"Seek the LORD while He may be found;
call on Him while He is near.
Let the wicked man forsake his way
and the unrighteous man his thoughts;
let him return to the LORD,
that He may have compassion,
and to our God,
for He will freely pardon."
(Isaiah 55:6-7)
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"For I will forgive their iniquities and will remember their sins no more."
(Hebrews 8:12)
THE PROMISE OF MERCY
There are some things which God cannot do.
Though it is true He is Omnipotent, yet there are some things He cannot do. God cannot lie.
He cannot forsake His people. He cannot disown His covenant; and this is one of the things
it might be thought He could not do, that is, forget. Is it impossible for God to forget?
We finite creatures suffer many things to slip, but can the Almighty ever do so?
That God who counteth the stars and calleth them all by their names, who knoweth how
many animalculae there are in the mighty ocean-who notices every grain of dust that floats
in the summer air, and is acquainted with every leaf of the forest, can He cease to remember?
Perhaps we may answer, "No." Not as to the absolute face of the committal of the deed;
but there are senses in which the expression is entirely accurate.
In what sense are we to understand God's forgetfulness of our sins?
First of all, He will not exact punishment for them when we come before
His judgment bar at last. The Christian will have many accusers.
The devil will come and say, "That man is a great sinner."
"I don't remember it," says God.
"That man rebelled against Thee and cursed Thee," says the accuser.
"I do not remember it," says God, for I have said I will not remember his sins."
Conscience says, "Ah, but Lord, it is true, I did sin against Thee and that most grievously.
"I do not remember it," says God, "I said, I will not remember his sins."
Let all the demons of the pit clamour in God's ear, and let them vehemently shout out
a list of our sins; we may stand boldly forth at that great day and sing,
"Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?"
for God does not even remember their sin. The Judge does not remember it, and who then
shall punish? Unrighteous as we were; wicked as we have been; yet He has forgotten it all.
He says, "I will cast thy sins into the depths of the sea," not into the shallows were they
might be fished up again, but into the depths of the sea, where Satan himself cannot find them.
There are no such things as sins recorded against God's people. Christ has so taken
them away, that sin becomes a nonentity to Christians-it is all gone,
and through Jesus' blood they are clean.
-Charles Haddon Spurgeon
