God Forgets

Jeremiah 31:34 – “And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

On a headstone in a cemetery near New York is engraved just one word – “Forgiven.” Nothing more had to be written, for the greatest thing that can be said of any person is that he or she has received God’s pardoning grace.

How wonderful it is to have the assurance of complete forgiveness! How wretched people can be without it! Recently a young person came to me confessing that he couldn’t sleep at night nor efficiently do his work in the daytime because of a deep fear that a certain sin of his past was beyond forgiveness. I shared some Scripture passages with him to show how completely the Lord pardons. I told him God would be honored if he would believe what the Bible says. He agreed, and we offered a prayer of gratitude together. Since that day he has been free from his sense of guilt, and he has enjoyed his salvation. What a remarkable change in his life!

In today’s Scripture, God promised Israel a new covenant under which they would be restored to fellowship with Him. He also declared that the nation’s sin will be forgiven and forgotten. Hebrews 10:17 tells us that we who have received the Lord Jesus come under the scope of this new covenant. Even when we do wrong after we have become Christians, He cleanses and removes our transgressions if we repent and confess them (1 John 1:9). As the hymnwriter expresses it, “He lovingly forgives and then forgets.”

Have you thanked God for the completeness of His forgiving grace?