Hebrews 8:12
"For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more."
Forgive and Forget?
How often have you heard someone say, "I'll forgive him but I'll never forget ..."? On the human side this may be true. We can make a choice to forgive but we cannot choose to forget in the truest sense of the word. To forget is to be unable to remember. We are not masters of our memories - they come and they go. Sometimes, it seems the harder we try to forget a thing - the more we remember it! On the other hand, a song, a scene or a smell can cause a once forgotten incident to come to mind.
This verse amazes me each time I think of it. God will not remember my sins! It's mind boggling! Because we remember them constantly some of us have a hard time believing that God has forgotten them all!
When the Lord forgives - He forgets! You have His word on it. He wants us to forget too. In Hebrews 10:22 it says, " Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience..." We were sprinkled with the blood of Jesus (1 Peter 1:2) God forgives and forgets on the basis of what Jesus has done for us. "He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself." (Hebrews 7:27)
Our minds tell us we are guilty and should be punished - the world and the enemy cry out the same but hear what God says:
Psalm 103:10,12 "He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities...as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us."
Still more from Isaiah 53:5-6 "But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all."
Thought for Today:
Father, thank you for your complete forgiveness. Cleanse my conscience and free me from the Accuser. Praise to you Jesus - for carrying my sins, for bearing my punishment, for being my peace, for healing my conscience. Let me consider you and your work when I am reminded of the sins God has forgotten.