FORGIVING IS NOT BRINGING IT UP AGAIN - NOT FORGETTING
Micah 7:18,19 Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy. You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.
This has to be one of my all time favorite verses in the Bible. God had convicted me of my sinfulness by showing me my self-righteousness, pride and arrogance. The crazy thing was I didn’t even realize I was like this, until the Lord gave me a vision of how he saw me. It left me broken, because I didn’t see myself that way at all. Following my vision my brokenness was consumed with guilt. I thought how could I ever enjoy heaven with Jesus knowing how he saw me.
When I became a Christian I had no idea of what was in the Bible. I didn’t even know the difference between the Old and New Testaments. I certainly didn’t understand the doctrine of grace. But once I did it became the joy of my salvation. Then I learned that God would purposely never bring up my sins to me again. For God, my past, present and even future sins would be under the blood of Jesus forever. For God it would be as though all my sins were cast into the depths of the sea. It was like a friend of mine that once reminded me it that it was as though God put up a no fishing sign. For me it was easier to be forgiven that it was for me to forget my sins. It was not just my sins either. It was all my regrets as well. How could I ever enjoy my salvation with them hanging over my head. Because of my lack of maturity in Christ and understanding of scripture it was a constant struggle. I didn't realize that it was no longer the Lord that was bringing them up before me, but it was Satan and the powers of darkness. They robbed me of the joy of my salvation for years. I found myself beating myself up all the time. It destroyed my faith and witness for Jesus. After all who wants to become a Christian if all you do is sit around feeling depressed and guilty. I really needed to get rid of my fishing pole, and stop bringing up all the garbage that I wanted to forget. One day I read something from A. W. Tozer wrote that opened my eyes to where I really was at. He said, “Self-derogation is bad for the reason that self must be their to derogate. Boasting is evidence that we are pleased with ourselves, belittling ourselves is that aspect that we are disappointed with ourselves. Either way we are still fixing our attention and our eyes on ourselves instead of Jesus. When I started to take my attention off of myself and on to Jesus my sorrow turned into thanksgiving and praise. Jesus had taken my sins away, and here was no longer any need to keep bringing them up. What a wonderful thing Jesus has done for us. He deserves all the praise we can give him. I needed to start remembering what he did for me on Calvary’s cross, instead of what I did to get him there.
In Matthew 27:3-5 it tells of Judas’ reaction to hearing of Jesus not defending himself and being taken to be put to death. For me it was a sad moment for a once faithful and loving disciple of Jesus that Jesus even called his friend. I think that Judas assumed that Jesus would defend himself, and thus have a reason to defeat the Romans where he would become king over not only Israel but the world. With all the power Jesus had he was more than able to defeat any army that he wanted. Now the thought that he had his friend handed over to be crucified was more than Judas was willing to live with. Scripture then tells us that he went out and hanged himself.
Praise the Lord that this story doesn’t end here, because following Jesus’ death and resurrection he descended into the abode of the dead and preached the good news of his salvation for all who would receive it. I am sure that the first hand to go up was Judas’, and I a sure that Jesus didn't stop to think about forgiving him. Peter let Jesus down and millions of us have since then. But one thing we know is that Jesus is quick to forgive us, and is just as quick to never bring them up again.
Prayer: Lord Jesus, Thank you for forgiving us of our sins, and to also never bringing them up again. You are the joy of our heart and life!
