I suppose it is inevitable, considering the world we live in and the people we are surrounded with, I suppose it is inevitable that we will find ourselves suffering as a result of the actions of another person. It really should not surprise us, surrounded by sinners as we are, that people will sin against us. And yet every time it happens, we struggling to process the pain. No matter how well you prepare yourself for the possibility, dare I say the inevitability, of insult or injury at the hands of others, still when those others insult or injure us, it is as if it is the first time we have been dealt such a wound. However, this too should not surprise us. Though I have never been shot, I imagine the second time a bullet rips through your flesh it hurts just as bad as the first. When a person sins against us it is as if we have been shot. Sin has a way of ripping through a person like a bullet. It tears and rips its way through a person’s soul causing a hemorrhage of emotions like resentment, anger, and bitterness. And long after a person has been shot, sin often leaves behind a festering wound that can be hard to heal.
It is not at all uncommon for a person to come to me after they have been wounded by sin. They are looking for a way to deal with the pain and heal the wound that has been inflicted upon them. Thankfully, 20 years ago, I took one full semester of counseling at the Seminary, so I have obviously been equipped to deal with the spiritual trauma caused by sin. What I do is I calmly look into the eyes of the wounded person and with a gentle voice I explain to them that they simply have to forgive and forget. Now, when a soul wounded by sin hears these words the reaction is remarkable. I have never had any of you articulate the reaction, but I can read the expressions on your faces and those expression say… “WHAT! Are you kidding me!? Is that seriously the best you can do? Are you seriously telling me that in order to deal with the pain and heal the wound of sin I should forgive and forget? Isn’t that like telling a person with a gapping gunshot wound that they should just stop bleeding? Thank you, pastor. My life is going to be so much easier now that I know all I have to do is simply forgive and forget. Thank you so much for your insightful words of wisdom.” As I said no one has ever said this to me, y’all have too much respect for the pastoral office to speak this way to a pastor, but I am certain you have thought it.
I understand the reaction, I have reacted the same way myself when someone told me I simply need to forgive and forget. The truth is, forgiving and forgetting is easier said than done. No one understands that truth better than God. No one has been wounded by sin more severely and more often than God and yet through the prophet Jeremiah God says, 34 “I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” When wounded by sin, God forgives and forgets. Let’s see if we can figure out how He does it.
Take a look at what it says in verse 31. “31 “The time is coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.”” Here God speaks of a covenant. A covenant is a contract or legal agreement between two parties. Typically, at its core, a covenant is a conditional if/than kind of clause between two parties; “if you do this then I will do that” kind of thing. Covenants were made between husband and wife, between two business associates, and between a king and his subjects. At Mount Sinai God chose to make a covenant with the nation of Israel. He said, “if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession.”[1] Being the treasured possession of the almighty God sounded good to the Israelites so they agreed to the covenant, “We will do everything the LORD has said.”[2]
Unfortunately, before the figurative ink on the contract was dry the Israelites broke their covenant with God by bowing down to a golden calf. Sadly, this was not an isolated incident. The generations of Israelites that followed were no better at keeping their part of the covenant. They committed spiritual adultery by worshiping the gods of the Canaanites and they spiritually abandoned God by making alliances and treaties with His enemies. In Jeremiah 31:32 God describes how their sin wounded Him, there God said, “they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares the LORD.” God tells us it felt as if He had been cheated on.
I can’t imagine that our sins feel any different. We can shake our heads in disappointment at the Israelites all we want, but the truth is we are no better than they. If God were to make the same covenant with us as He made with them, we would break it just as quickly and completely as they did. We commit spiritual adultery against our God all the time. Every time we prioritize pleasure of self over service to others, every time we invest more energy in personal acquisitions than the great commission, every time we compromise one of His commands so that we can satisfy one of our desires, we are in effect hopping into bed with the gods of this age. Likewise, we spiritually abandon our God on a regular basis. When we go chasing after the devil’s temptations instead of running the race marked out for us, when we allow ourselves to be more influences by popular opinion than the truth of God’s Word, when we put more stock in our reason than we do God’s Revelation, we have in effect abandoned our God. Like the Israelites before us, we wound our God with our sin; we make Him feel as though He has been cheated on.
