HE'LL “REMEMBER TO FORGET”, NOT “FORGET TO REMEMBER”

For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. – Heb. 8:12.

I sure am glad the Bible didn’t say that God will “forget” our sins, but that He will “remember them no more”. Some modern versions render this verse as, “God will forget their sins”. But that is inaccurate translation, and dangerous theology.

Even if we’re to somehow accommodate the possibility that an omniscient being can “forget” something, our human experience tells us that people don’t really forget things forever. Just one trigger, one word, one experience, one smell... and memories you thought were long gone into oblivion will start flooding back into your mind. This is especially true of painful memories: events that we consciously suppressed because they hurt us badly in the past.

And nothing could be more hurting to God than our sins and transgressions. If we now say that God forgot our sins, what is the guarantee that it will not pop up in His mind one day during our stay with Him in eternity. Forever is a long time to try to forget something, especially something that hurt you deeply.

The Greek word “remember” (mnaomai) in this verse means “to bear in mind, that is, recollect; by implication to reward or punish”. Indeed, the negation of it in the original is double, that is (ou me), which means “by no means, or by no way”. It is the same phrase used in Rev 21:27 where John, referring to the New Jerusalem says, “there shall in no wise (ou me) enter into it any thing that defileth...”

Beloved, God did not say He will forget to remember our sins, He is saying that, because you have accepted the substitutionary sacrifice of His Son Jesus on the Cross, He will by no means (ou me) bring up your past sins against you.

So when you get to heaven, while all the other saints are singing and rejoicing, you won’t have to sit at the edge of your seat, worried that He will one day recall your disqualification. You have His word: “I, I am the one who wipes away all your sins. I do this to please Myself. I will not remember your sins.” (Is 43:25 ERV).

His acceptance of you today is not based on a concussion He has, it is based on the precious blood of His Son Jesus. Have you gone to that blood for cleansing?

Come now, and let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. – Isa 1:18.

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus Name.

GREG ELKAN