“Their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.” (Heb. 10) It is a common saying amongst men, “I can forgive, but I cannot forget.” The tide of human affection may rise, at times, to such a height as to cover the tablet on which memory has engraved the record of my misdeeds; but when the tide retires, the record is there. Not so the love of God, that mighty floodtide not only covers the tablet, but obliterates the inscription forever, so that not a trace of it remains. “Their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.”
Precious words! God can not only forgive but forget.
“The trembling sinner feareth
That God can ne’er forget;
But one full payment cleareth
His memory of all debt.
When naught beside could ease as
Or set our souls at large,
Thy holy work, Lord Jesus,
Secured a full discharge.”
Here is true rest for the exercised conscience. “The blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanseth us from all sin.” (1 John 1) The eye of infinite holiness cannot discern a single stain of guilt upon the conscience that has been once purged by the precious blood of Christ. All the sins and iniquities of the believer are plunged in the waters of eternal oblivion. God has pledged Himself never to remember them. He can say, “I have not beheld iniquity in Jacob.” Man cannot undertake to forget. He cannot prevent memory from throwing up, at times, upon its surface, the record of the past; but God can. The atoning work of Jesus has forever canceled the believer’s guilt, so that it can never again rise against him.
Reader, hast thou been led by God’s Spirit, and by the action of the word, to see thy guilt in the light of the divine presence? Hast thou been brought to own thyself utterly lost? If so, thou canst, at this moment, enter into all the tranquillizing power of those most blessed words, “Thy sins and thine iniquities will I remember no more.” Jesus paid thy debt — paid it on the cross — paid it in blood. Believe this, on the authority of God, and thy soul shall have the sweetest peace. If God assures thee that He will no more remember thy sins and iniquities, then verily peace — divine and eternal peace is thy settled portion — peace founded on the blood of Christ and the imperishable record of God.