I will forgive their wickedness
Hebrews 8:12 - God has forgiven you. Perhaps today is the day to forgive yourself.
Background image © 2023, Steven Sande
“For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”
Hebrews 8:12 (NIV)
I shouldn’t be surprised by God, but I usually am. He picked a random verse from Hebrews for the June 14 devotional, and today another one from the same epistle popped up. As you learned from that devotional, Hebrews is traditionally attributed to Paul, and it is a letter to Jewish Christians explaining the superiority of Christ and the New Covenant with all believers in comparison to the Old Covenant between God and His chosen people Israel.
This particular verse describes the heart of Christianity in a succinct and enlightening way. Paul quotes from Jeremiah 31:34 here, the Word of God that lays out in prophesy the New Covenant that came to pass with the work of Jesus on the cross. Salvation through faith in Jesus Christ is described in this verse: “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”
American pastor and author John MacArthur explains the importance of this verse in this commentary from Precept Austin:
Here is the capstone of the New Covenant. Here is what men need more than anything else—and what the Old Covenant pictured but could not give. The promise of the Old Testament is finally fulfilled! Under the Old Covenant, sins could never really be forgotten, because they were never really forgiven. They were only covered, foreshadowing and anticipating true forgiveness in Jesus Christ. But for those who belong to His dear Son—whether they believed under the Old Covenant or under the New—God forgets every sin.
And from the wonderful Charles H. Spurgeon (also quoted in Precept Austin’s commentary):
Suppose that you are under a sense of sin. Something has revived in you a recollection of past guilt, or it may be that you have sadly stumbled this very day, and Satan whispers, “You will surely be destroyed, for you have sinned.” Now go to the great Father, and open this page, putting your finger on that twelfth verse, and say, “Lord, you have in infinite, boundless, inconceivable mercy entered into covenant with me, a poor sinner, seeing I believe in the name of Jesus. And now, I ask you, have respect unto your covenant. You have said, I will be merciful toward their wrongdoings—O God be merciful to mine. I will not remember their sins any longer—Lord, remember no more my sins: forget forever my iniquity.” That is the way to use the covenant: when under a sense of sin, run to that clause which meets your case.
We all sin. We all fall short of the expectations of God. But in His infinite mercy, He has provided a way for us to be free of the guilt and shame associated with sin.
The “will remember their sins no more” seemed a bit confusing to me, since God is all-knowing and certainly wouldn’t forget our sins. It’s apparent from some of the commentaries on this verse that others felt the same way! One good explanation is that the original Koine Greek word translated here as “I will remember” is μιμνῄσκομαι (mimnēskomai), better translated as “to be recalled or to return to one's mind, to remind one's self of”. God never forgets; He just chooses to “not recall” or “remind Himself” of our sins.
Precept Austin (which has been a wonderful resource today!) expands on this concept:
Note that "remember… no more" does not mean the omniscient God does not have a memory of our past sins. Omniscient means that God knows all things actual and possible and knows them in one simple and eternal act. God's attribute of eternal means that He has no beginning, end or succession of moments in His being and that He sees all time equally vividly, and yet also sees events in time and acts in time (Modified from Grudem's Systematic Theology). If you are believer, then you can be confident and at peace over the fact that God has forgiven (sent away, remitted the debt) all your sin, past, present and future (placing them on our Sin Bearer, the Lamb, Christ Jesus).
As humans, we often beat ourselves up over some sin that we committed years ago and still feel guilt about, refusing to forgive ourselves. We shouldn’t do that! Not forgiving ourselves is doubting God’s grace! Another gem from Precept Austin:
So yes we are to forgive others but we are not ever told to forgive ourselves. When someone says “I just can’t forgive myself”, the problem is often that they do not have a true understanding of the completeness of God's forgiveness of their sin. What they are saying in essence is they cannot forgive themselves because they really doubt that God has truly forgiven them! If you struggle with guilt over a past sin and wonder if God still holds you guilty or condemns you, then ask the Holy Spirit to enlighten your heart and enable you to meditate on Romans 8:1-2.
God has forgiven you. Perhaps today is the day to forgive yourself.
Heaven On Wheels Daily Prayer:
Dear Father in Heaven, today I pray these words that Your faithful and wise servant Charles H. Spurgeon wrote:
“Lord, you have in infinite, boundless, inconceivable mercy entered into covenant with me, a poor sinner, seeing I believe in the name of Jesus. And now, I ask you, have respect unto your covenant. You have said, I will be merciful toward their wrongdoings—O God be merciful to mine. I will not remember their sins any longer—Lord, remember no more my sins: forget forever my iniquity.“
I pray in the name of Your Son and my Savior, Jesus Christ. AMEN.