One of the most incredible aspects of God is His ability to forgive our transgressions of His law. But what is even more incredible is that after He forgives what we have done, He forgets it as well! In fact, God cannot remember.

In His wisdom, God realized that there is no real forgiveness if there is still a record of the transgression. When criminals have served their prison time, we say that they have “paid their debt to society.” But in fact, their crime is still on their record and that record follows them for the remainder of their lives. The debt is paid, but there is no forgiveness because there is still a record.

One of the common causes of difficulties in our relationships is our inability to forget. Someone we love hurts us. They see what they’ve done and they ask our forgiveness. And we say we forgive them. And we sincerely think we have. Then something happens where we dredge that memory up and use it to hurt the person back. It takes a lot of effort to deliberately forget that hurt and let it go. It doesn’t happen automatically.

Sometimes, we let little hurts go and don’t address them. When someone slights us, we simply record it in our little mental book. Eric Berne described it as “saving our brown stamps.” Then, when we have enough, we can cash them in on a big hurt and explode at our loved one. They are generally confused because they didn’t know we had been “saving up.”

Does this mean we need to take every little hurt back to our loved one and resolve it right then and there, every time? Not necessarily. One solution is to learn to turn loose of little hurts and let them go. Don’t save the “stamp.” And focus your work on resolving those issues that you can’t release. 

While it’s always difficult for us to forgive and forget, God has no such problem. When we ask Him, He forgives and He instantly forgets. Here are several thoughts:

1. The consequences of our sin are not ignored or set aside. The penalty or consequences for our transgressions have been suffered and the debt has been fully paid by Christ. Romans 3:24 “Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”

2. The price of our redemption was so high. He gave up His own Son. Perhaps we should see others in that same light, especially when they hurt us. The hurt that is inflicted was part of the sin that Jesus paid for with his life. If we understand that He can truly forgive and forget it, perhaps that will help us be able to forgive and forget it as well.

3. The record of our transgression is completely expunged. It is not crossed out or erased so that somebody could reconstruct the record. It is destroyed as if the record never existed. 

4. That’s not all. In addition to having the old record of our sin destroyed, we receive a new record book and in it, we are credited with Christ’s righteousness. II Corinthians 5:21 “For He hath made Him [Christ] to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” When God looks at the record, He sees Christ’s righteousness recorded against our name. That’s pretty big.

But if God is omniscient, how can He not remember. He set up the rules as to how sin would be paid for. Christ paid the cost according to those rules. God then simply follows His own rules. He forgives and forgets.

Psalms 103: 12 "As far as the east is from the west; so far has He removed our transgressions from us."

Hebrews 8:12 "For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more." 

Isaiah 1:18 "Come now, and let us reason together," Says the LORD, "Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool."

I am grateful that not only does God forgive me of all my sins, he forgets them too. When I approach his throne, I do not have to crawl up in shame and hang my head, wondering if he is thinking about all the things I have done and how I have no right to ask him for anything. Not at all!

He doesn’t want that. God wants me to come to Him boldly and with confidence.  Hebrews 4:16  "Let us therefore, come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need."

The old hymn sums it up:

You ask why I am happy so I'll just tell you why,
Because my sins are gone
And when I meet the scoffers who ask me where they are,
I say my sins are gone.

They're underneath the Blood
On the Cross of Calvary
As far removed as darkness is from dawn
In the sea of God's forgetfulness
That's good enough for me
Praise God, my sins are gone!