Don’t Remember What God Forgot
Hebrews 8: 11-12
11 None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord’, for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them.
12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.
Often we live trapped within our past. We rehearse our sins, relive our failures and remain bound to our past mistakes. Stuck within time we struggle to forgive ourselves and forget what once was. Living under the weight of past events we fill our mind with memories and our lives with regret. The scripture above states however, that our sins and lawless deeds, He will remember no more. God who knows all things chooses to forget. He chooses to do so because there is something greater to remember than our failures, lawless deeds and sinful acts. It is the obedience of His Son Jesus that atoned for our sins. It is the blood of Christ that was shed for our iniquity. It is the awareness that the price has been paid to redeem all who believe.
The Old Covenant had a constant reminder of sin year after year. On the Day of Atonement, blood was shed and brought by the High Priest into the Holy of Holies. By the sprinkling of blood on the Ark of the Covenant, sin was covered for yet another year. This was only a shadow of the New Covenant that was to come. God however found fault with the Old Covenant (v.8). It could not accomplish what He wanted to achieve. Now He Himself has established a New Covenant. Now with great delight God states He can be merciful to our unrighteousness. This is huge. God is not wanting to punish us for our sin because He has already judged and punished all sin, in the death of Christ. He can forget all our sins and all our lawless deeds because justice has been fully satisfied. God is so emphatic about choosing to forget our sins that there are two negatives before the word “remember”. He will never, not ever, remember again.
We too can choose the memories we hold. Lawless deeds, hurtful actions and foolish ways may have marred our past, but they do not need to define our present or dictate our future, for we too can choose to forget. Or more correctly, we can choose to celebrate what God remembers. He remembers the price was paid, the blood was shed and the victory that was won. He remembers mercy has triumphed and the lost have been redeemed.
Our sins are under the blood. God Himself placed them there. He does not want to remember our sins. He wants to enjoy our fellowship and celebrate our faith. Why would He remember what Jesus paid to remove? It is His choice and delight to forget.
Don’t remember what God forgot. God’s heart is for us to know Him. Sin separates (Isaiah 59:2), but this is not the reality of the New Covenant. We can know Him from the least of us to the greatest of us. Regardless of how we see ourselves and what our past has been like, we can know God. We no longer need to live under guilt regarding our past or shame over what has been. We can choose to forget, because God already has.
