Grace For The Journey

  Forgetting seems to be a bit more regular in my life these days.  Sometimes I forget where I put my sunglasses.  Other times I forget to get the right things from the grocery store.  I have even missed a couple of meetings.  At times, I forget what I am saying right in the middle of saying it!

Can I get a witness?

But there is One who never forgets when it comes to His covenant promises.

The Bible says in Genesis 9:15, “I will remember My covenant that is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh.”

Thank God that covenant promises are not dependent upon the forgetful minds of His covenant people.  It is totally dependent upon the infinite, immutable, and infallible mind of God.  Notice that God does not say He will never again send a flood if we remember His promise.  He says that when He looks upon the rainbow in the sky, He will remember the covenant He has made with us.  God makes the covenant promise and God keeps the covenant promise, wholly apart from anything we do.

What a great comfort this should be for us today and every day!

It is God who remembers His promises and keeps every one of them.

• God remembered Adam after his sin in the Garden of Eden and came sought him out.
• God remembered His covenant promise to Abraham in spite of Abraham forgetting it himself.
• God remembered His people Israel as they groaned under the yoke of bondage in Egypt.
• God remembered you when He was nailed to that cruel cross.

There is, however, a place in Scripture where God promises to forget.  God says in Jeremiah 31:34, “I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

WOW!  Not only does God promise to remember His covenant promises, He promises to forget our sins.  You see, God placed all of our sins on His beloved Son Jesus and sent Him outside the camp as the Scapegoat for His people.  And because Jesus has paid the penalty for our sin, paid it in full, once-for-all, God will remember our sin no more.  He will not – He cannot, because His justice forbids it – collect a second payment on a debt that has been fully paid.

Because God looks on us through the lens of the perfections of His precious Son, it is impossible for Him to continue to be angry and remember our sins; God poured out all His fury for our sins onto Christ as He hung on the cross.  And because of that God makes this glorious statement in Romans 8:1, “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).  Our sin debt has been paid in full; it is finished (John 19:30).

When we focus upon the Gospel, we begin to enlarge our view of the vast blessing of God remembering and forgetting.  His covenant promises are never dependent upon our remembering, which is what makes them an everlasting covenant.

• His promise to never leave us or forsake is everlasting.
• His promise to free us from the bondage of the world, the flesh, and the devil is everlasting.
• His promise to give us rest is everlasting.
• His promise to remember our sins no more is everlasting.
• And His promise to prepare a heavenly dwelling place for us is everlasting!

Our God truly is an AMAZING and AWESOME God!  And I think we would all agree that this is truly good news for those of us who remember stuff we would be better off forgetting, and forget stuff we would be better off remembering.  Glory be to God!  It all rests upon Him.

This is God’s Word For Today … This Is Grace For The Journey

Rest and Rejoice in this eternal truth!

Pastor Terry

Ephesians 4:7 – “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.”

Hebrews 4:16 – “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”