“Behold, for peace I had great bitterness: But thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption: For thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back” (Isaiah 38:17).
King Hezekiah, upon his recovery from sickness and the point of death, wrote the above words. He stated that God had cast his sins behind His back. Setting forth the truth of God’s Word, that when God forgives, He forgets—that is He sees them no more. Jeremiah, prophesying of the new covenant God would make with His people, stated: Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, That I will make a new covenant. With the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers In the day that I took them by the hand To bring them out of the land of Egypt; Which my covenant they brake, Although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord: But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, And write it in their hearts; And will be their God, And they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: For they shall all know me, From the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: For I will forgive their iniquity, And I will remember their sin no more” (Jeremiah 31:31-34).
Notice, that this is the new covenant; God would remember their sin “no more.” The writer of Hebrews used this same passage in Hebrews 8:8-13. One difference between the Old and New covenants had to do with this very point—God forgiving and forgetting. To see this difference more clearly, we look at another passage in Hebrews. The writer wrote: “For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year” (Hebrews 10:1-3).
Once “our” sins are cast behind the back of God, He remembers them no more. What a great blessing for us today. Beloved, if there is sin in your life—take care of it now. And, if you can, once taken care of, let it go yourself. Do not carry the guilt of it, because as far as God is concerned—it never happened.
Jimmie Gribble