Righteous Reminders
I recently taught a Bible study lesson on Hebrews 8, which outlines why the new covenant Jesus ushered in is better the covenant of the Old Testament. Under the old covenant, repeated sacrifices were necessary to atone for sin. Each sacrificial offering was a reminder of sin, but none had the power to effectively remove it. Then comes Jesus, whose perfect sacrifice provides full covering and complete remission from all our sins. When a cancer patient is declared in remission, it means that the cancer is gone, fully removed, wiped out completely; no more treatments are necessary. This is precisely what Jesus does for us when we call on Him as Savior. His perfect life, death and resurrection conquered sin once for all, removing our sins as far as the east is from the west. They are completely wiped out. No more sacrifices are necessary. It is finished. God says, “I will be merciful, and I will remember their sins no more.” Because God knows all, He cannot forget. However, He deliberately chooses to not use our sins against us. He doesn’t remind us of our sin because it’s been settled forever. He reminds us of His righteousness.
Jesus personally settled the debt that we owed for our sin. The debt we could never pay. Jesus used this language when He taught the disciples to pray. “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors…” A lot of us have been taught to believe that this means God will only forgive us the amount that we are willing to forgive others. So “if you want God to forgive you, you better forgive others” we hear in a sing-song voice from our childhood. We fail to acknowledge the part where God has already said, “I will remember your sins no more.” We forget that we are fully covered by the righteousness of Christ when we accept our place as His beloved. I know someone who repeatedly brought up a specific sin of a loved one; a sin repented of, turned from, and endured consequences for, yet she couldn’t seem to let it go. I finally asked if she had forgiven him, to which she replied, “Yes, I’ve forgiven him…but sometimes he needs to be reminded.” And while I know I’ve been guilty of that same thinking at times, to hear those words spoken out loud broke my heart. Because I also know that his sin – your sin – my sin has been nailed to the cross and we bear it no more. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul! To use past sins against one another is not of God. God doesn’t ever remind us of our sin; it’s our enemy who does that. Satan condemns and accuses. The Spirit of God convicts and comforts and changes us. Our sin has been cast into the depths of the sea, never to be brought up or used against us again. He reminds us of our remission.
“The extent to which we are willing to forgive others demonstrates the extent to which we understand the depth of forgiveness God has offered to us.” (Jen Wilkin) Take a minute to read that again…so true, but ouch! Do we really get the magnitude of what God has done? Understanding the depth of love and grace God has for us directly impacts the love and grace we offer to others. As He continues to transform us more and more into the image of Christ, we will choose more and more not to remember the sin, and instead offer righteous reminders, both to ourselves and to others.
