FORGIVEN

Jesus tells us, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life” (John 5:24). The Greek word Jesus uses for condemnation here is judgment. He is saying, “If you believe in me, you won’t come into judgment, but will pass from death over to life.”

Indeed, Scripture tells us from cover to cover that once the Lord forgives our sins, he wipes them from his memory.

“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).

“I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more” (Jeremiah 31:34).

“I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more” (Hebrews 8:12).

“This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord. I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more” (Hebrews 10:16-17).

“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 7:19).

Here is abundant good news for every Christian who’s ever sweated, striven or worked to mortify the deeds of his flesh in his own strength. Does this include you? How many promises have you made to God, only to break them? How many times have you tried to please the Lord by fighting off your lusts and habits, only to fail once again?

Here is your good news, reported in the book of Micah: “I, the Lord, will subdue all your iniquities.” God has given us image after image in these passages of how he wipes our sins from memory. He blots them out; he remembers them no more; he buries them in the sea; he “subdues” them—meaning, he chases them down and captures them.

Isaiah even tells us God takes our trespasses and flips them over his shoulder. “Thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back” (Isaiah 38:17). This means God will never look at our sins or acknowledge them again.

Now let me ask you—if God forgets our sins, why don’t you and I? Why do we always allow the devil to dig up some muck or mire from our past and wave it in our face, when all our sin is already covered by Christ’s blood?

The cleansing, forgiving power of Christ’s blood is all-encompassing. It covers our entire lives!