Guilt is awful. Guilt can become an all-consuming feeling leading to depression and causing us to do things we normally would not do. When one is living fully God’s way of life one would never feel guilt or be guilty. Only Jesus was ever able to accomplish living the guilt free life. We are sinners (Rom. 3:23) and therefore will suffer from guilt during our lives. We need to understand how God feels about our guilt and we need to rid ourselves of our guilt. Fortunately God is a forgetful God! You read that right, God is “forgetful” and it is fortunate for us that He is.
Consider what David writes in Psalms 103:12 “…as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgression from us”. In verse 3 he says, “…who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases.” David should know as he was a murderer and an adulterer but he knew God forgives and forgets our sins. David was a man after God’s own heart as we should be. He was able to live guilt free after repentance.
The minor prophet Micah encourages us to understand that God “…pleads my case” (Micah 7:9) and in verse 19 he will “hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.” He also understood that God forgives and forgets our iniquities (sins).
Imagine our guilt from the point of view of God and Jesus sitting at His right hand. We as an imperfect human sin a terrible sin. We then ask God in prayer for His forgiveness of our sinful act. Jesus intercedes for us and God forgives us. But our human emotional guilt hangs on. Our stomach churns in despair. We can’t sleep at night, we continue to ask God for forgiveness. Finally we rise up in the morning and ask Jesus to intercede on our behalf again. We pray for forgiveness again, Jesus says to His Father (Imaginary conversation between God and Jesus in Heaven), “Dad I have received a request for forgiveness from X again. Do you know what he is talking about?” God says, “No we erased any sin he had from the books yesterday. I haven’t a clue what he is talking about or what sin he is referring too.” Fortunately for us God forgets our sins.
Paul writes in Heb. 8:12”For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” God forgives and forgets our sins. We also see in Heb. 10:17, “Then he adds: Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more”. God is forgetful of our sins when we repent and ask for His merciful forgiveness.
God forgives and forgets our sins. Guilt is a terrible human emotion and God gives us the ability to lose the guilt. We should understand forgiveness as David did even though he had sinned so mightily. We should do as Paul told the Philippians in Phil 2:5, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus” (KJV). By being like Jesus, who had no guilt, by understanding God “forgives” and “forgets” our sins we will have a more happy productive guilt free Christian life. Fortunately for all mankind, God is forgetful!
All verses N.I.V. except where noted.
