Does God forgive and forget?

[TommyWommy]

I would like some help reconciling two images of God.

One image is of God being forgetful of the sins He has forgiven. For example, God removes our sins “as far as the east is from the west” and remembers them no more, or, God throws our sins into the “sea of His forgetfulness, etc.” (This image was dominant in the Protestant circles I was in prior to my reversion).

The other image includes God recalling our sins and revealing everything we ever did at the Last Judgment, and also remembering our sins for the purpose of dealing with the temporal punishment due (which is taken care of in Purgatory).

So, does God actually “forgive and forget?” If so, when does this “forgetting” happen? Can God “forget” while simultaneously knowing everything about me (including my past sins and the temporal punishment I’m due)?

 

[BenedicamDominum]

God cannot forget anything just as He cannot learn anything new. His knowledge is infinite and all-encompassing and has existed in the same state of perfection from all eternity.

Now, Psalm 103 does not use any sort of imagery to communicate forgetfulness. It seems to be used in that sort of way by Protestants, but doing so does not do justice to the literal meaning of the text.

A better example is from Jeremiah 31, where God explicitly says the He will “remember their sin no more.”

But it should be kept in mind that, in both Hebrew and in English, this word “remember” can communicate an action of, well, keeping things in mind.

If I decide to eat an awful diet, my doctor might say, “Remember that you are but a mortal man!”

Well, I didn’t forget. I didn’t suddenly assume I was a goat who can eat cans for breakfast. But that’s not relevant. What I’m being told to do is to make a particular fact the focal point of my behavior. I shouldn’t be arrogant as if I were immortal, but rather should keep my mortality in mind, and should conform to it. But that imperative is not being used to suggest I forgot something and thus was working under mistaken assumptions.

Well, so it is with that particular verse. God is saying that His interaction with a forgiven human will not conform to the fact of the man’s past sin, because that sin is not, in the aforementioned sense, being remembered and thus held against him.

But of course, Catholic exegesis of Scripture does not assume sola Scriptura, and has in mind the whole of Tradition in its understanding of verses. So we should “remember,” when we read verses like this, that they are speaking of eternal consequences for actions.

 

[Thom18]

I don’t think God can “forget” sins, otherwise He wouldn’t be all knowing. I could be wrong, but I think the “forget” part is more to say that there won’t be any temporal punishment for the sin forgiven.

 

[steve-b]

I would like some help reconciling two images of God.

One image is of God being forgetful of the sins He has forgiven. For example, God removes our sins “as far as the east is from the west” and remembers them no more, or, God throws our sins into the “sea of His forgetfulness, etc.” (This image was dominant in the Protestant circles I was in prior to my reversion).

The other image includes God recalling our sins and revealing everything we ever did at the Last Judgment, and also remembering our sins for the purpose of dealing with the temporal punishment due (which is taken care of in Purgatory).

So, does God actually “forgive and forget?” If so, when does this “forgetting” happen? Can God “forget” while simultaneously knowing everything about me (including my past sins and the temporal punishment I’m due)?

As we know, Jesus taught in parables.

Re: the story of the servant who was forgiven of his debt because he repented and promised to repay his master. But then this same servant, turned around and wouldn’t forgive anyone who owed him any debt even when they used the same words to him that he used with his master and was forgiven. What happened to the wicked servant who was forgiven his debt? He was clobbered by the same master who forgave him originally. And how did Jesus finish the story? He said Mt 18:35 So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”

 

[JimG]

I remember reading about one of the saints—perhaps Sister Faustina—that when she was having interior locutions, she was not quite sure that the interior voice was Jesus speaking. So she asked, “If you are really Jesus, tell me what sins I confessed in my last confession.”

His reply was “I don’t remember.”

 

[jcrichton]

Hi, Tommy!

Here’s what Yahweh God has to say about sin:

18:21 ‘But if the wicked man renounces all the sins he has committed, respects my laws and is law-abiding and honest, he will certainly live; he will not die. 18:22 All the sins he committed will be forgotten from then on; he shall live because of the integrity he has practised. 18:23 What! Am I likely to take pleasure in the death of a wicked man – it is the Lord Yahweh who speaks – and not prefer to see him renounce his wickedness and live? (Ezekiel)

All the sins committed will be forgotten.

