239. Remember Sin no more
Jeremiah 31:34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
This fantastic prophecy prophesies that everyone will know the Lord. “The knowledge of the Lord will cover the earth from sea to sea.” The Gospel has gone out into the whole world during the New Testament times. “You shall be witnesses to me…unto the ends of the earth.” “The Gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” It may be an exaggeration to that literally “all” shall know the Lord, but generally the prophecy has been fulfilled. But the fulfillment is still going on, for we still “preach the Gospel to all nations.”
The promise contained in this prophecy is that the Lord will forgive their sin and remember it no more. We can take this promise to heart in our daily lives. The Lord has done this for us: He has forgiven our sin and He remembers it no more. We need to be reminded of this promise because we remember our sins and the devil is trying to constantly remind us of our sin and guilt again and again. It is easy to remember sin because it remains a part of us all the time. Our own memory dredges up past already-forgiven sins and weighs us down.
But God does not remember. How can God not remember? He can do all things. Ah, but he chooses not to remember; He puts it behind Him and casts it away. This promise is literally true; it is not just a figure of speech. God does not remember, so why should we? We still need to hear the Gospel that reminds, we need to remember our Baptism, and we need to “do this in remembrance of Me.” Daily repentance does not dwell on our sins and failings, but repentance dwells on the forgiveness of sins through the Gospel. We need the Spirit to remember the right things, the things God has done for us, and we need to forget the wrong things, the things we have done. God promises the ability to remember that God is good and to forget that we are not. Thank God for this miracle.