At Sunday School several months ago, two questions came up.
A. Does God forget our sin after our salvation?
B. Is it possible for us to accept His forgiveness at such a level that we forget our sin?
The class was divided on question A. But on question B, we were unanimous in our opinion of "no". However, there was some disagreement as to the source of those memories when they popped up in our mind.
Some were of the opinion that our remembrances of sin past were strictly the work of our sinful self. Satan uses our memories to rob us of joy and sense of self-worth. While I agree that that is most often the case, I also contend that there are times when God either allows or perhaps actively activates memories of past sin for two reasons. First it is to remind us of the incredible truth of Romans 5:8- "8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." If we forget the levels of evil, sin, and corruption from which many of us have come, it is easy to also forget the depth of His love for us.
The second reason I believe that sin remembrance is sometimes a God-thing is to warn us away from certain situations. A recollection of drunken nights might be the motivator to keep away from that cash bar at a wedding reception. In a perfect world, our only motivation not to sin would be pain sin causes our Father and the damage it does to our relationship with Him. But our world is not perfect and some, more than others, need other motivators to stay on the straight and narrow.
Of course the danger is to allow our remembrance of past sin to become a source of self-incrimination and self-loathing. When the mind starts to dwell on mistakes of yore check to see if you are in danger of committing that same transgression, thank God for His forgiveness, then "take captive every thought" (2 Corinthians 10:5) for something uplifting and move on.
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