Does God Forget Our Sins? 27 January 2021
Key Verse: “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.” Hebrews 10:17
There is no place that the grace of God cannot reach, no depth to which we can sink that God is not able to rescue us. The grace of God can forgive us of our sin. Scripture teaches that God forgives and forgets our sins in Christ “I, I am He who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.” Isaiah 43:25. We should not confuse the Lord remembering our sins with what we think of as forgetfulness. He is omniscient – He knows everything and forgets nothing so, He can still choose not to remember something. Instead of treating our sins as they deserve, God removes our sin “as far as the east is from the west, so far he removes our transgressions from us.” Psalms 103:12. When we are saved, our sins are forgiven entirely, which is what our reading is talking about, the once and for all sacrifice of Jesus is what entirely removes our sins. In Christ, the people of God are justified before God. We read in Romans 8:1 that “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” and further on Romans 8:31-39 shows that the people of God are held secure because of the Lord Jesus’ finished and sufficient work.
The Lord does not remember our sins because He treats us as righteous in Christ, 2 Corinthians 5:21. Even when we do sin and repent, He is faithful to forgive 1 John 1:9. We are freed from the slavery of sin and set free to experience new life. We can with King Hezekiah praise Jesus, “for you have cast all my sins behind your back” Isaiah 38:17 and with Paul we can say, “but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:13-15.
One of Satan’s favourite tactics is to convince us that our sins aren’t forgiven despite the teaching we see from the Word of God. Satan desires to constantly remind us of our past sins and uses them as proof that God couldn’t possibly forgive them. Psalm 103:12 tells us that God not only removes our sins but removes them entirely from His presence “as far as the east is from the west” and 1 John 1:9 makes clear that God will forgive His people as they come with an attitude of repentance and ask to be forgiven. We are warned to be careful not to think in light of this teaching of forgiveness that it doesn’t matter how we live because it does “What then are we to say? Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it?” Romans 6:1-2. Paul states that there is a difference between stumbling in sin and living a lifestyle of continuous unrepentant sin
2 Corinthians 13:5 and even acknowledges that he did what he didn’t want to do because of indwelling sin Romans 7:15. Our response should be to hate sin, repent of it, and trust the grace of God to overcome it Romans 7: 24-25.
Satan aims to get us to think that there is no hope and no possibility to be forgiven. Many people feel trapped by an overwhelming sense of guilt and so walk away from the Lord. What we must remember is that we were never worthy of the grace of God in the first place and that He loved, forgave, and chose us to be in Christ before the foundation of the world, not because of anything we did, Ephesians 1: 4-6. There is no place that the grace of God cannot reach, no depth to which we can sink that God is not able to pull us up from, the grace of God is greater than all of our sins. It is the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8), so when we sin, the Holy Spirit will convict us of our sin so that our sorrow and repentance is the result
(2 Corinthians 7: 9-10). Our God is just and will not condemn us “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death” Romans 8:1-2. Satan wants the world to feel that there is no forgiveness but we have the commission of our Lord and Saviour to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,” Matthew 28:19 we are to tell people about our Saviour and that there is forgiveness through Him and we are to watch over each other “Therefore encourage one another and build up each other” 1 Thessalonians 5:11.
Scripture is clear in telling us that those who God has forgiven are genuinely forgiven. God no longer holds our wickedness against us when we put our trust in Jesus Christ. Through the blood of Jesus God sees His people as righteous and acceptable in His sight and He will not take this status away from those who are in Christ. We know that not one of God’s promises has ever failed Joshua 21:45 and that it has always been God’s plan to bring His people back to Him. So let us grasp with both hands His promise in regards to our sins “For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far he removes our transgressions from us.” Psalms 103:11-12 and “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.” Hebrews 10:17.