Okay, here’s one of those thoughts that I think is a valid thought but, to be honest, as I type this I’m kind of hearing it put this way for the first time myself. If not entirely correct, it’s at least something to chew on. The thought? God forgives but He doesn’t forget — and neither should we.

What’s prompting this thought this morning? Nehemiah 9.

Now on the twenty-fourth day of this month the people of Israel were assembled with fasting and in sackcloth, and with earth on their heads. And the Israelites separated themselves from all foreigners and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers. And they stood up in their place and read from the Book of the Law of the LORD their God for a quarter of the day; for another quarter of it they made confession and worshiped the LORD their God.

(Nehemiah 9:1-3 ESV)

How’s that for a Sunday morning service that’s gone a bit over time? Six hours of bible, six hours of confession and worship? And the rest of Nehemiah 9 records some of that confession — and it is stuff that’s been confessed and repented of before. Nehemiah 9 has a familiar ring, reminding me of other OT passages that recount the deliverance of Israel and the iniquities of their fathers. One of those passages rehearsing again Israel’s history as marked by a repeated cycle of Israel’s rebellion, God’s just retribution, Israel’s repentance, and God’s gracious restoration.

“Nevertheless, they were disobedient and rebelled against You and cast Your law behind their back and killed Your prophets, who had warned them in order to turn them back to You, and they committed great blasphemies. Therefore You gave them into the hand of their enemies, who made them suffer. And in the time of their suffering they cried out to You and You heard them from heaven, and according to Your great mercies You gave them saviors who saved them from the hand of their enemies. But after they had rest they did evil again before You and You abandoned them to the hand of their enemies, so that they had dominion over them. Yet when they turned and cried to You, You heard from heaven, and many times You delivered them according to Your mercies . . . in Your great mercies You did not make an end of them or forsake them, for You are a gracious and merciful God.”

(Nehemiah 9:26-28, 31b ESV)

The purpose would seem clear, rehearsing the sins of the past has a way of keeping you humble in the present and of helping you achieve your desire to not repeat those sins in the future. To confess what’s already been confessed has a way of reminding us of our always present need for a forgiving God and has a way of refueling within us worship for a gracious and merciful God.

And yet, from my perspective, rarely is confession of past sins found in our corporate gatherings. Maybe because it’s not found as often as it should be in my personal times with the LORD. And that perhaps because we know that when we confess our sins He is just and faithful to forgive us our sins (1Jn. 1:9), but also think that when we confess our sins God forgets our sins and thus, so should we. But does He?

Maybe we get the idea that God forgets our sins from a verse like Psalm 103:12. But it doesn’t say that God forgets our sin. Instead it assures us of the distance God puts between us and our sin — putting off sin’s guilt and shame and eternal consequence “as far as the east is from the west.” Our sin forgiven, but not necessarily forgotten.

So, for me to again recall and remember my transgression is to again wonder and worship at just how far the east is from the west — what an infinite space it is — and to, in some measure, “have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep His love is” (Eph. 3:18 NLT).

Is it okay to suggest that while our sins are forgiven, they should not be forgotten? Not that the sins of our past would be brought up repeatedly by our enemy, the Accuser, to harass us, but that they would be used instead by the Spirit to ever humble us. Not that we would live again in the shame, but that we would celebrate afresh the Savior.

Our sins — forgiven, not forgotten.

That we might always abide in His grace. That we might never cease to give Him the glory.

Make sense?