A God Who Forgives and Forgets

This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: “I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,” then He adds, “Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”  (Hebrews 10:16-17)

            The writer of Hebrews states that it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sin.  However, in Hebrews 9:13-14, the writer reminds us that blood is required for forgiveness of sins.  He writes, For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve a living God. 

God cannot just arbitrarily say, I forgive you.  His justice and righteousness and holiness demand that a price be paid for sin.  That price was paid by God’s own Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.   God stands upon the shed blood of Jesus to pronounce sinners forgiven.

The question before us now is What sins can God forgive?  The answer is, All sins and every sin.

Sometimes someone will tell me he has committed a sin that is too horrible, too bad, and too great for God to forgive.  I take great delight in telling that person that the blood of Jesus Christ has the power to cleanse a sinner of all sin and every sin.

You can also have assurance of forgiveness.  Did you notice the words in Hebrews 10:17?  Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.  What God forgives, He forgets.  You do not have to worry about God tapping you on the shoulder and reminding you of a past sin.  If you have confessed that sin and repented of that sin, it is forgiven and forgotten.

Micah 7:19 says, You will cast our sins into the depths of the sea.  Someone said that after God cast our sins into the depths of the sea, He put up a “No Fishing” sign.

The psalmist says, As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us  (Psalm 103:12).  Why did the psalmist say east to west rather than north to south?  Because God has removed our sins from infinity to infinity, never to be found again.

Have you experienced the forgiveness of God?  Dr. Roger D. Willmore is Senior Pastor of Deerfoot Baptist Church and a popular conference speaker at America’s Keswick. He has written extensively for our new devotional, Real Victory for Real Life

Daily Bible Reading: Isaiah 26-27; Mark 6:30-56

Quote of the day: The fruit of the Spirit is not something we achieve by our hard work; it is something we receive because of Christ’s hard work for us. Tullian Tchidvijian

Bible Memory: I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways. I will delight in your statutes; I will not forget your word. Psalm 119:15-16