“Forgive and Forget”
Jeremiah 31:34

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Pastor Kevin Vogts
Trinity Lutheran Church
Paola, Kansas
Fifth Sunday in Lent—March 22, 2015

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Our text is today’s Old Testament Reading from the 31st chapter of Jeremiah, especially the last verse:  “For I will forgive their wickedness,” declares the Lord, “and will remember their sins no more.”

I grew up at Canton, in McPherson County, Kansas.  My father always wanted to be a farmer, and I would have been a farm boy, except I was born in 1960, and Dad went broke and lost the farm in the drought of ’58.  My grandfather had been in the earthmoving business.  Dad started building township roads with a horse-drawn grader when he was 12 years old.  So, after losing the farm, Dad worked for a few years in the oil fields, and then returned to the family business, making his living building waterways and terraces for soil conservation.

About 30 years ago Dad was on his grader out in a lonely field when a man pulled up in a pickup.  Thinking he might be the landowner, Dad drove his grader over to where the pickup was parked.  When the man got out, Dad could see from his beard and his clothing that he was a member of a religious group, many of whom in that part of Kansas.

Dad didn’t recognize who he was, but when he introduced himself, Dad remembered him as a former grade school classmate.  Right off the bat, he told Dad he had an apology to make.  Dad was mystified and couldn’t imagine what it could possibly be about, because they hadn’t even seen each other in over 50 years.  Then this man proceeded to apologize to my father for pushing him down on the playground at recess in the fourth grade! 

My father was flabbergasted!  He told the man he couldn’t even remember such a thing, and he wondered what in the world had prompted him to come and apologize for it now.  It turns out, this man’s farm was failing, and the leaders of the sect he belonged to told him it must be because of some sin God was punishing for.  The only way to save his farm was to figure out what this sin might be and make amends for it.  So, this poor, misguided man had searched back through his whole life, and finally concluded that God must be punishing him for pushing down Leroy Vogts one day on the playground at recess in the fourth grade.

Does God really work that way?  Does God keep a carefully recorded accounting of our sins, just waiting to one day pay us back for the wrong we have done? 

“For I will forgive their wickedness, and will remember their sins no more.”

In Jeremiah’s day the sins of the people of Israel were very great indeed.  They rejected the Lord and instead followed false gods.  They rebelled against God’s will and violated his commandments.  In our text the Lord says simply, “They broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them.” 

But, the Lord promises that he will establish a new covenant:  “This time is coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.  It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt.” 

The old covenant of Mt. Sinai dictated that man must be punished for his sins.  But, the Lord promises that he will establish a new covenant, a covenant not of Mt. Sinai, but of Mt. Calvary, a covenant of forgiveness:  “This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord.  “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts.  I will be their God, and they will be my people.  No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord.  “For I will forgive their wickedness, and will remember their sins no more.”

This is a prophecy of the new covenant established by Jesus Christ.  In this prophecy, Israel represents the Church, all those who trust in Christ.  The writing of God’s word on the heart represents the Holy Spirit bringing us to faith in Christ.  And knowing the Lord represents continuing steadfast in faith.  So, in these words of prophecy, Jeremiah is describing the new covenant established by Jesus Christ.  And what is the basis for, the foundation of, this new covenant?  Divine forgiveness: “For I will forgive their wickedness, and will remember their sins no more.”

At the Last Supper, when he instituted the Sacrament of Holy Communion, Jesus said, “This is my blood of the new covenant, shed for you, for the forgiveness of sins.”  The blood of Jesus Christ is what gives the new covenant its power.  You see, a covenant is a promise, and the new covenant, prophesied by Jeremiah, is God’s promise to you that your sins are paid for by the blood of Jesus Christ.  As St. Paul says in Ephesians, “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.” 

Because of the blood-sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross, all your sins are forgiven.  There are so many beautiful Bible verses that testify to the forgiving power of Jesus’ blood.

First John: “The blood of Jesus, God’s Son, cleanses us from every sin.” 

Revelation: “He loved us and has freed us from our sins by his blood.” 

Romans: “God presented him as sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood . . . We have been justified by his blood.” 

