And they will not need to teach their neighbors, nor will they need to teach their relatives, saying, ‘You should know the Lord.’ For everyone, from the least to the greatest, will know me already,” says the Lord. “And I will forgive their wickedness, and I will never again remember their sins.” Jeremiah 31:34 NLT
Have you ever thought about the importance of Spirit empowered forgiveness. In the New Testament, forgiveness means to send away, to put apart, letting go and leaving behind. It also is most often translated as remission of sins, which goes one step further, it not only releases us from sin, but also the power and dominion of sin. Did you see that? It not only releases us from a sin committed, but also releases us from the power it has over us. That’s a powerful truth, but one, we don’t often walk in.
The reason Satan has power over us is not because he’s that powerful, because he’s not. But because he keeps us feeling guilty and ashamed over something Almighty God has forgiven and freed us from. Satan loves to keep reminding us of our past sins and how God surely couldn’t forgive us. But once we understand how much God loves us and how powerful the blood of Jesus is we can receive His total forgiveness of all, yes everyone, past, present and future sins. Not only are they “put away”, but they are forgotten, never to be remembered no more to be used as a weapon or tool to keep us feeling guilty and ashamed. The only one that does that is the enemy to manipulate and control us and keep us captive in an unlocked prison.
An illustration of this was found when missionaries were translating the Bible in Northern Alaska with the Eskimos. There was no word for forgiveness in their language. But as translators have learned, when they listen and observe the group of people they are translating for, many times a similar word will show itself. In this case the word meant “not being able to think about it anymore”. Isn’t that exactly what God said to the Israelites? “I will remember your sin no more”, what beautiful words from our loving God.
But the enemy wants us to keep thinking about our sins and plants negative thoughts in our minds. Like, God must be mad at me, or when something bad happens, it’s God punishing me for not doing what I said I would. This opens the door for the enemy to remind me even more of my failure to keep my word, or do what I knew I should but didn’t. Or we could remember in God’s eyes we are forgiven, we have been set free from the guilt and shame. He wants us to go forward and continue to bring Him honor and glory by showing His powerful blood has also given us power and dominion over sin itself!
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