not infinite, but rather really, really, really big, and incredibly hard to count.
The number of my sins is also very difficult to list. I have not yet become aware of all of my past sins. I do not understand God’s Word enough to apprehend all of my sins. My memory of my sins is faulty.
I could say that because of those (and other) factors that my sins are countless. But they are not infinite.
And the Psalmist says that if God chose to list every one of those sins, my guilt before God would be obvious and unavoidable. Yet because Christ took away the guilt of every single one of those numbered sins, there is true and full forgiveness.
If my sins were infinite, that forgiveness would be a different sort of thing. My sins would be surreal. My sins would be beyond understanding. In a way, I could not be held accountable for the infinite.
But instead, the number of my sins is known by God, and theoretically known by me. And so Christ’s work on the cross was particular, pointed, and exact.
You might say the punishment fit the crime. My (huge) number of sins was matched by Christ’s (huge) number of payments.
That exactness makes Christ’s sacrificial death personal.
We can not count our sins, but God can, and Christ paid for them.