God Said, I Will Remember Their Sins No More - Hebrews 8:12
God Said, I Will Remember Their Sins No More - Hebrews 8:12
What Does It Mean When The Bible Says God Remembered Or God Does Not Remember?
One of my favorite classes in Seminary was the Introduction to Hebrew. I love studying God’s word, and I love learning from the original language viewpoint. So, when most students were unsettled with the idea of “The Hammer” (how students nicknamed our professor) teaching us Hebrew, I was thrilled. I loved “The Hammer”. My professor wasn’t nearly as hard or rough as his nickname made him sound, but he was thorough which was right up my alley.
During the course, “The Hammer” required us to write a paper based on one biblical term of our choice. I chose the term, “remember”, but only as related to God. I wanted to understand what it meant for God to remember Noah and to “remember their sins no more.” (Hebrews 8:12)
So my study began with Genesis 8:1, “Then God remembered Noah.”
“Then God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the animals that were with him in the ark.
And God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters subsided.”
Genesis 8:1
The idea that God forgot a man who had found favor in His eyes (Genesis 6:8) unsettled me. I wanted to know if there was more to God remembering than I understood.
My Seminary Study of the Hebrew Term – Remember
It took more than one typed page for me to list the range of possible meanings for the biblical term remember. I felt a glimmer of regret when I realized my topic of choice wasn’t going to be an easy study or paper to write as I originally thought. I began with a process of elimination of what the original meaning could not be based on context (where and how remember was used in the Bible).
For instance, I eliminated the words categorized under the meaning “commemorate” because that pointed to a remembrance or celebration of a special occasion. Another reason for this elimination was that man did the action of remembrance and celebration when remember meant “commemorate.”
Let’s hit the highlights of Noah’s story
His story began in Genesis 6. There we see mankind in a severe state of depravity. So depraved, God wanted to wipe them off the earth with the exception of Noah and His family. However, God spared Noah and his family because of Noah’s righteous ways (Genesis 7:1). Genesis 6 shows us how Noah believed God and obeyed everything God commanded him to do, and how God and Noah continually interacted.
Today the term remember often carries a connotation of something or someone forgotten, but not in all cases. The American Heritage College Dictionary (4th edition) presents one possible definition as, “to keep in mind as worthy of consideration or recognition.” Because of the continual interaction displayed in Scripture, we know God did not actually forget Noah. This English definition seems to best reflect the original language meaning of the word remember as used in Genesis 8:1.
One unique element of the active verb, remember, when God is the subject as in Genesis 8:1, began to rise to the surface. When God remembered, He acted. In Genesis 8:1, He made wind blow that stopped the rain and began drying up the water. Another example is in Genesis 30:22.
“Then God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and opened her womb.”
Genesis 30:22
When God remembered, He listened and opened Rachel’s womb. Rachel had not slipped his mind. Rather it appears it was the time for God to act on her behalf. Numerous times in Scripture pictures this same scenario. Man had a need, desire, or problem, and God remembered and acted on his behalf. Now let’s flip that around and look at the times when the Bible says God did not remember.
Remember Their Sins No More
“No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they all shall know Me,
from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more."
Jeremiah 31:34
“For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more."
Hebrews 8:12
These two verses address the fact that God remembers their sin no more. Jeremiah prophesied of a future time when men and women would know God and out of that knowing, God promised to remember their sins no more. The author of Hebrews identified God extending His mercy to the unrighteous and out of that action, He promised to remember their sins no more. Who is their? Anyone and everyone who accepts and receives Jesus as their Lord and Savior.
Take what we learned regarding the Old Testament, original Hebrew language action verb, “remember” and bring it into this context of God not remembering. We must recognize that when God remembered, He acted. When God promised not to remember, He wasn’t saying He lost his memory of our actions, but instead promised not to act of the behalf of His knowledge of our past actions.
In other words, if you are in Christ, as in you accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior and live in a continual growing relationship with Him, no matter what your past holds, God no longer acts on the knowledge of that past sin. Instead He chooses to act on the fact that Jesus paid our sin price.
How God Sees His People And Their Past Sin
Many years ago, a friend painted a portrait of how God sees His people. The portrait was a bird’s eye view of the top of Jesus’ thorn-crowned head as He slumped forward in death from that brutal cross. The implication of the portrait each believer in Christ was at the foot of the cross, covered by Jesus’ blood He spilled on the cross for all who come to Him seeking forgiveness and newness of life.
Take a moment to try and envision this portrait. See yourself bowed down at the foot of the cross covered by the purifying blood and death of Jesus. Identified by God in Jesus’ death and payment for your sins. If you have never released yourself because of your past, ask God to let you see yourself as He sees you.
I share more about this in my blog post, Almost Every Woman Identifies To Some Degree With Not Good Enough
One of our biggest obstacles with embracing what Jesus did for us is our own struggle to forget and forgive ourselves for our past sin and failures, and especially how we think of our past as related to God. I believe we attribute how we remember to God. But God is not a man. He doesn’t act or think like man.
"For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways," says the Lord. "For as the heavens are higher
than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.”
Isaiah 55:8-9
When God remembers you, He sees you through the work of Jesus on the cross. He acts towards you based on remembering Jesus beautiful, sacrificial, act of love on your behalf, not your past sin. God forgot your sins. He chose to put that out of His mind.
Therefore, If God Forgot, So Should You.
Remember God and His work in your life and focus on the future God has for you!
Much Love and Blessings!
Pat Domangue
