He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west. [Psalm 103:12 (NLT)]
I—yes, I alone—will blot out your sins for my own sake and will never think of them again. [Isaiah 43:25 (NLT)]
When I was a girl in elementary school, the teachers would speak ominously of our permanent records. While the warning that Santa knew when we were good or bad only worked during December, a teacher’s threat of, “This is going on your permanent record!” scared us into obedience the entire year! I suspect elementary schoolers in the 1950s were more naïve than today’s youngsters, but my friends and I were convinced that each of us had a permanent record that logged more than test scores, grades, and attendance records. It listed every infraction or disciplinary action from kindergarten on through high school and beyond. Every time we used our outside voices inside, chewed gum in class, forgot the hall pass, passed notes, lost our lunch money, or were sent to the office, our transgression was documented for posterity. Passed from teacher to teacher and school to school, we suspected that permanent record might even follow us into “grown-up” life!
I imagine that feared “permanent record” is no longer a threat in the 21st century. Nevertheless, with the advent of social media and apps like Tik Tok, Instagram, Snapchat, BeReal, and You Tube, today’s youngsters are far more likely to have a real permanent record of their assorted transgressions, pranks, foolishness, idiocy, and misadventure than I ever was! Sadly, many of their bad decisions are saved for posterity and truly will follow them into adulthood.
Fortunately, God doesn’t keep a permanent record of our transgressions, failures, disobedience, and offences. When Jesus died on the cross, He paid for our sins (past, present, and future) once and for all. Once we repent and accept Jesus, our sins are both forgiven and removed. Erasing them from our permanent record, God chooses not to remember them. His forgiveness, however, doesn’t mean we’ll never sin. We’re flawed human beings. And, just as we didn’t get 100% on every test in school, we won’t do life perfectly. Nevertheless, because of Christ’s sacrifice and our faith, our sins no longer have any bearing on our salvation. When we repent and ask forgiveness, God’s loving grace forgives us and yesterday’s mistakes have no bearing on today. God gets out his holy eraser again and again and wipes them away. Along with the Apostle Paul, we can forget what is behind us and look forward to what lies ahead.
If seven times a day we offend him and repent, does he forgive? Ay, that he does. This is to be unfeignedly believed, and I do believe it: I believe that, often as I transgress, God is more ready to forgive me than I am ready to offend, though, alas, I am all too ready to transgress. Hast thou right thoughts of God, dear hearer? If so, then thou knowest that he is a tender father, willing to wipe the tear of penitence away, and press his offending child to his bosom, and kiss him with the kisses of his forgiving love. [Charles Spurgeon]
No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us. [Philippians 3:13-14 (NLT)]
For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ. [2 Corinthians 5:21 (NLT)]
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