“Forgive And Forget”

At the onset of a new year, perhaps this post is timely.

In Jeremiah 31.34 (and this passage is quoted again in Hebrews 10.17), God says, “I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”

A while back, I read a good thought on this passage:

“Since God is omniscient, ‘forgetting’ is not an intellectual matter with Him. It is a functional issue. Of course He knows what we did, but when we repent, He can act just like it never happened.”¹

I think this idea is helpful as we wrestle with the difficult task of forgiving those who have wronged us in some way. Biblical forgiveness isn’t some sort of amnesia where you literally cannot remember the evil that someone else has done to you; rather, it is the conscious choice of will to act as if we cannot remember it. This is how God forgives us, and is how we must forgive others in turn.

What a comfort and what a challenge that is in light of the admonition of Ephesians 4.32: “Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.”

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1Danny Boggs in More Strength for the Journey: A Daily Devotional Guide, 271.