As a young man, Benjamin Franklin composed a master list of 12 resolutions, later tacking on a killer 13th (“Imitate Jesus and Socrates”). He had particular difficulty, he notes in his Autobiography, with Resolution No. 2 (“Silence – Avoid trifling conversation”), No. 3 (“Order – Let all your things have their places”) and No. 5 (“Frugality – waste nothing”). Ben kept track of his performance in a small book in which he entered a black mark each day for each resolution broken. He had intended to reuse the little book, eventually erasing old black marks as his performance improved. It didn’t. So many black marks appeared on top of black marks that the little book developed holes. He had to resort to keeping his records on a piece of ivory, from which the accumulated black marks could be tactfully mopped off with a wet sponge.

Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to have a wet sponge wipe away the black marks of the past year, leaving a clean slate for the future? Many see the start of a new calendar year as a time for a fresh start, putting the past behind us. Wouldn’t it be nice if it were true?

The truth is that the calendar changing from one year to the next does nothing to right past wrongs. They are still there. The black marks that cover you and bore into your memory tell you that you cannot get rid of them. If only you could just use a wet sponge to clear away all your sins, the depravity that is inside each of you. If only you could simply wash away the hate and hurt and anger and bitterness and greed and envy and lust and doubt that is in your heart. Then you would truly have a clean slate, a chance to start anew, a rebirth. But it’s not that simple. We echo the words of David: For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. (Psalm 51:3) You can’t clean your own slate. Just as young Mr. Franklin discovered with his little book, that is a losing proposition, one you will never be able to win.

In the Old Testament, the Old Covenant, God had made the simple proposition: I will be your God, you will be my people. He did the hard part. He rescued them from danger and slavery and armies and so on. All they had to do was love Him and follow Him. Yet they couldn’t do it. The black marks kept adding up. God had a plan for fixing this situation, one He had first announced to Adam and Eve and repeated through His prophets.

Jeremiah 31:31-34 “The time is coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them, ” declares the LORD. “This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time,” declares the LORD. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, `Know the LORD,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the LORD. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”

There is a way to have a clean slate. But it doesn’t come from your own efforts to erase the marks or wipe things clean. It is God’s doing. It comes from Him taking all your black marks and placing them on the one who had a clean slate on His own, Jesus Christ. God allowed the black marks for all people to be placed on Him, a weight too awful for us to ever imagine. Those black marks were so numerous that He developed holes, holes in His hands and His feet, being nailed to the cross to make payment for them all. He did that for you. And then He rose again to proclaim that He has won the victory, offering a clean slate to all who believe in Him.

Notice that nowhere in Scripture does it say that sin does not matter, or that God will ignore sin or not look at it. That is not the solution. Sin does matter. God dealt with it. He sent His Son for that very purpose. Forgiveness is not overlooking or ignoring. It is facing the problem head on and providing the solution. Your sins was put on Christ and the penalty was paid. Through faith in Him, that payment becomes yours. You are then given a clean slate.

So go ahead and make those resolutions, today and every day. Make them with the confidence that you can do all things through Christ who gives you strength. You have a clean slate. God has declared I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more. What a way to start not just a New Year, but every day.