“Sin lives in a costume; that’s why it’s so hard to recognize. The fact that sin looks so good is one of the things that make it so bad. In order for it to do its evil work, it must present itself as something that is anything but evil. Life in a fallen world is like attending the ultimate masquerade party. Impatient yelling wears the costume of a zeal for truth. Lust can masquerade as a love for beauty. Gossip does its evil work by living in the costume of concern and prayer. Craving for power and control wears the mask of biblical leadership. Fear of man gets dressed up as a servant heart. The pride of always being right masquerades as a love for biblical wisdom. Evil simply doesn’t present itself as evil, which is part of its draw. You’ll never understand sin’s sleight of hand until you acknowledge that the DNA of sin is deception. Now, what this means personally is that as sinners we are all very committed and gifted self-swindlers. … We’re all too skilled at looking at our own wrong and seeing good.”

          ~Paul David Tripp, Whiter Than Snow: Meditations on Sin and Mercy, p. 32.

I know this is a touchy issue in America these days, and a lot of great dialogue has been occurring on both sides of the fence. Rich Schmidt, a local pastor, wrote a post on the topic of homosexuality in which he asks the question, “What are some things that I can be doing, as a follower of Jesus, to love my neighbors who are gay?” I began writing a comment, but it ended up becoming a post:

This is a great question. Jesus continually loved people yet maintained a solid stance on sin. For instance, the women who was caught in adultery was brought before Jesus (possibly naked). The Law demanded that she be stoned to death. Jesus notices that only the woman is brought before Him and not the man with whom she was sleeping, and He begins writing in the sand. The Pharisees are trying to corner Him, trying to see if He disregards God’s Law. He then says, “Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.” What a profound answer. Of course everyone drops their stones and walks away. Some have speculated that perhaps Jesus was writing specific sins in the sand that each of the men standing around had committed, but no one can be sure. Finally only Jesus and the woman remain. Jesus then asks her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin” (John 8:3-11).

Jesus shows this woman great mercy, yet at the same time He never dismisses the fact that her behavior was sinful. No doubt the woman understood that she was wrong, yet still felt loved by Jesus. This is the PERFECT example of how we are to love all sinners (not forgetting that we ourselves are sinners). Regardless of the specific sins, we are called to show God’s love and mercy to sinful people. At the same time, we are not to ‘dismiss’ sins and pretend as though they are not an issue.

I’m all for having struggling sex addicts, couples struggling with premarital sex, porn addicts, cohabiting couples, homosexuals, etc. in the church. All of these behaviors fall under the category of “sexual immorality.” At the same time, we must not neglect Scriptures dealing with sexual immorality while ministering to these individuals. These individuals must recognize that their behavior is sinful and not pleasing to God. They should be making active attempts to leave their lifestyle of sin (repentance), and faithful preachers of the Word must exhort them to do so (just as Jesus told the woman to leave her life of sin).

My problem with many churches today is that we allow open homosexuality, cohabitation, and premarital sex in the church to go unchallenged. In our efforts to love those trapped in these lifestyles, many pastors fail to faithfully proclaim God’s Law and Gospel to these hearers. This was Jesus’ example: He loved the sinner, yet still called sin as it is and exhorted people to leave that lifestyle. Many folks actively living these lifestyles will not admit that they are doing anything wrong. In fact many homosexuals now believe that genetics has more to do with their lifestyle than personal choice.

Genetics is irrelevant in the church’s attitude towards homosexuality as a sin. It has already been discovered that there is a gene predisposing people to alcoholism, but when these individuals go to court for drunk driving, can they plead, “but I have the alcoholism gene?” NO! They are still wrong for not controlling their behavior despite their genetic predisposition to it. Even if a solid genetic link to homosexuality is established, the same is true: it is not an excuse to invalidate clear Scriptural teaching regarding homosexual behavior. The Holy Spirit can and does enable people to overcome any genetic predisposition to sin that they may have.

