Forgiveness #1

I thought I should take a few posts to explain what I think about forgiveness, confession of sin, and repentance.

When we begin the conversation, we need to talk about our terms. Here’s how I think the Bible describes forgiveness, “Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” Now where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer an offering for sin (Hebrews 10:17–18, quoting Jer. 31:34). I believe this is the beginning point of what forgiveness means. It is a promise from God to not remember our sins anymore.

God’s promise to not remember our sins means that if Satan were to come to God (like he did with Job), and say, “Remember Bob?” And God says, “Yep. He’s one of mine. Jesus died for him.” And Satan says, “You seem to think pretty highly of Bob. Don’t you know what a horrible sinner his is?” And God says, “I have no idea what you’re talking about. When I look at Bob, all I see is Jesus.” And Satan responds, “But Bob hit his wife the other day and said mean things to his son. Don’t you remember all that?” and God says, “Nope. Bob confessed the sin and I forgave him. I told you, all I see is Jesus.” God made a decision not to entertain thoughts about Bob’s past. He doesn’t remember Bob’s sin. He refuses to remember the sin.

God’s promise to not remember our sin also means that God does not forget our sin. Many think these two are the same, but I don’t think they necessarily are. God is omniscient. This means that he knows all things for all time. This means that he doesn’t forget our sin, he chooses not to remember it. Forgetting happens when things drift out of our heads. We stop remembering them and we forget them. Here’s an example, you probably (if you’re old enough) remember what you were doing at 10:00 am on September 11, 2001. But do you remember what you were doing at 10:00 on September 3, 2001? What’s the difference? For most people, the difference is that they remember what was happening on September 11, but they don’t remember the third. And so, they keep remembering the 11th, but have forgotten the third. This is a blessing from God, but God does not forget, he chooses not to remember.

For us, forgetting is a sort of letting go, a drifting away. But God doesn’t let it go, he chooses to push the memories away and chooses not to dwell on them, to not remember them. It is a glorious choice he makes on our behalf.

That’s all I have for now. I hope it helps.