Yet, this goes both ways:

18:24 ‘But if the upright man renounces his integrity, commits sin, copies the wicked man and practises every kind of filth, is he to live? All the integrity he has practised shall be forgotten from then on; but this is because he himself has broken faith and committed sin, and for this he shall die. (Ezekiel)

That is why Christ Command us to Abide in Him:

4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abide in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine: you the branches: he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit: for without me you can do nothing. (St. John)

Those who belong to Christ will not have a recount of their whole life’s experiences:

25:34 Then the King will say to those on his right hand, “Come, you whom my Father has blessed, take for your heritage the kingdom prepared for you since the foundation of the world. (St. Matthew)

There are two books:

20:12 I saw the dead, both great and small, standing in front of his throne, while the book of life was opened, and other books opened which were the record of what they had done in their lives, by which the dead were judged. (Apocalypse [Revelation])

Did you noticed how the dead cannot be in the Book of Life? The dead were inscribed in the other books and it is from these books that they are Judged (St. Matthew 25:31-46).

Maran atha!

Angel

 

[Vico]

All the sins committed will be forgotten.

Rememered against, or mentioned unto.

Ezekiel 18 (NABRE)

22 None of the crimes he has committed shall be remembered against him; he shall live because of the justice he has shown.

Ezekiel 18 (KJV)

22 All his transgressions that he hath committed, they shall not be mentioned unto him: in his righteousness that he hath done he shall live.

 

[anna]

If I did not believe that once you confessed your sins with a contrite heart God forgave them and forgot them, I would not bother going to confession. Their is a peace that comes over one who knows that, you are forgiven and the sin remains no more.Does God remember I would say yes,does He retain them NO. God Bless

 

[jcrichton]

Hi, Vico!

Regardless of the wording the fact remains that God has Resolved to Grant Absolution; unlike man, God will not Revisit our sin and dredge up all of our past existence to coerce us into Fellowship. Conversely, our good deeds will be of naught if we engage in transgression–it will be to no avail to bring them up to God (‘remember when I did these good things?’); our transgressions separate us from God the second we commit them. (Ezekiel 18)

Maran atha!

Angel

 

[jcrichton]

Hi, Anna!

I fully concur!

It is not about God’s Omnipotence and Omniscience; it is about His Love, Mercy and Justice:

16 Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; 17 Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. 18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. 19 If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: 20 But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. (Isaiah 1)

‘Come, let us reason together…’ this is what God wants, an intimate relationship with us; He does not seek us out to break us down!

Maran atha!

Angel

 

[steve-b]

Hi, Tommy!

Here’s what Yahweh God has to say about sin:

18:21 ‘But if the wicked man renounces all the sins he has committed, respects my laws and is law-abiding and honest, he will certainly live; he will not die. 18:22 All the sins he committed will be forgotten from then on; he shall live because of the integrity he has practised. 18:23 What! Am I likely to take pleasure in the death of a wicked man – it is the Lord Yahweh who speaks – and not prefer to see him renounce his wickedness and live? (Ezekiel)

Ez 3:10 if a righteous man turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die; because you have not warned him, he shall die for his sin, and his righteous deeds which he has done shall not be remembered; but his blood I will require at your hand.

 

[Vico]

Hi, Vico!

Regardless of the wording the fact remains that God has Resolved to Grant Absolution; unlike man, God will not Revisit our sin and dredge up all of our past existence to coerce us into Fellowship. Conversely, our good deeds will be of naught if we engage in transgression–it will be to no avail to bring them up to God (‘remember when I did these good things?’); our transgressions separate us from God the second we commit them. (Ezekiel 18)

Maran atha!

Angel

With regard to the particular and general judgement, merit is not considered but the final state of grace at death. However, if a person dies in the state of sanctifying grace, then all merit of the lifetime is retained for glory, but where the final state is without sanctifying grace, then there is no glory.

 

[jcrichton]

Hi, Steve!

I think that you missed a digit; it should read Ez 3:20; this is further unfolded in Ezekiel 33.

This is the reason why we must call sin sin and not make accommodations for sensibilities, human justice and charity, and “correctness.”

Maran atha!

Angel

 

[steve-b]

Hi, Steve!

I think that you missed a digit; it should read Ez 3:20; this is further unfolded in Ezekiel 33.

This is the reason why we must call sin sin and not make accommodations for sensibilities, human justice and charity, and “correctness.”

Maran atha!

Angel

Yes it was v 20. Thanks for the correction