Does God really forget our sins?

It does not say that God forgets them, it says He remembers them no more, and the difference is important. I might owe a heavy bill to a tradesman, and he might forget all about it and not present it for payment. That does not cancel the debt. But if he presents it and I pay it, it is done with. He does not send it to me again. He remembers it against me no more. The sins were not forgotten, the full account of them was rendered for payment at the cross, and the blood of Jesus has obliterated the dreadful score. Justice is satisfied, and the question will never arise again. Our sins and iniquities are remembered no more.

(1) First, the year is changed; the preceding months are blotted out, as it were, and God begins time afresh for them with the paschal month. Grace it is that gives this new beginning, and grace can do nothing kinder than blot out the past. And so with our history, until that is known which is the antitype of the passover here. It will have its use, no doubt, as a lesson; all is not, in that sense, lost: will any thing in the world's history even be really so? All will have its moral in the fast-hastening day of revelation, and instead of being forgotten, will abide in profit for us forever. But when God says, "I will remember no more," it has a very different meaning. He can no more forget than He can repent; yet, relatively, both terms can be used of Him. He does not remember our sins when He treats us, and is to us, as if these had never happened — when we can find nothing whatever in His conduct toward us which indicates His remembrance of them; when they are not merely not a cloud in our heaven any longer, but not even a mote in the sunshine of His perfect love.

29 Verse 17. "And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more." According to these words it was necessary that the question of sin should be solved, for God does not say, "I will not remember," but, "I will remember no more." He saw our sins and remembered them, since He determined upon the death of Christ to abolish them. And now that they are abolished He remembers them neither to-day, tomorrow, nor for ever.

(Vv. 15-18). The passage has presented the will of God as the source of our blessing, and the work of Christ as the efficacious means by which the blessing is secured. Now the Apostle presents the witness of the Spirit as the One who brings to us the knowledge of the truth with divine authority, so that it may be possessed with divine certainty. In other Scriptures we read of the witness of the Spirit in us (Romans 8:16); here it is the witness of the Spirit to us. The witness “to us” is what the Spirit has said in Scripture, as we read, “after that He had said before”. Then follows the quotation from Jeremiah 31:34, already quoted in Hebrews 8, to present the terms of the new covenant. Here the quotation is repeated to prove that the efficacy of the work of Christ is such that God can say of believers, “Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.” God does not say, “Their sins and iniquities I will not remember”, but “Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.” The simple statement that God would not remember our sins might imply that He passed them over. But when God says they will be remembered “no more”, it implies that they have all been remembered, confessed, borne and dealt with in judgment. As they have been dealt with, God can righteously say they will be remembered “no more”.

Then, as to the forgiveness of sins, not only does God forgive, but (if I may use such an expression) He forgets not in the human sense, as if it had passed from His consciousness, but in a divine sense, that it is no more against His people. It is as though our sins had never occurred. He says, "Their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." The apostle shows later that if there is no more remembrance of sins, there is no more need for a sacrifice. All is divinely settled. "What though the accuser roar Of ills that I have done? I know them all, and thousands more; Jehovah findeth none."

(2.) It is not as if God forgot the things, but He does not remember them — hold them in His mind — against them in any way. If I say I forget as well as forgive, it only speaks of the completeness, not, if the thing is called up, that my memory has ceased to know it as a fact. If I give an account of myself to God, I must do it completely or I should lose something of the goodness of Him who has called and saved me. Paul lost nothing in saying, "Lord, they know that I imprisoned and beat in every synagogue," etc.

Now, should we have sinned, after our conversion to God, we have God's forgiveness, for He says, to us, His children, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins." Therefore, the precious thought for us to lay hold of is, that none of the sins, that we have committed, and afterward confessed to Him, will ever be remembered by Him, for they are forgiven and put away from memory. We can feel perfectly at home in His presence, knowing with absolute certainty, that He will remember our sins no more. God alone has the power to say that He will remember (sins) no more.

A. ― 1, 2. I must preface my remarks on these questions by stating, first, that a sin is never forgiven till it is committed; let us be clear as to this: when I, as a poor sinner, believe the gospel, God forgives my sins on the ground of what the Lord Jesus Christ has done; He is just and consistent with Himself in doing so, as a righteous God. He justifies me, and I am pardoned for all the sins I have committed: God remembers them no more for ever. But more, I find, after all, that I am still a sinner, and that if God in grace has removed the fruit off a bad tree, the tree is still there, and may produce a new crop. Then I learn another truth, not only that Christ died for me and bore my sins, but that I have died with Him, and thus for faith, as for God, the old tree is gone, that nature which produced the sins, for which there is no forgiveness. As dead with Christ, I am justified from sin, and the Christ, who has died and risen, is now the true "I" ― a new graft on an old tree which has been cut down; "Christ liveth in me." The old tree is there, and if I am not watchful it may ― alas, it does appear; for "in many things we offend all." Now, I cannot say that I am forgiven for what I never have committed; for forgiveness has reference to actions which have been committed, not to the nature which produced the evil thing. Forgiveness assumes that the sins are in existence to which the forgiveness applies. Neither can I say that I must sin in the future ― I may do so if not watchful; and if I do so, it is the allowance of the action of the old nature, which, as long as unconfessed and unforgiven, hinders fellowship and joy. As for imputation, that cannot be, because Christ has borne the wrath for me, and is in God's presence on high. I cannot enjoy the presence of God ― and God will not allow me to do so ― so long as the sin is unconfessed and unjudged. The righteousness has not changed in which I stand before God, as Christ is there, but the sin is on my conscience. God has said in His Word, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins," etc. I lay hold upon that principle by faith, and lay my heart bare before Him; a deep and painful work, much more so than asking forgiveness, for which I have no divine warrant after redemption was accomplished, and which is really "taking it easy." It is easy enough to ask to be forgiven, but a painful work for the heart to take the motive from which the evil action came, and the thoughts which conceived it ("when lust hath conceived it bringeth forth sin," James 1) to God, and to tell them out in the presence of a grace that does not impute it to me, and which breaks my heart down more than all else could. My heart thinks of the agony it cost Christ to put away that sin before God's eye ― feels, too, what it is to have a sin on my conscience, and learns the restoring grace of God, who is faithful and just to forgive me my sin; and more ― "to cleanse" me ― to remove the remembrance of it from my conscience in full restoring grace.

As to the other point, it is impossible that our sins should be imputed to us; "once purged" we "have no more conscience of sins." God, as judge, sees the blood which has taken them away, and His unchangeable righteousness has now been manifested. It is here that we find the force of εἰς τὸ διηνεκὲς. Besides, when once sprinkled with the blood of Christ this sprinkling is not repeated, its efficacy lasts for ever; but with the Father I seek forgiveness as from a Father whom I have offended. I am humbled before Jesus because I have dishonoured Him, but I have no thought that anything can be imputed to me which demands the sprinkling of blood. The ashes of the red heifer, and the washing of the feet are the figures to apply here; the sprinkling of blood has been made, and it is not repeated. In the sense of imputation and sprinkling, forgiveness is not now sought; in the sense of having offended one's Father, it is. The confession of one's faults with humiliation is all right, if grace is fully maintained before the heart.

It is just the same principle in the last passage, as indeed in a crowd of others. 1 John 1:9 does not modify, much less contradict, this. It is involved in repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Nor does Hebrews 10:17 clash either, as some might think. No sin is remembered as a question of pardon; nothing is forgotten as a question of divine vindication and retribution. We shall know as we are known, and God be magnified in all His ways.