Does God forget our sins?

First, lets remember, as Christians we cannot call God anything less than omniscient. He knows everything and forgets nothing. Hebrews 10:16-17, "Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more. And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary." So, is this passage telling us that God truly forgets? No. When scripture speaks of God "forgetting" our past transgressions, Its actually revealing to us that those who have accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, will have their sins overlooked by our Heavenly Father. God simply chooses to remember them no more. God's love for us is compared to the distance between Heaven and earth. When a Christian confesses and repents of his sins, God separates our sins from us, "as far as the east is from the west."

Isaiah 43:25 "I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins." God has a legitimate case against not only His chosen people, such as in this passage, but for gentiles as well. God stretches out His mercy to everyone.

Psalm 103:12 "As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us." When does one stop traveling east and starts traveling west? This verse shows the greatness of God's removal of our sins and how He chooses not to remember them.

Isaiah 38:17 "for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back." Here, God shows His mercy toward Hezekiah by not punishing him with regards to his sins.

1 John 1:9 God is faithful in that if we confess our sins, He will forgive us and cleanse us. God does not hold our sins against us.

Jesus became sin for us and in Him we become righteous. God does not hold our sins over us. He does not call out our sins in a way that is destructive for us. When Jesus shed His blood for us, He set us free from the bondage of sin where Christians can experience a new life as a believer in Christ. In this way God "forgets" our sins.

God does not forget our sins.

He chooses to remember them no more.

In a sense he does not hold them against us any more as a result of our faith in Jesus.

For me this sets a bar as such.

We as people struggle when we remember those who have sinned against us and the sin that has offended us.

We need to be like God.

When someone sins against us we need forgive and having done that, when we remember that they sinned against us we need set that aside and put it away.

Remove it as far as the east is from the west.

Jesus intercedes for us in heaven so when satan is accusing us, pointing out our sins and frailties before God, just as he did with Job, Gos rejects that because our debt of sin was paid in full because the righteousness of Christ has been imputed to us.

"Remembering sins" in the Bible is also defined as visiting them. Aka raining down judgment/punishment.

Hosea 8:13
...Now He will remember their iniquity, and punish them for their sins; They will return to Egypt.

Hosea 9:9
They have gone deep in depravity As in the days of Gibeah;
He will remember their iniquity, He will punish their sins.

1 Kings 17:18
So she said to Elijah, “What do I have to do with you, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my iniquity to remembrance and to put my son to death!”

Revelation 16:19
...Babylon the great was remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of His fierce wrath.

Based on this, sins that are forgiven do not incur wrath/punishment of God, although we still reap what we sow.

Interesting.

You post verses from the OT

And the one from revelations which relates to the OT, Babylon?

The point I was trying to make is that as a result of Jesus death and resurrection and placing our faith in him for forgiveness then he will m not hold our sins against us.

Yes I agree we will reap what we sow but our sins are not held against us.

Just like David?

He reaped what he had sown but still considered by God as a man after his own heart.

ROMANS 6:1.
What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that Grace may abound?
2.
God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
7.
For he that is dead is freed from sin.

we must ask ourselves daily, have we truly been called, chosen, elected,
and have we begun our brand-new-lives sin-free from our 'old-man'
and started our NEW-SINLESS lives in Jesus Christ???
as it is written:
1JOHN 2:6.
He that says he abides in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked. =
'over-night'??? definitely NOT!
but definitely our FIRST PRIORITY should to be to walk in 'righteousness and Godliness',
and in the utmost respect for our Saviour's Sacrifice...

Yes, 100% agree with all that. I just posted these verses to give Biblical context as to what "remembering sins" means in the Bible. It's God acting upon His wrath. "God is angry with the wicked every day". But righteousness of Jesus is imputed to us.

BILLG,
really???
it looks like you are JUST 'agreeing with what we have said'...

is your 'issue' with that we have simply stated the Truth about -
'the called-chosen-elected', and that our behavior should always 'agree with His principles'???
or that we should have the 'utmost RESPECT for our Holy Saviour's Sacrifice'???

where are you disagreeing with us??
just curious here brother...

I find your post above a difficult concept to grasp.

Not saying it is wrong because it's in the Bible.

In my own mind I can't reconcile "For God so loved the world"

To then being angry with people who reject him.

Maybe a personal issue for me given my upbringing.

I look at this way.

On judgement day God will reject people who have not placed their faith in Jesus.
He exacts his justice.

In a sense "I offered salvation but you rejected it therefore you are guilty"

I'm not he is angry because his anger was satisfied on the cross. Therefore saddened to reject.

But as I said maybe my emotions are not aligned here.

Thanks for responding with your post thoughts.

Hi brother,

If I'm totally honest a looked at my response and wondered if I was not getting what you were saying and trying to convey and whether I should post my response.

Wish I had now.

My mindset went to "being sinless"

So I assumed you were saying we should be sinless as the elect. I saw that as the issue in my mind.

So I agree I have misunderstood what you were trying to say and for that I am sorry.

My desire is to just want to help people who come to Jesus to be released from their past in order to walk with him and become like him.

Which I'd compare to a water piling up behind a dam (dam being God's longsuffering, God giving time for repentance) until "the iniquity is complete" and time for harvest is come, and then it pours out, this invisible cosmic kind of event can only be related to us adequately as "righteous anger" or "wrath of God pouring out".

What about the sin we intend to keep rather than give to Christ for
forgiveness? Can we be forgiven of sin we intend to hold onto?