A friend recently made this comment. “I think that the level at which we understand forgiveness shows the level at which we understand the gospel.” Personally, I believe this to be a very accurate statement because the gospel of Jesus Christ is essentially a gospel of forgiveness. Brian Zahnd, in his book Unconditional? said that “if Christianity isn’t about forgiveness, it’s about nothing at all.” (Zahnd, p. 2) Christ came to earth as a man and died so that his church might be forgiven of their sins. Jesus lived a life of forgiveness. Even as he was being killed Jesus cried out, “forgive them (his murderers) for they do not know what they are doing.” The gospel is a gospel of forgiveness and the extent to which we understand forgiveness reflects the extent to which we understand the gospel.
There is a cliché about forgiveness that has been making the rounds for years now. This cliché is one that is harmful to our understanding of true forgiveness. It misrepresents the very character of God and the gospel which he brings to us in Jesus Christ.
The cliché is “forgive and forget.” The logic is that if God forgives and forgets (by the way – the word “forget” is used to refer to an “inability to remember”) our sins, then we must do the same. Jeremiah 31:34 is the verse most often cited for this opinion. The second half of the verse reads as follows: “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” A strictly literal interpretation demands the interpretation of forgive and forget. But is that what is really being said here?
When one asserts that God forgives and forgets and that we must also forgive and forget there are two issues that must be dealt with. Two issues that would seem to be very serious. One issue is on a practical level and the other is on a theological level.
The Theological Issue
The first issue I want to address is the theological issue. How does the idea that God actually forgets match up with the doctrine of God’s omniscience? Can an all-knowing God really forget something? Can an all-knowing God really cease to know something? The obvious answer is “no” because the moment that God ceases to know something (anything) he ceases to be omniscient. In the Gospel of John 16:30 the disciples said to Jesus (who was also God), “we know that you know all things.” He knows all things.
So then, what about Jeremiah 31:34? Is this verse in error? Not at all! When God says that he will “remember no more” he is referring to a covenant with the sinners. He does not cease to remember the sin, but chooses, at the moment of forgiveness, to treat the repentant sinner as if the sin had never occurred.
If we were to look in depth at the doctrine of justification we would discover that it is very similar to forgiveness. The essence of justification is that God no longer treats the believer as if he is sinner, but the sinner is given the righteousness of Christ and is therefore treated as being sinless. The fact of the sin remains, but God chose to treat Christ (by killing him on the cross) as if he had been the sinner, and treat the believer (now being justified) as the sinless one. Think about it. If God had chosen to forget or ignore the problem of our sin and had not provided a payment for it, he would have violated his own justice. Since God cannot violate his own justice he could not ignore the payment of sin. But instead of holding the believing sinner accountable he forgave the believer and transferred the penalty to Christ.
It comes down to this. God cannot forget because it is the very nature of God not to forget. If he were to forget anything he would cease to be God. God cannot forget because to forget or ignore the sin and it’s penalty would mean that all men would still be damned to hell as the necessary consequence for our sin.
The Practical Issue
Time and time again in the New Testament we (as believers) are entreated and commanded to imitate Christ. “Be holy as I am Holy” is the most familiar of these. In the Lord’s prayer Christ provided us with a template of how to pray. In this prayer is the phrase, “forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” The debt that we owe as human beings is the debt of sin, or rather the penalty of it. Christ essentially says here that we are to forgive those who are debtors to us in the same manner that Christ forgave us. Basically, forgive those who sin against us as Christ forgives us when we sin against him.
There are a few instances in my life, as I’m sure there are in all our lives, in which I have had to extend forgiveness to someone who had sinned against me. For those sins that did not affect or hurt me very much, I did not have much trouble actually forgetting. To this day I probably cannot recall every single person who has ever sinned against me or the specific manner in which they wronged me. I do, however, specifically remember some of the sins that others have committed against me. Those sins incurred hurt on me that will not easily (if ever) be forgotten. But, just because I am not able to forget the specific instance does not mean that I am unable to forgive. I am confident that every individual person reading this has had the same experience.
Forgiveness is a choice, not an ability to remember or forget. It is a choice and a promise to not condemn the person who has sinned against you.
Conclusion
As we look at forgiveness it is true that God “remembers no more” our sins. Not that he has divine amnesia, but rather that he promises to treat us as if we bear the righteousness of Christ. The same is true for us as we forgive others.
In the light of true forgiveness, God’s love shines so much brighter. It thrills my soul that he loves me, not forgetting my sin, but in spite of my sin! We truly do have an awesome God and an awesome gospel.
Forgive and forget? No. God offers a much better forgiveness than that!
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