FORGIVING and FORGETTING
1) Through repentance God will forgive your sins.
Acts 3:19-21 "Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins
may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the
presence of the Lord, and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was
preached to you before, whom heaven must receive until the times of
restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all
His holy prophets since the world began."
2) Through repentance God will forget your sins.
Hebrews 8:12 "For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness,
and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no
more."
3) Forgiveness of sins by God involves forgiving others.
Matthew 6:12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our
debtors.
Ephesians 4:32 And be kind to one another, tenderhearted,
forgiving one another, just as God in Christ forgave you.
4) Christians are commanded to forgive repentant people.
Luke 17:3-4 "Take heed to yourselves. If your brother sins
against you, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. And
if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day
returns to you, saying, 'I repent,' you shall forgive him"
Colossians 3:12-13 Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and
beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness,
longsuffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one
another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as
Christ forgave you, so you also must do.
5) Christians should remember works of faith, love, and
hope.
1 Thessalonians 1:2-4 We give thanks to God always for you all,
making mention of you in our prayers, remembering without ceasing
your work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope in our
Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of our God and Father, knowing,
beloved brethren, your election by God.
6) Permanent forgiveness of sins is found in the Lord Jesus
Christ.
Acts 13:38-39 "Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that
through this Man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins; and
by Him everyone who believes is justified from all things from which
you could not be justified by the law of Moses."
Colossians 1:13-14 He has delivered us from the power of darkness
and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom
we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.
7) Forgiving and forgetting Christians have the hope of eternal
life.
Romans 8:24-25 For we were saved in this hope, but hope
that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he
sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for
it with perseverance.
Philippians 3:13-14 Brethren, I do not count myself to have
apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are
behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I
press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in
Christ Jesus.
