Who but the Lord could we trust to say these words? When a man pronounces that our sins are forgiven, it brings us no relief, unless they are forgiving what we have done to them personally. That, they are entitled to forgive. But this is a far simpler and more universal statement; this is without qualification. All your sins are forgiven, and nothing is retained. The Lord says, ‘I will never again hold against you the evil things you have done in the past. As far as I am concerned, the past is blotted out. There is no punishment to bear, no penalty to pay. Your slate is wiped clean, and you are justified before me.’ Who but the Lord could say this? How dare any man take on himself such momentous words? In doing so, he is claiming to have access to the book of life, to the accounts of God kept in heaven. These words cannot be uttered in ignorance. They cannot be uttered by someone who does not have open before them the record of all that we have ever done. Only God is entitled to forgive our sin, because ultimately all sin has been committed against him. Furthermore, only he has felt the pain inflicted by our acts of sin, and so only he is in a position to say that he will no longer hold it against us. Every act of sin is an act of infinite evil, because the infinite God sees it and feels it throughout his being.