“Oh my, I forgot!!” When was the last time you returned home from the grocery store, only to slap your forehead in disgust when you realized you’d forgotten the most important item on your list? Be honest! I know I’m not the only one who does it . . .
Question: Have you ever thought about forgetfulness as a grace of God?
Answer: It is when we are talking about God forgetting our sin!
For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.(Jeremiah 31:34)
Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more. And where these have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sin. (Hebrews 10:17-18)
When you and I forget, is it usually a bad thing. We forget the appointment. We forget to return a phone call. We forget to pick up the dry cleaning. We forget where we left our cell phone! Yet God’s forgetfulness is a good thing, and a source of great encouragement and motivation for sinful, self-absorbed vessels like you and me.
Thank God He is not like us! Not only do we clearly remember every time someone wrongs us, grieves us, or hurts us; we are quick to remind the culprit, even when we claim to have forgiven him! But God, identified as “the Judge of all the earth” in Genesis 18:25, forgives and forgets.
What grace we receive in remembering God’s forgetfulness! And why does God forgive and forget our sin . . . all of our sin? Because of Jesus.
God poured out His holy wrath on His beloved Son as He hung on the cross. He treated Jesus like you and I should have been treated. He punished Jesus like we should have been punished. He forsook Jesus like we should have been forsaken. And because Jesus paid the full price for our sins, God now treats us as adopted children rather than abandoned orphans. In Christ we are viewed by God as sinless and righteous. We are blessed according to the perfect obedience of Jesus, rather than our own hideously imperfect obedience. Because of Jesus, God has promised to remember our sin no more.
Is there anyone reading these words right now who does not need to be reminded about God’s forgetfulness as it relates to our sinfulness? We all remember when a sense of guilt and shame watered down our witness—or worse, wrecked it afresh. And that is exactly what the devil is counting on. He cannot take us out of our Redeemer’s work, so he wants to take us out of our Redeemer’s will. The more guilty we feel, the less good we do. The more shame we feel, the less service we provide. We forget God’s forgetfulness!
That is why we need to keep our thoughts fixed on the grace of the gospel and what Jesus secured for us through our redemption.
This is the gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
Grace for the Race 