One thing God’s old covenant made abundantly clear was that people like the Israelites and people like you and me cannot be counted on to keep our part of a covenant. Thankfully God spoke of a New Covenant. In verse 33 God says, “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.” God’s new covenant is noticeably different than His old covenant. The old covenant was a traditional two sided if/then kind of covenant. However, in this new covenant God says, “I will make”, “I will put”, “I will be”. There are no conditional clauses in this new covenant that ask or demand anything of us. This new covenant is a one-sided covenant where God Himself meets all the conditions.
The problem with the old covenant was sinners kept messing it up. So, God made a new covenant; one in which He replaced the sinner with His Son. The Father said to His Son, ‘if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then all the nations of the earth will be my treasured possession.’ Jesus fully obeyed His Father; not a single commandment was broken. Jesus kept His Father’s covenant, even though doing so meant a trip to the cross. Jesus lived and Jesus died so that your wickedness could be forgiven, and your sin could be forgotten.
The Father is able to forgive and forget because the sinner has been removed from the if/then conditional clause. The Father is able to forgive and forget because instead of counting on people like you and me to keep the conditions of the covenant He counts on His Son. The Father does not look for us to supply a reason why our wickedness should be forgiven, and our sin forgotten. Rather, the Father looks to the Son. The Son supplies the reason why our wickedness should be forgiven, and our sins forgotten. The reason the Father is able to forgive and forget is because He doesn’t look to the sinner, He looks to the Son.
If you want to see what this new one-sided covenant looks like, then look no further than the tables that have been placed between us. When I realized that this Sunday was a Communion Sunday, I was excited because I can’t think of anything that illustrates and explains the new covenant better than the Lord’s Supper. Think about what happens in the Lord’s Supper. You are an invited guest at a meal you did not prepare. Perfection is placed on a plate and pardon is poured into a cup and placed in front of you. You are told to “take and eat”, “take and drink” for the body was given and the blood was shed for you. You stand there with your mouth gapped open as God feeds you the forgiveness that the broken body and shed blood of our Savior Jesus provide. In Luke 20:22 Jesus tells us this is “the new covenant”.
Are you starting to see how God is able to forgive and forget? I have explained three different ways and given you the best illustration I can think of. The Father forgives and forget because of a one-sided covenant where Jesus meets all the conditions and we have been removed from the conditional clause, as is illustrated by the Lord’s Supper.
When people who have been wounded by sin come to me looking for a way to deal with the pain and heal the wound, I still tell them they simply need to forgive and forget. But, after their eyes have told me what they think of that advice, I acknowledge that forgiving and forgetting is easier said than done. I tell them no one understands how hard it is to forgive and forget better than God. I remind them how God was able to forgive their wickedness and forget their sin by establishing a one-sided covenant in which Jesus meets all the conditions and we have been removed from the equation. I then tell them in order to forgive and forget you have to stop focusing your attention on the person who has wounded you. God knows better than anyone as long as you are focused on the sinner you will never find a reason to forgive and forget. So, instead of focusing on the sinner who has wounded you, focus on the Son who was wounded for you. Focus on the fact that your wickedness has been forgiven and your sins have been forgotten. It will not make forgiving and forgetting easy to do, but it will make forgiving and forgetting possible to do.
I would pray that none of you would ever be wounded by sin but considering the world we live in and the fact that we are surrounded by sinners I know it is inevitable. So instead, when you are suffering as a result of the actions of another and find yourself feeling the pain and tending the wound of sin, I will pray that you remember how God has forgiven your wickedness and forgotten your sin and I will pray that this equips and encourages you to do the same. May our God who has forgiven and forgotten give us the strength to forgive and forget. Amen.
[1] Exodus 19:5
[2] Exodus 19:8