Many homosexuals these days are not looking for a loving God who is also just and punishes sin. They are looking for ‘acceptance’. To them that means accepting their lifestyle as being OK. The problem is, a Christian cannot approve of this lifestyle, but they can love the individual trapped in it. I sincerely hope that Christians can better show love to homosexuals and all those trapped in sexual immorality. It is also my sincere hope that preachers faithfully proclaim God’s truth concerning sexual immorality while showing love to them.

Proverbs 27:5-6 reads: “Better is open rebuke than hidden love. Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses.” We are not doing our homosexual neighbors any favors by glossing over God’s holy standards. In fact, we are merely sending them kisses as an enemy, since we are lying to them about God’s judgment. “Wounds from a friend can be trusted….” Sometimes we have to tell people the truth, even if it hurts their feelings, in order to truly be a friend to them. Don’t get me wrong, I am angered when I see radical evangelicals holding up signs that say “GOD HATES FAGS” and other such hatred. But at the same time, we cannot give the false impression that God tolerates homosexual behavior, He makes it clear that it is an abomination in His sight.

The key is to show love to your gay neighbors by befriending them, serving them, and helping them as you would any neighbor. But when the topic comes up (and it will), don’t withhold the truth from them. Be honest about God’s Law, but also share the Gospel. The Bible is clear, “If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives” (1 John 1:10). If your gay neighbor refuses to believe they are living in sin, they cannot know God, and telling them that truth means they probably won’t like you very much. Welcome to the lot of a true Christian, the same lot that belonged to the prophets. Most true Christians were never very popular, neither was Jesus. That’s why the world killed them.

The final group that we must consider are homosexuals who believe themselves to be Christians. Homosexual orientation is temptation, homosexual behavior is sin. There are many Christians who struggle with homosexuality. But someone who believes their homosexual lifestyle is compatible with God’s Word and does not believe it is sinful is simply not a child of God – and as a faithful ambassador of Christ, it is your responsibility to show them why that is the case using God’s Word. 1 Corinthians 5:11 says, “But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat.” This is very intolerant – yet this is God’s Word. Tolerance is a cultural value, not a biblical value. Be careful to note that this does not mean shunning those who make no claims to be a believer, verses 9-10 make this clear: “I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people—not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world.”

So in conclusion, those who claim to be Christians (”anyone who calls himself a brother”) yet live in unrepentant sexual immorality are to be excommunicated from our fellowships (cf. 1 Corinthians 5:12-13), and this is actually the loving thing to do (cf. 1 Corinthians 5:4-5). To those who are not Christians and make no claims to be, we are to befriend and declare God’s Word to them (be honest about what sin is, and show them how Christ lovingly desires to set them free from the power of sin and death). Many in our culture are not really looking for a holy God, they want a false God that will excuse their behavior, so long as they are “happy.” The most loving thing the Church can do is stand against the grain of culture and proclaim God’s Word as it really is, not as our culture would like it to be.

I will best love my gay neighbor by being their friend, and hopefully they will learn the profound truth of Proverbs 27:6, that even though the truth about their behavior may hurt their feelings, wounds from a friend can be trusted. Even more so I pray and hope that they will encounter Jesus Christ, whose love can cover a multitude of sins.

“Sin is a fundamental relationship; it is not wrong doing, it is wrong being, deliberate and emphatic independence of God. The Christian religion bases everything on the positive, radical nature of sin. Other religions deal with sins; the Bible alone deals with sin.”
         – Oswald Chambers, My Utmost For His Highest

Today I read a short article on Slashdot about how scientists have figured out how to erase specific memories from mice’s brains. That’s kind of scary to me, because that means they are one day hoping to erase stuff from human’s brains. Of course the psychological community might welcome this as a means to eliminate traumatic memories from people’s past recollection, but the government would certainly use this for evil purposes. All of that aside, it began causing me to ask some questions about God.

