God and Forgiveness

How many times have you heard someone make the statement, often while angry at a wrong committed against them, that, “I’ll forgive but I won’t forget!” Sadly, this form of holding a grudge is as common as it is nonproductive of true forgiveness. Even when not actually stated, this business of forgiving but not forgetting can be harbored in the mind of the one who believes that they have been treated unjustly. Worse still, this very low bar for genuine forgiveness can be superimposed on God as the way that HE forgives mankind of our failings. Ill-conceived, this idea has consequences, devastating consequences, on the person who views God in this skewed light. With such a misconception comes the mistaken view that, while God’s Word says that He is, upon repentance, a completely forgiving God, we can misunderstand Him and be convinced that God doesn’t really forget about our wrongdoings but instead gives shelter to remembering exactly what that sin was and is just waiting to see if we will commit it once again.

Before we turn to Scripture which clearly sets forth the complete absolution which God grants when forgiving, it is crucial to examine what can happen to a person who erroneously adopts the notion that God’s forgiveness is partial and His memory of that breach long. Thus, the one who commits a sin, which they perceive not to be truly absolved, feels great shame and culpability about what they have done.

My friend and trusted blog advisor, Michael Canale, said it so well when he stated that such a state of mind results in guilt – and that this guilt is highly destructive to the one who is experiencing it. He said that the longer a person carried this guilt, the heavier its burden. “It crushes you. You’re not yourself anymore. Unrelieved guilt will take away your soul. It is a thief that will steal it all – your joy and things you never thought it could steal. It will eat at the core of who you are.” If this is the belief of a person who has already confessed and repented of their wrongdoing, he or she is simply mistaken in their understanding of Scripture and of God’s character and practices. The result is needless suffering and, most egregiously, making God  into someone He is not.

The title of this blog, The Sea of Forgetfulness, an iconic phrase which is based on Micah 7:18-19, records this prophet’s description of how God truly approaches forgiveness:

“You will again have compassion on us, You will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depth of the sea.” (NIV)

“You don’t nurse your anger and don’t stay angry very long, for mercy is your specialty. That’s what you love most…You’ll sink our sins to the bottom of the ocean.” ( The Message)

Literally, these verses set forth that God plunges all of our transgressions into the abyss of the sea. I think that The Message translation is particularly moving snd illustrative of God’s state of mind, when it says that He doesn’t “nurse” his anger. Used in this sense, the word “nurse” is stating that He doesn’t keep it steadily in His mind – as man sometimes nurses a grudge. Such a concept is anathema to God. Nursing grudges is a human habit and a bad one at that. God has no part in such brooding remembrance. What about the memories of forgiven sin – What more does the Bible say about this? Jeremiah 31:34 is the seminal verse in this regard. Many thanks to Michael’s dear friend, Rabbi Jan Goldstein, for giving us this verse and the next. Your sage teaching has greatly enhanced this blog! Now, to Jeremiah 31:34:

“For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” ( NIV)

“I’ll wipe the slate clean for each of them. I’ll forget they ever sinned,”  (The Message)

For those who can’t forget their God-forgiven wrongs, God is saying, “What wrong?” He just doesn’t recall it at all. You are carrying a burden and guilt He never intended. Psalm 103:12 further elaborates on this as David wrote:

“…as far as the east is from the west,
So far has He removed our transgressions.”
(NIV)

This is an especially telling statement, as Bible Scholar, David Collins wrote in his own blog:

“…you cannot measure the distance between the east and the west…The Hebrew word for east is kadem, meaning everlasting. “

So is God’s forgiveness. We can’t measure how God has distanced Himself from our sins! That being the case, why would we cling to them? When we live guilt-ridden lives, we hold the keys to our own prison cells. As stated earlier, this is highly destructive to our lives. Michael says that it interferes with our ability to correctly discern the actual will of God as to our life missions, because we are too busy doing penance under our own steam and according to what we feel assuages our misplaced guilt. It is a distraction of the enemy who is as clever as he is diabolical.

When David penned this 103rd Psalm, he was older and had committed serious sin. He well understood the weight of his wrongs. Yet, by this time, he also knew God and understood the magnitude of His mercy and reprieve.

Likewise, Isaiah writes of this forgiveness for glaring, flagrant sin:

“Come now, let us settle the matter,” says the LORD.
‘Though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red as crimson,
They shall be as wool..”
Isaiah 1:18 (NIV)

The Message states this verse in a particularly apt way, based on the subject of this blog:

“Come. Sit down. Let’s argue this out.
This is God’s message:
‘If your sins are blood-red,
they’ll be snow-white.
If they’re red like crimson,
they’ll be like wool.”
(Isaiah 1:18) The Message

To all those who are burdened by guilt when God has long since forgiven and forgotten, may we simply say:

Come, friend. Sit down. Read this blog. Let”s argue this out. God offers freedom; the enemy chains. You’re at a  crossroads with your choice. Choose freedom. Accept the glory of God and the cleansing waters of His Sea of Forgetfulness.