As Far as the East is From the West

What does it truly mean for God to remove our sins “as far as the east is from the west”? It’s a declaration of infinite grace, reaching farther than we often dare to imagine. When Scripture says that the Lord removes our sins from us as far as the east is from the west, it encompasses much more than many people realize.

Most Christians understand that if you travel north or south, you will eventually reach the end and start heading in the other direction, but there is no end to east and west. This statement is about infinity. An infinite separation of us from our sins is necessary because God is infinite.

No Old Testament Hebrew or New Testament Greek word directly translates to “infinity,” but the concept runs throughout Scripture. All of the attributes of God are infinite. He is limitless in power, unsearchable in his knowledge, boundless in his presence, and eternal in his existence. Notice each in the verses below.

Infinite Power (Omnipotence):

Jeremiah 32:17 – “Ah, Lord God! It is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you.“

Infinite Knowledge (Omniscience):

Isaiah 40:28 – “Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.“

Infinite Presence (Omnipresence):

Jeremiah 23:23-24 “Am I a God at hand, declares the Lord, and not a God far away? Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the Lord. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the Lord.”

Infinite Existence (Eternality):

Psalm 90:2 – “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.”

What does all this have to do with the separation of us from our sin? Because God is infinitely Holy, only an infinite separation from our sins will do. In the book None Greater, Matthew Barret points out that when you tell someone that sin deserves Hell, they will often respond, “Hell? Seriously, you’re telling me that my sin deserves an eternity of punishment?” Barret says this response is because “The unbeliever does not grasp the sinfulness of sin.” He continues, “More fundamentally, they have no category for who they have sinned against: an infinite God.”

A finite creature sinning against an infinite God requires an infinite punishment, which is communicated in Scripture and directly from the mouth of Jesus.

Matthew 25:46 – “And these will go away into eternal punishment,”

Revelation 14:11 – “And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night.

To diminish the need for eternal punishment is to diminish the infinitude of God.

So this raises the question: If our sin deserves an eternal punishment, how could Jesus pay our debt in a matter of hours on the cross? The answer is that Jesus, being both God and man, was infinite in himself. Only an infinite being can take an infinite punishment. He must be both like us, man and unlike us, God, to atone for our sins on the cross.

When we read that God has separated us from our sins as far as the east is from the west, we have every reason to rejoice. Our infinite God has provided atonement for finite creatures that have sinned against him. He is an infinitely good God. He then unites us with him through faith and provides us with the Holy Spirit. As Ephesians 1:17 says, he has given us the Spirit [note the capital “S”] of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him,” God has given us himself—the infinite in union with the finite.

He has done this “that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come” (Ephesians 1:18-21).

Rejoice, for our infinite God has placed an immeasurable distance between us and our sins, uniting us with Himself through an infinite grace that knows no bounds, and no power on heaven or earth can separate us from his love.

-D. Eaton