Forgive and Forget?

                Forgiveness is something that never ceases to amaze me.  I mean, think about it; is forgiveness really that easy?  Think back to when someone has done something to you.  We’ve all been on both ends. Have you forgiven them?  Are you still holding the grudge?  If you have forgiven, was it easy?  Maybe so, maybe not.   If not, then what’s holding you back?  Even more so, if you’ve forgiven, have you forgotten about it? Do you still think about the offense when you see the person who wronged you?

                How do you think God sees forgiveness?  If you’re a follower of Christ, does it ever seem like  God rolls His eyes or shakes His head at us when we ask forgiveness, especially when it’s something we’ve said “I’m sorry” for time and time again?  But, because we are covered by the blood of Jesus, it’s something He must do..?  I don’t think that at all.  My reasoning for not believing that is simply grace.  Before I continue, let me just say that I’m certainly not a “trust Jesus and everything will be perfect” type of grace person. I love grace because if not for it, I, along with the rest of us, would be hopeless.  Because of grace, we have a chance.  The grace of Jesus has no limits.  We as humans put so many limitations on ourselves that limitless grace is hard to wrap our minds around.  We certainly don’t use that as a license to become complacent but rather as motivation.  Proverbs 24:16 says that a righteous man falls 7 times, but gets up again.  We use that fact to keep getting up.  With that, I think about David.  If ever a man needed forgiveness that the grace of God offers, it was he.  The Bible says that he was a man after Gods own heart, yet he was a lying, narcissistic, adulterous coward.   God still picked him up and found favor in him.  That can be difficult to fathom.

                Romans 5:20 is one of those verses that I can’t ever seem to get over.   It seems fairly simple when reading it, but it’s powerful.  It says “The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase.  But where sin increased, grace increased all the more.”  That basically sums it up.  Grace covers it.  There’s nothing you can do to run from God and that includes His grace.  Here is where it gets even better.  It’s forgotten.  Not only is your sin forgiven, it’s forgotten.  That means that your offense can never be the pink elephant in the room.  It won’t come up again.  It’s finished; done.  Think about when Peter denied Jesus after saying that he would be by His side, even to death.  When Jesus showed up on the beach to make breakfast, the denial never came up.  I’m sure it was heavily on Peter’s mind, yet Jesus never brought it up.  It was done.  You see, true forgiveness can never happen without forgetting.  I believe this is why the hardest person to forgive is you.  We so often beat ourselves up for something that God doesn’t remember.  Go and sin no more.  Move on.  Psalm 103:12 rings true when it says, “as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.”  That’s comforting, is it not?  So yes, forgive AND forget.

Peace,

Justin