Can God forget something? Wouldn’t He then cease to be omniscient (all-knowing)? Or is there an exception to this rule? Does God truly forgive and forget our sins? Someone asked me about this recently and I finally wrote a response.

First let’s look at two passages of Scripture in Hebrews:

“‘For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.’” (Hebrews 8:10-12, ESV)

“And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying, ‘This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds,’ then he adds, ‘I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.’” (Hebrews 10:11-17, ESV)

First of all, the passage in Hebrews 8:8b-12 is actually a direct quote from Jeremiah 31:31-34. The author of Hebrews is declaring the fulfillment of Jeremiah’s prophetic announcement of a new covenant, which differs from the Mosaic covenant which was in effect prior to Christ’s life, death, and resurrection. Verse 9 makes it clear that the new covenant in Christ is “not like the covenant that [God] made with their fathers.” The author of Hebrews makes this even clearer by saying in vs. 13, “In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.” It is thus clear that to return to the old covenant would be to try and do something that is no longer valid nor effective.

The Greek word used for “remember” in this passage is μνησθῶ (mnestho) meaning “I remember, keep in mind, think of, recollect, to be recalled or to return to one’s mind.”² When God said, “I will remember their sins no more,” it’s as if He was saying, “I will not mention them again, I will never bring them into recollection or think of them ever again.”

In the second passage, a contrast is being made between Christ and the Levitical priesthood in vv. 11-12. The Levitical priest always stood, because his work was never finished. He daily had to sacrifice for the sins of himself and the people. In comparison, Christ offered one sacrifice for sins for all time and sat down at God’s right hand, indicating that His work is now finished and always will be – no further sacrifice is necessary. Paul confirms that we have entered into this new covenant in his letter to the Romans, where he writes in 2:15, “. . . they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts. . . .” The same verb is used in Hebrews 10:17 as in 8:12, indicating that God will not call into remembrance nor mention our sin anymore.

The Hebrew Old Testament has some insights on the subject as well:

“I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.” (Isaiah 43:25, ESV)

“Therefore, I will surely forget you and cast you out of my presence along with the city I gave to you and your fathers.” (Jeremiah 23:39, NIV)

So does He really forget them or just choose not to think about them? Is an all-knowing God capable of forgetting anything? The Bible is full of seemingly impossible ideas for us to grasp, and this is no exception. We are told that God knows the past and the future, yet we often read that He “remembers” or “forgets” something. Is there a limit to God’s mental capacity? If God is capable of forgetting our sins against Him, does He expect us to forget others’ sins against us? Does the Bible teach us to “forgive and forget?”

To further understand what is being said, we will need to look at the Hebrew words being used in these passages, just as we examined the Greek in the passages above. Hebrew is what is called a “word-poor” language, thus most Hebrew words have a much wider scope of meaning than a similar English word can convey. In the above cases, the English usage doesn’t really fit the passages well at all, and we need the Hebraic definition in order to grasp the original intent of the text.

In English, our definition of the word "remember" focuses exclusively on the idea of recalling memories and bringing ideas to mind. To forget is to do the exact opposite – to fail to bring a certain memory to mind. Our concept is concerned entirely with mental activity and the presence or absence of information. So for us, remembering and forgetting is entirely a mental exercise.

In contrast, the Hebrew word זכר (zakar) has a much broader meaning than simply “to remember.” It includes both remembering and the actions that are taken because of remembering. It can often imply that a person did a favor for someone, helped them, or was faithful to a promise or covenant. This helps us to understand verses like the following:

“But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided.” (Genesis 8:1, ESV)

“Then God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and opened her womb.” (Genesis 30:22, ESV)

If we simply understood זכר (zacar) in our English usage of the word “remember,” we would be lead to think that all of a sudden, God recalled that there was a boat floating around in the middle of the flood, and He felt that He should do something about it. But in this case, when God remembered Noah, He acted on His promise that Noah’s family and the animals would be rescued from the flood. In the second passage, God remembered Rachel by doing a favor for her, namely answering her prayer for a son. The verb is focused more on the actions of God rather than some sort of mental exercise.