Colossians: “For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things . . . by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.”

And First Peter: “You were redeemed . . . with the precious blood of Christ.”

Jesus shed his blood to pay for your sin.  Because Jesus died for you, God forgives all your sins.  God forgives and forgets.  “For I will forgive their wickedness, and will remember their sins no more.”  God forgives your wickedness and remembers your sins no more.  As Psalm 130 says, “If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand?  But, with you there is forgiveness.”  God does not even keep a record of your sins, because your debt has all been paid by the blood-sacrifice of his Son.  God forgives and forgets.  As the Lord says in Isaiah, “I am he who blots out your transgression, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.” 

Some people have a photographic memory, they can instantly remember entire books.  When I was in college there was a professor who had memorized the entire Bible and could instantly quote any chapter and verse you request. 

God, of course, has a perfect memory, but he chooses to forget your sins, for his own sake, because all your sins have been blotted out by the blood of Jesus Christ.  If you were to stand before the Lord right now and ask him to tell you all your sins, he would say simply, “I remember your sins no more.” 

God forgives and forgets.  Psalm 103 puts it this way: “The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in love.  He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.  For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who revere him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.”

What about that misguided man my father met?  Was his farm really failing because he pushed my father down on the playground at recess in the fourth grade?  Or, maybe there was some other sin God was punishing him for?  And is that why my Dad lost his farm—a punishment from God?

For non-Christians, it is possible that their troubles might be a punishment from God—but still with a loving purpose, to bring them to repentance.  But, that possibility doesn’t even apply to you.  Because, for all who trust in Jesus Christ, like that man, and my father, and you, and me, God doesn’t work that anymore.   For the sake of his Son Jesus Christ, God forgives and forgets.  “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”

When bad things happen in your life and you are tempted to wonder “Is God punishing me?” look to the cross, see all your sins laid upon your Savior, fully paid for in your place.  That’s what Jesus meant when he cried out from the cross, “It is finished!”  Your troubles can’t be a punishment from God, because there simply is no punishment left for you to suffer.  “It is finished!” by Jesus’ suffering and death upon the cross.  As Isaiah says, “The punishment that brought us peace was upon him.”

“For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”  God forgives and forgets.  Now what about you?  Do you remember the parable Jesus told about the servant who was forgiven a great debt by his master, but then that same servant refused to forgive a small debt of one of his fellow servants?  Is that a parable about you? 

The great debt of your sin is all forgiven, but do you still seek revenge and bear a grudge?  St. John says, “This is how God showed his love for us: He sent his only-begotten Son into the world that we would live through him.  This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice which pays for our sins.  Beloved, if God loves so us, we ought also love one another.”

God forgives and forgets.  Now what about you?  Remember how Jesus taught us to pray in the Lord’s Prayer: “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.”  Who is it that has trespassed against you?  What are the grudges you are bearing?  What are the sins against you that you have refused to forgive? 

God forgives and forgets.  Now what about you?  St. Paul says in Ephesians, “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.  Be imitators of God.”  Be an imitator of God—forgive and forget.  As St. Peter says, “Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.”  Follow the example of Jesus, who pleaded for forgiveness for his enemies even as he was nailed to the cross: “Father, forgive them.” 

God forgives and forgets.  Now what about you?  St. Paul says in Colossians, “Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one other.  Forgive as the Lord forgave you.”  “Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” That means you will forgive completely, unconditionally, just as the Lord forgave you.  “Forgive as the Lord forgave you.”  That means you will not keep a record of wrongs and will remember the sins against you no more, just as the Lord forgave you.  “Forgive as the Lord forgave you.”  That means you will forgive and forget, just as the Lord forgave you.

Like that misguided man my father met, sometimes we get the mistaken notion that God keeps a carefully recorded accounting of our sins, just waiting to pay us back for the wrong we have done.  But, that is absolutely wrong.  God doesn’t work that way.  Because of Jesus’ blood-sacrifice for you on the cross, God forgives and forgets all your sins.  “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” 

God forgives and forgets.  Now what about you?  “Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge.”  “Forgive as the Lord forgave you.”  “Forgive and Forget.”