“I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins,” Isaiah 43:25.
“I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto me; for I have redeemed thee,” Isaiah 44:22.
“In those days, and in that time, saith the LORD, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found: for I will pardon them whom I reserve,” Jeremiah 50:20.
“Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy. He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea,” Micah 7:18-19.
“For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more,” Hebrews 8:12.
Memory loss and old age go hand in hand! It is both vexing and inconvenient to suffer memory loss and many a mental struggle takes place as efforts are made to call to mind that which has ‘mysteriously’ disappeared from our memory bank.
Now, the Lord does not suffer from such an effect of ‘old age’ but we may use the term ‘memory loss’ regarding His memory of the sins of His elect. Micah says of their sins that God will “cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.” That which sinks into the depths, of the seas is termed ‘lost’ in the language of the mariner. The bed of the world’s oceans and seas are littered with vessels long lost and never seen by human eyes again.
Even so it is with the sins of God’s people!
The verses at the head of our article are but some of the verses from the Bible which set forth God’s most merciful ‘putting away’ of even the memory of the sins of His pardoned people.
I am sure I am not alone in having a horror of my sins being revealed before mankind at the judgment! How blessedly sweet and comforting it is to read words like those of the texts above, when tortured by such thoughts. (more…)
As the introduction to this article states, it is the substance of two school assembly talks, in Kilskeery Independent Christian School, I gave to the children back in 2016 to mark ‘Holocaust Memorial Day’, January 27th.