Interestingly, the Hebrew words for forget, שׁכח (shakach) and נשׁה (nashah) are not exact opposites with זכר (zacar), to remember. To "forget" in Hebrew also means “to ignore, neglect, forsake, or willfully act in disregard to a person or covenant.” It is to act as if you have forgotten.¹ Frequently the Bible says, "Do not forget the Lord your God" meaning, do not forsake Him – be loyal to Him. To "forget" usually has a negative connotation close to what the American slang term "to blow off" means today. For example:

“Take care, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which he made with you, and make a carved image, the form of anything that the Lord your God has forbidden you.” (Deuteronomy 4:23, ESV)

The idea is that they would willfully ignore the covenant, not necessarily forget that they made it in the first place. And in the passage discussed earlier (Jer. 23:39), when God says that He will "forget" his people, it means that He will reject them as His people, not lose their memory from His mind. When we read with an emphasis on action, rather than mental activity, it clarifies that God is not necessarily losing information from His mind. For instance:

“How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?” (Psalm 13:1, ESV)

David is asking God, “How come you are ignoring my prayers and not intervening in my situation?” God doesn’t forget, but sometimes it might seem as though He does. Just to review, the verbs dealing with God “remembering” or “forgetting” are focused on His action, not on mental activity.

But can we demonstrate this same focus on action when it comes to remembering sins? Isn’t that the real topic at hand here? Well, of course! I’m glad you asked! The idea of "remembering sins" takes the idea of action and puts it under a negative light. It really contains the idea that God gives the person what he or she deserves for the sin – He will actually punish the sin, not just keep it on His mind. We can illustrate this Scripturally of course:

“They have deeply corrupted themselves as in the days of Gibeah: he will remember their iniquity; he will punish their sins.” (Hosea 9:9, ESV)

To "remember iniquity" is the same as to "punish their sin." These two phrases are immediately paralleled, implying that God will intervene to bring justice. So to not remember sins would then be to decide not to punish them:

“If the wicked restores the pledge, gives back what he has taken by robbery, and walks in the statutes of life, not doing injustice, he shall surely live; he shall not die. None of the sins that he has committed shall be remembered against him. He has done what is just and right; he shall surely live.” (Ezekiel 33:15, ESV)

The man who has been forgiven in the passage above will not have his sins "remembered against" him – implying that he will not be punished for them. Because the Hebrew focuses on the action rather than the thought, it doesn’t imply that God somehow has no memory of them in His infinite mind. It means that He has decided not to act upon them.

Interestingly, "forget" is almost never used in combination with sins. But the Bible does say often that God does "not remember" our sins, meaning that when He forgives, He chooses never to act on them.

The Hebraic idea of "remembering sins" really encompasses the idea of vengeance and punishment for them, not just knowing about them. When God says He will not remember our sins, He is deciding not to prosecute us for them. This can be very liberating in terms of understanding God’s expectations for us. Often we may struggle with a person who has hurt us repeatedly, and we wonder if forgiving them means pretending like they won’t hurt us again. Are we allowed to protect ourselves from being hurt again, even if we hope they’ll change? The idea that we can decide not to "remember" someone’s sins in terms of seeking revenge is very freeing, because it allows us to discern the difference between remembering with a heart of revenge, versus remembering in order to improve a situation.

Perhaps God’s infinite love really does remove our sins entirely from His infinite mind, or maybe He simply chooses not to punish us for them nor think of them. Either way, the message is the same for us: God loves you so much that He chooses not to think of your sin when He looks at you; instead He sees the perfect righteousness that has been imputed to you by His Son Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Praise be to God! Hallelujah! Amen!

References

¹Brown, F., Driver, S. & Briggs, C. (1906). The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company.

²Thayer, Joseph H. (1896). Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark.

³Scripture quotations marked (ESV) are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

⁴Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

Cross-posted at prayeramedic.com