Does God Forget Sins?

 •  2 min. read  •  grade level: 8
Question: Does God forget our sins?
Answer: Had I been asked this twenty-five years ago, my answer would have been a firm “Yes!” while I would have privately doubted your orthodoxy for asking such a question.
However, some years ago, a dear servant of Christ—now home with the Lord Jesus—pointed out something that has stuck with me and has been a real blessing to my soul over the years. He suggested that God forgets nothing. If He did, we could never have total peace concerning our sins. There would always be the possibility that what God forgot He might someday remember.
He illustrated it this way. Suppose I owe you a hundred dollars. You might, over the years, forget that I owe you that money. But if I never paid that debt, I could never enjoy real peace in your presence, because I’d always wonder if something might trigger your memory, causing you to remember my unpaid obligation.
But God, as a sovereign act of His own will and on a righteous basis, chooses not to remember our sins and iniquities, declaring “their sins and iniquities will I remember no more” (Heb. 10:1717And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. (Hebrews 10:17)). In other words, God declares that He will not remember my sins—but He has not said that He will forget them. What settled peace this gives my soul! What joy and peace it ought to give each redeemed soul whose sins have been washed away in the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ—though God is not forgetful, He has chosen not to remember our sins.
“He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward them that fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us.  .  .  .  But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear Him” (Psa. 103:10-12,1710He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. 11For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. 12As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. (Psalm 103:10‑12)
17But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children's children; (Psalm 103:17)).
R. K. Gorgas (adapted)