I Will REMEMBER your sins NO MORE!

Good Morning!  I had the privilege of teaching the first part of Hebrews 10 at our Women’s Bible Study class on Wednesday and it has such an incredible message for us that I felt it’s worth repeating.  As fallen human beings we have a natural propensity to live our lives buried under guilt!  We carry this heavy weight around with us, hidden just under the surface.  However, it is often so close to the surface that it doesn’t take much prying at all for it to appear in full view and begin to crush us.  To give you an example of this, I want you to think of how easy it is to bring out this feeling of guilt in someone, even if you don’t know for sure it is there.   When I was a teenager my mom would greet me after I was out with my friends and as I walked through the front door, she would have her hands on her hips and look right at me and say, “Is there something you want to tell me about what happened last night?”  Now she did not know if anything actually had happened, but she knew that, for most of us, guilt was a constant companion that would make its appearance with only a little prodding.  I now have teenagers myself and it is amazing because that little trick still works on the next generation.  When my kids come home from school I can say, “Is there something you want to tell me about what happened today?”  And you can tell right away if there is.  That guilt becomes evident.  Another example of this comes from the life of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.  He was apparently quite the prankster in his day and as I was reading about his life I came upon the story that was described as “his best ruse yet!”  Due to his position, he knew many famous people and one time he decided to test the people’s guilt.  He wrote the same note to twelve prominent people in the city. The notes read, “You must leave town Now.  ALL has been discovered.”  You know what?  All twelve of these people left town immediately!!  Now, he knew nothing about their secrets, but he proved the amount of guilt most of us carry around with us at all times.  Today I want us to determine if WE live our lives under guilt or under grace?  My husband and I were once traveling with a pastor and his wife on a long car trip, and this pastor, who we didn’t know well, kept trying to get us to tell him our worst sins.  He continued to ask us to tell him what the worst sin is that we had done.  My husband and I were looking at each other wondering if he was joking and finally my husband said to him rather seriously, “I don’t know about you, but as for me, my sins are forgotten – There is simply Nothing to discuss!”  I was so blessed by his response because it is ABSOLUTELY TRUE!!

The Hebrew people, who lived under the law, lived their lives under guilt.  They had a sacrificial system that God had established, as Paul describes, to be a “Tutor” or a “Guardian” of the people, teaching them the standard of God and the holiness that is required in order to be in His Presence.  The offering of sacrifices was a physical picture of what was needed spiritually through the sacrifice of the person of Jesus Christ!  Hebrews 10:1-4 describes to us how the law was a shadow of the realities that were to come through Jesus.  This passage tells us that while the people were under the law, the sacrifices had to be repeated over and over, day after day, and yet the guilt of the people remained!  It was Never removed!  In fact, the Day of Atonement, which was repeated year after year, only served to remind the people of their sinful state!  These continual sacrifices were a constant reminder of their separation from God and the guilt they carried.  It was only through the coming of Jesus Christ that this would change!  He came to complete the will of His Father.  It was finally time to FINISH the redemptive plan of God that had been formed before the foundation of the world!  Jesus came in the body God had prepared for Him, He was tempted in every way we are, and yet did not sin.  He willingly gave Himself as the PERFECT, SINLESS sacrifice and by His sacrifice He has “made PERFECT Forever those who are being made Holy.”  Jesus offered for “ONE TIME, ONE SACRIFICE for ALL sins!” After accomplishing His God given task, He cried out from the cross, “It is FINISHED!” and He sat down at the right hand of The Father as our perfect High Priest and Victorious King!  What HE meant when He cried out, “IT is FINISHED,” is described to us in Hebrews 10:5-18.  It tells us of the new covenant where God’s will and presence will now live in our hearts.  This passage declares to us that He will REMEMBER our sins NO MORE and “Where these have been FORGIVEN, sacrifice for sins is NO LONGER necessary!”  IT IS FINISHED!  He will remember our sins NO MORE!!!  Where the old way of the law served to remind the people of their sins continually, the new way of God, ushered in by Jesus, removes all remembrance of our sins forever!  To Remember in Hebrew means to Relive!  When God says He will not Remember our sins anymore, He is saying He will NOT relive our sins!  To Forgive means to never speak of again, to Not bring to one’s mind.  God is declaring to us that He will not speak of our sins again, and He will not bring them up.  This is the New Covenant!  This is New Life covered by the Grace of Christ!  We are NO LONGER to walk a life crushed by the weight of guilt!  IT has been removed!  DO NOT go back again to that yoke of slavery!  For who the Son sets FREE is FREE indeed!!  1 John 1:9 tells us that “If we confess our sins He is faithful and Just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness!”  God’s great gift to us is His Great memory loss!  When we come to Him for salvation, all our sins, past present and future our wiped out and covered eternally by the precious blood of Christ!  The beautiful thing is that under the old law every time the people would gather together for the Day of Atonement or to offer sacrifices, they came together to be reminded of their sins, but Jesus changed all that.  He declared, before His death, that from then on, when we gather together, we are to do so not to remember our sins, but to remember our SAVIOR!!!  He gave us a new meal to share.  One in which we do not share in condemnation but in Communion with our Lord and Savior.  He said as often as you take this bread and drink this cup we are to do so in REMEMBRANCE of HIM!!!   We are to remember not what we have done, because those things are forgiven and forgotten, but we are to remember what Christ has done!  What He has accomplished!  Do we live our lives under the old covenant of guilt, or are we living under the new covenant of Grace?  If anyone tries to remind you of your sins, if they want you to recount to them your worst failures, you can reply with confidence, “I don’t know about you, but as for me, my sins are forgotten – There is simply Nothing to discuss!”  “NO Guilt in Life, No Fear in Death!  This is the Power of Christ in Me!”