"12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”[ Hebrews 8:12 (NKJV)
"15 But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us; for after He had said before, 16 “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,” 17 then He adds, “Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” Hebrews 10:15-17 (NKJV)
"Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more"... God repeated that phrase numerous times in Scripture. I think He wants us to get it! But for some reason we find it hard to accept what God has promised us clearly.
We just don't fully understand just how long lasting God’s forgiveness really is. Maybe that's because we relate God's forgiveness to our own. When I forgive someone, I usually don’t forget it. If they hurt me again, I would tend to remind them of the previous times they’ve wronged me. But it’s not so with God. He forgets because He chooses to forget. He buries my sins deep in a sea of forgetfulness. He won’t remind me of them now or at any point in my future.
If I am being reminded of and therefore feeling guilty of past, forgiven sins, then I can be assured that such oppression is not coming from God. Think about this for a moment. Omniscient, all-wise, all-knowing God made a conscious choice to have a memory lapse when He considers our sin. Even if I do something really bad tomorrow, He will not place me under a load of guilt by reminding me that I’ve done that same thing over and over before.
Does He convict me of sin? Oh yes, but it’s not to condemn me and make me feel guilty. It’s because He loves me so much and knows that sin always carries consequences. Therefore, He wants it out of my daily life. He convicts for my protection and so that I will know the fullness of joy, but the sin itself is already forgiven.
God’s grace reached all the way to me when I accepted Jesus and His death on the cross as payment for all my sin – past, present, and future. On the day I was saved, God took care of all them in advance. And that forgiveness lasts forever. That is grace at its fullest use.
You may have always thought that your salvation experience only took care of the forgiveness of the sins you had committed up until that point. But in fact, ALL of your sins, past, present, and future, were forgiven when you received God’s salvation. How many of your sins did God see on the day He saved you? Did He just see the ones you had already committed? No, He saw every one of them that you would ever commit for the rest of your life and the death of Christ on the cross took care of ALL of them.
In fact, God saw every sin that had been or would ever be committed in all of history, and the death of Christ on the cross was enough to purchase the pardon for all of them. God saw the inherent sin nature of every person throughout history, and the sacrifice of Jesus was enough to offer victory over the sin nature in every life. Once we receive Christ as our Savior and appropriate by faith what He accomplished on the cross, His forgiveness is all-encompassing and all-powerful for ALWAYS!
Never reject the Holy Spirit’s conviction of sin in your life because the purpose of it is to accomplish the abundant lifestyle of holiness that God knows will bring you full joy. But never fall for your enemy’s attacks of guilt. God does not make you feel guilty. He requires no payment from you for your sin. Jesus Christ paid your debt in full on the cross. You are fully forgiven and you will remain fully forgiven forever. NOTHING will ever change that.
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