How God Forgets

[God] made you alive together with [Christ], having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.
–Colossians 2:13–14

What does God do for us when He forgives us? Does He forget our sins?

In Romans 4:7–8, Paul quoted Psalm 32 to describe how God forgives: “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven, and whose sins have been covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account.” The Greek word translated as “take into account” is an accounting term. When God forgives us through Jesus Christ, He marks our debt as paid in full. We never have to worry that God is going to ask for another payment for our sins. Our sin debt has been paid once and for all.

It is possible to forgive a debt without forgetting it. Some years ago, my wife and I decided to give one of our cars to our church. But I had lost the title. Before I could get a title to make the transfer, I had to call the lending agency to show that there wasn’t a lien against the car–that the debt had been paid. Suppose the agency had said, “Sorry, we have a policy that as soon as a loan is paid off, we destroy the records of the debt.” Would that happen? No, those computers have long, long memories. Or suppose the agency had said, “We found a record of your loan showing that you paid it off. But it looks like we offered you an unusually low interest rate. So we recalculated what you owe us. Please send us a check for $2,000.” Fortunately, they didn’t do that either. Instead, they mailed me a copy of my title that had been stamped “Paid.” They not only remembered the debt but also recalled that payment had been made to satisfy the debt.

That’s what God does for each of us. God doesn’t forget our sins. He could never forget the sins that demanded the death of His own Son. But He also recalls the payment that Jesus made on our behalf. In 1 John 2:1, John said, “If anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” When Satan accuses us, we have an Advocate who says, “Remember, Father, I paid the debt in full.” It is possible to recall a debt and still also forgive the debt.

Today’s devotion is adapted from “Forgiving Without Forgetting,” by Dr. Robert Jeffress, 2015.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.lockman.org.