FORGET THAT BUT REMEMBER THIS!

The thing we are to do is both!  Paul said, “forgetting those things which are behind …” in Philippians 3:13.  And yet Jesus said, “Remember the word I said unto you” (John 15:20).  Also, Paul said, “Of these things put them in remembrance …” (II Timothy 2:14)  Both have an important place in our life.

So, it’s really a wonderful thought.  God tells us to remember and always claim as personal His forgiveness based on grace.  Then, in the exact opposite direction He tells us what to forget and never to recall.  This includes especially the things others have done to us—betrayals, injustices, hurts, with emotional scars and deep, personal pains.

Let’s begin with this thought:  I must never forget what it was like to be lost, empty, condemned before God, and the terrible sense of personal alienation.  John Bunyan, in his written comments on salvation tells in extended detail what he recalled about being without Christ, “lost and undone without God or His Son,” so that gratitude for grace is always strongest when sin was the deepest.  And, of course, this is vitally important in the other direction.  If our sinfulness was great and terrible, so is our salvation glorious and now wonderful.

All of us should vividly recall the wonder and greatness of the God of grace and mercy that reached down and forgave us making us new within.  Those two:  great guilt and glorious grace, are the solid foundation on which all dynamic Christianity is built.  Our hope of glory is completely founded on the unchanging grace of God.

Contrast it; it is important that I remember my lostness that I once knew, but it is just as important that I forget those deep hurts that I also once experienced.  And as God, because of grace forgave us, in that spirit we forgive others.  Surely it is because we are sure of His love to us that we have the resource to forgive others.  Because He chose us, we now choose to forgive others.

Unfortunately, it is all too easy, being fully human, to remember the experiences when we were deeply hurt and betrayed.  At that time our dreams were shattered and our hopes were ruined often by someone deeply trusted by us.  And God knows how it is so easy to continually nurture those dark moments.  We can live in the past with our life put on hold.  The thoughts that assault us are related to resentment which is silently harbored and revenge which is secretly desired.  People live with the wound still bleeding and with the ache still throbbing.  This is a destructive disease of the spirit. It is in reality, living with a spirit of unforgiveness. Nothing is more toxic! How could anything be more detrimental? Remember, it is those who have been forgiven who can forgive!

Sometimes unforgiveness is even denied as existing while it grows continually.  It is ignored, some claim it is overcome, but not really!  For all the time an unforgiving spirit is building with the force of a volcano or it is like a tumor that is continually, rapidly growing—all while it is said to be non-existent!  Secretly we make terrible choices to coddle, to hold onto our grudges and our pains of the past.  We brood secretly—the result is bitterness and prolonged resentment.  Deep hostility soon controls our personality—it’s toxic!

And yet, sooner or later, because we are the “walking wounded,” one of two things will happen.  The best is, that we deal with the injustice, pain, and hurt in Christ through His words and know healing, grace, and discover how to forgive because of His control.  The second is all too common in our culture, which gives us full permission to nurture resentment and to coddle unresolved conflicts, and when that continues, we totally are without His blessing.  We cannot expect to live at peace with God until we, as Jesus said, “forgive our debtors” (Matthew 6:12).  It’s a basic teaching of Jesus.  In unforgiveness, we allow Satan to “get an advantage of us” (II Corinthians 2:11).  The verse continues, “for we are not ignorant of his wiles and intentions.” (Amplified Bible)  Satan wants to fester it.  Yet, Paul warns us, “But the natural, nonspiritual man does not accept or welcome or admit into his heart the gifts and teachings and revelations of the Spirit of God, for they are folly (meaningless nonsense) to him …” (I Corinthians 2:14, Amplified Bible)  To really forgive is unnatural to the human spirit without God in control.  Let it be declared firmly and faithfully, nothing short of forgiveness put into our hearts by Christ can bring about lasting release and conquering freedom, which is spiritual liberation.  “The glory of Christ is to conquer by forgiveness.” (William Blake)

As Nancy DeMoss wrote with insight, “Forgiveness is not a method to be learned as much as a truth to be lived.”  We are sure, for in each of us God wants to give us the grace to move on with our life.  He wants to release us from the darkness of unforgiveness and to set all of us free in His light and love.  It’s like walking out of a dark prison.

So then, remember to forget the wrongs done to us.  Bestowing forgiveness gives anyone their life back!  It only happens by putting God’s grace and mercy into practice—call it what it is, forgiving others as God has forgiven involves a miracle of God alive.  God in you!

This we have every right to celebrate, it’s totally unmerited grace that was initiative from the heart of God for a world of undeserving sinners.  That grace was expressed most clearly with Jesus Christ coming to die.  God openly revealed not only His unique Sonship but willing sacrifice for sinners.  In two statements we have it unfurled clearly.  “For the free gift of eternal salvation is now being offered to everyone” (Titus 2:11, TLB), and then, “Now we rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God—all because of what our Lord Jesus Christ has done in dying for our sins—making us friends of God … this one man, Jesus Christ, brought forgiveness to many through God’s mercy … Christ’s righteousness makes men right with God, so that they can live.” (Romans 5:11, 15, 18, TLB)  If we use Paul’s very own words, “Christ’s righteousness makes men right with God”—this is the result of grace which we embrace by faith.  How wonderful to humbly take by childlike faith what grace through Christ makes available to us as a glorious and miraculous gift.

I again return to ask and simply suggest—how could a sinner come to know grace and ever forget it?  We, because of God’s Spirit are constantly reminded what, as a result of grace, we are.  And to realize more fully what it is to live in gratitude for it; we live in “the good news of the grace of God” (Acts 20:24).  How could any single word be more significant to an authentic Christian than that word grace for it is what the New Testament is all about?  There is a simple way to say it, grace is what everyone needs and no one can merit and what God alone can give.  It’s always amazing!  Years of living never should lessen the wonder of it!  When we think of what God has forgiven us of, that should make it possible to forgive anyone and everyone!

From the grateful heart of John Newton these words flowed like an overflowing fountain, “I am not what I might be, I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I wish to be, I am not what I hope to be; but I thank God I am not what I once was, and I can say with the great apostle, ‘By the grace of God I am what I am.’”  We should and could all confess, “Oh, to grace how great a debtor,” and so each of us can check our condition spiritually by the depth of our amazement that God’s grace reached a heart like mine and drew me to Jesus’ feet.  Augustine said God’s grace was the “mystery of history.”  Why would God love someone like me?  And you say, “Or me?  Especially me!”  The evidence of grace is a life of Christ-likeness and, even greater, a desire for more Christ-likeness. May God graciously give us all that holy hunger.

Can anything be more important than those things we need to forget and that which we need to remember?  I think not!  Blessings!