GENESIS 8:1- But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided.”
HEBREWS 10:17 – then he adds, “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.”
THEME OF THE DAY: HE REMEMBERS. HE REMEMBERS NOT. There are well-intended Christians who say, and even preachers who preach “God forgets our sins.” I say “well-intended” Christians and preachers because they are sincere and are grasping God’s work of justification in the believing sinner that does put sin away, never to be held against the new creature in Christ. However, God cannot forget anything including our sins. Now don’t get that “sick in the stomach” feeling that says, “Oh, no. You mean God doesn’t forget my sins after I believe on Christ?” That is correct, He doesn’t and that should make us not get down in the dumps but rejoice! Here is why . . . we don’t want God to forget our sins because that makes Him also capable of forgetting His promises. And where would that leave us? In a bad, very bad way. The Apostle Peter states the importance of God’s promises in the Christian’s life – His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire (2 Peter 1:3-4). Take away the promises of God, or have God forget His promises and the whole of the Christian life and our hope for heaven with Christ crumbles. We are hopeless with a God who can forget His promises. But God does something far more precious with our sins.
When it comes to our sins, go back, and read the Hebrews scripture in today’s Word. God chooses not to remember our sins which means He won’t hold them against us! What joy! What peace! Think about it. God knows us through and through, yes, even our sins, and still loves us, will always love us, and will never look at us in our sin because He remembers they were and are placed upon His Son, the Lord Jesus, our substitute! Take time and rejoice over this liberating and powerful truth.
Now the other side of today’s scripture is the Genesis reference. The opening of chapter eight finds the world destroyed by God’s judgment on the world for sin. Everything and everyone is destroyed and dead except for those in the ark. And what happens in chapter eight? God remembers Noah and all the animals. Good thing God cannot forget things. Imagine forgetting Noah and the ark? They simply float around till the food is gone, and die. But no . . . God remembers His promise to Noah and salvation for him, his family, and the animals is about to happen. Praise God for remembering His promises and not our sins. Let these parallel truths of our God springboard us to praise for such a God.
PRAYER: “Father, I so praise You for remembering Your promises and not remembering my sins.”
QUOTE: “God does not forget anything – our sins or His promises – and we rejoice for grace in both.”
Because of Him,
Pastor Jim