Gracious Forgetfulness

For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. --GALATIANS 3:27, RSV

I was thanking the Father today for His mercy. I began listing the sins He'd forgiven. My motives were pure and my heart was thankful, but my understanding of God was wrong. It hit me when I used the word remember.

I was thanking God for another act of mercy. "Remember the time I.?" But I stopped. Something was wrong. Remember seemed an off-key note in a sonata, a misspelled word in a poem. It didn't fit. "Does He remember?" Then I remembered His words. "I will remember their sins no more" (Hebrews 8:12, RSV).

Wow! Now, that is a remarkable promise. God doesn't just forgive; He forgets. He erases the board. He destroys the evidence. He burns the microfilm. He clears the computer.

He doesn't remember my mistakes. For all the things He does do, this is one thing He refuses to do. He refuses to keep a list of my wrongs. When I ask for forgiveness, He doesn't pull out a clipboard and say, "But I've already forgiven him for that five hundred and sixteen times."

He doesn't remember. "As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us" (Psalm 103:12). "I will be merciful toward their iniquities" (Hebrews 8:12, RSV). "Even if you are stained as red as crimson, I can make you white as wool!" (Isaiah 1:18, TLB). No, He doesn't remember.

Do yourself a favor. Purge your cellar. Exorcise your basement. Take the Roman nails of Calvary and board up the door. And remember?He forgot.

SPREAD THE WORD THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Our lights will shine all the brighter for Christ when we realize that God has forgiven and forgotten our sin.

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