It is the purpose of this blog to stimulate thought in believers in Christ toward thinking critically about their faith. I do not believe that believing in Jesus means we must have "blind faith," I believe that we can have confident assurance and reason to believe in a God who will do what He says He will do! Will you believe that with me?
I definitely agree with a lot of what you said, because even the phrase, "as far as the east is from the west" is followed by "so far has he removed our transgressions from US" in Psalm 103, which illustrates the freedom that we receive but does not imply anything about him forgetting. But what would you say to verses like Hebrews 8:12 (which is quoting Jeremiah 31:34), "For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more." And Isaiah 43:25, "I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more." Do you think the meaning of those verses (like pretty much all verses) depends primarily on the context? Like, maybe in Heb. and Jer. he is talking about eternal life...? But then I'm not really getting the same vibe from the Isaiah verse and surrounding verses, so I don't exactly know what to do with that. It's obvious from these verses that God is capable of forgetting our sin if he chooses to do so, but I am a little bit confused as to when/how that actually applies.
A passage in Jeremiah seems to teach that God has a memory lapse concerning sin.
No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, "Know the LORD," for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more (Jeremiah 31:44).
The idea that God will not remember the sin of the people means that He will not hold it against them in the day of Judgment.
I had a leaning toward thinking it was a figure of speech, but I didn't want to jump to that before studying that. I think the distinction between actually losing memory of an event and not holding it against them is a good one to make. We even use the saying "forgive and forget." But we clearly cannot mean actually lose remembrance of, because we can't choose what memories we remember and which ones we forget. Now I am not saying that because we cannot forget that God is limited in the same way, I am saying that we use that saying in the same way as these verses- "to not hold against."
I definitely agree with a lot of what you said, because even the phrase, "as far as the east is from the west" is followed by "so far has he removed our transgressions from US" in Psalm 103, which illustrates the freedom that we receive but does not imply anything about him forgetting. But what would you say to verses like Hebrews 8:12 (which is quoting Jeremiah 31:34), "For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more." And Isaiah 43:25, "I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more." Do you think the meaning of those verses (like pretty much all verses) depends primarily on the context? Like, maybe in Heb. and Jer. he is talking about eternal life...? But then I'm not really getting the same vibe from the Isaiah verse and surrounding verses, so I don't exactly know what to do with that. It's obvious from these verses that God is capable of forgetting our sin if he chooses to do so, but I am a little bit confused as to when/how that actually applies.
ReplyDeleteHere's what I found on BlueLetterBible
ReplyDeleteDoes God Forget Sin?
A passage in Jeremiah seems to teach that God has a memory lapse concerning sin.
No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, "Know the LORD," for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more (Jeremiah 31:44).
The idea that God will not remember the sin of the people means that He will not hold it against them in the day of Judgment.
I had a leaning toward thinking it was a figure of speech, but I didn't want to jump to that before studying that. I think the distinction between actually losing memory of an event and not holding it against them is a good one to make. We even use the saying "forgive and forget." But we clearly cannot mean actually lose remembrance of, because we can't choose what memories we remember and which ones we forget. Now I am not saying that because we cannot forget that God is limited in the same way, I am saying that we use that saying in the same way as these verses- "to not hold against."
Here's where I found it:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.blueletterbible.org/faq/don_stewart/don_stewart_362.cfm
This is a great resource in general by the way, especially for those pesky Bible College exegetical papers :)
That's a good distinction to make, indeed! This makes sense. Thanks for the help :)
ReplyDelete