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Psalm 25:6-7
"Remember, O LORD, your great mercy and love, for they are from of old. Remember not the sins of my youth and my rebellious ways; according to your love remember me, for you are good, O LORD."
This is one of Terri and my memory verses. Each morning we review several verses so that we won’t lose God’s Word from our memory. One of the things that you’re supposed to do when you memorize verses is to meditate on them and review what they mean. It imbeds them in your mind so that they become more than just memorized words, but a part of you. Well, I’ll have to admit that I don’t always do this but one morning when we were reciting our verses, I was struck by David’s request of the Lord. “Remember not the sins of my youth and my rebellious ways.” As I thought about it, I realized that as we get older, the days of our youth are longer and longer. If you push it to the limit, the days of our youth run right up to yesterday! Does God refuse to remember our past sins?
Ageless Love
First of all, we need to affirm as David did that His mercy and love have always been around. "Then the King will say to those on his right, `Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.'" (Matt 25:34) One of the ways that this can be seen is in the fact that He has prepared a kingdom for us since the creation of the world. He didn't at some point in history decide to love us. He has loved us and has prepared His kingdom for us from the very beginning of the world.
"...Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world." (Rev 13:8) Not only has He planned a kingdom for us, but even before that He planned how He would save us by the sacrifice of Jesus. His love for us is definitely not an afterthought.
"For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ." (Eph 1:4-5a) Not only did He plan on how to save us, but He planned on have a Father-child relationship with us. This is based on His love. When David said His love from of old it was an understatement. God has loved us before time began.
"The inhabitants of the earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the creation of the world..." (Rev 17:8b) Even though God has loved us before time began, there are some people who will not experience His Love. He has known even that from the creation of the world. We need to look at this a bit more.
Bad News
“For you write down bitter things against me and make me inherit the sins of my youth.” (Job 13:26) During Job’s trials and suffering, he certainly wouldn’t have thought that God forgets our sins. He even felt that God had written them down and caused them to haunt him the rest of his life. “At the end of your life you will groan, when your flesh and body are spent. You will say, ‘How I hated discipline! How my heart spurned correction! I would not obey my teachers or listen to my instructors. I have come to the brink of utter ruin in the midst of the whole assembly.’” (Prov 5:11-14) In a sense, Job was right. For a person who spurs wisdom and God’s discipline, his sins will haunt him into his old age. They will not only cause spiritual but also physical problems for him.
“Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, ‘See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.’” (John 5:14) After Jesus healed the invalid at the Sheep Gate pool, He made it clear that sin would cause something even worse in his life than being an invalid. This man had been disabled for thirty-eight years. Were the sins of his youth the cause of his physical problems? We can’t say for sure, but Jesus made it clear that his future was certainly dependent on his current sinning. At this point in the man's life, Jesus was aware of his sins and they weren't forgotten. Several times, Jesus told people that their sins were forgiven, but He didn't say this to the man healed by the pool.
“May the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the LORD; may the sin of his mother never be blotted out. May their sins always remain before the LORD, that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth.” (Ps 109:14-15) David also made some unusual requests concerning his enemies. While he didn’t want God to remember his own offenses, he was quick to ask God to remember and punish the evils of his enemies. He also considered his enemies God’s enemies. David knew that the chief reason God would or would not remember a person's sins was based on his or her relationship with the Lord. As we look through the Bible we can see that we are either a friend-child of God or an enemy. There is no middle ground.
Good News
"As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him." ( Ps 103:12-14) You can be a friend of God, and if you are then you should also have a Father-child relationship with the Lord. He has compassion on His children, not His enemies. Our sins are removed from us only when we become His children.
“Surely it was for my benefit that I suffered such anguish. In your love you kept me from the pit of destruction; you have put all my sins behind your back.” (Isa 38:17) Isaiah also understood this relationship. While he spent much of his life prophesying about the doom and destruction of Judah, he understood that his own sins were always in his past. While he also suffered in his life, it wasn’t because of his sins.
"I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more." (Isa 43:25) We also need to remember that God doesn't blot out our sins and call us His children because we are cute adorable little babies. No, He does it for His own reasons, His own sake. "He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy." (Titus 3:5a) While this is a marvelous truth, it is at the same time the simplest and the hardest to understand. It causes some of the greatest debates among scholars and also keeps the proud from entering into the Father-child relationship. Perhaps that's why we do have to come to Him as little children.
"You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea." (Mic 7:19) Can you picture God taking all our sins and grinding them under His foot until they are an unrecognizable powder? He then scoops up the residue in to a bag weighted down with lead. He winds up and pitches the bag into the Mariana Trench where it sinks to a depth of 6.8 miles. Nobody is going to be digging them up from there! The good news is that when He removes our sins, they are gone forever.
"Because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says: 'This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.' Then he adds: 'Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.' And where these have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sin." (Heb 10:14-18) While Micah presented an interesting description of how God removes our sins, He actually accomplished it when Jesus sacrificed Himself on the cross. We would probably all be more comfortable keeping the image of the Lord simply tossing our sins in the sea, however it wasn't that easy. To tread our sins underfoot, Jesus first had to bear the consequences of our sins when He suffered and died on the cross. In a sense, the Father was treading His own Son underfoot in order to remove our sins from us. Jesus only had to do that once and it was enough. Because of that sacrifice and His resurrection, we have His laws in our hearts and our minds by the Holy Spirit. God is omniscient, which means that it is impossible for Him to forget anything. Instead, our Lord chooses to not remember our sins. (By the way, this is a key point for us when we choose to forgive someone. Instead of remembering offenses, we have to divert our thinking when they come to mind and remember only to not dwell on them.)
"Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God." (John 1:12) We have to get back to the relationship. Only we who have established or accepted this relationship with Jesus can be His children. "He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him." (John 5:23b) Anyone who doesn't believe and receive Jesus doesn't honor Him and can't call God his Father.
Guilt
If God doesn't remember our sins, why do we? I know that sometimes it's good to remember simply as a warning to keep us from repeating sins, however, some people get into a devastating downward spiral of guilt over their sins. One of two things is happening here. The person doesn't have a relationship with Jesus and is truly guilty. He needs to receive Jesus as Lord and Savior so that he can experience the love that God has for us. The other person is a Christian, who for various reasons hasn't understood or applied the truth of God's forgiveness to his own life.
"Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water." (Heb 10:19-23) There is only one solution to guilt. It has nothing to do with forgiving ourselves as some preach, but has everything to do with accepting God's love in Jesus and drawing close to Him. This requires faith in God - pure and simple. When we draw close to Him, He takes care of our guilty conscience.
According to your love remember me, for you are good, O LORD.
In Jesus,
Ray Ruppert
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Last Updated - 08/29/10 08:14 PM
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