God forgiving, but not forgetting

Hi brother,

I looked for The Son-Eve connection and couldn’t find it. Is that the title I gave it or you gave it in your last email? If that was my title, please give me the address so I can read it. Then I can comment on what you read.

 

I love the Law and the Spirit of Prophecy, but only because Jesus demonstrates it. Otherwise, I hate the Law and the Spirit of Prophecy. Without the powerful merits of Jesus lived out before me, for me to be effected by, I am as evil as Adolf Hitler. I get reminded that in my best state I am capable of the worst, most aggravated rebellion against the government of heaven. I am not exaggerating.

 

But the visible and audible grace of Christ not only reconciled me to the Law and the bigger Bible and the biggest Spirit of Prophecy, but, I have to keep in communion with Him to stay reconciled. That is the everlasting gospel. We need to explain to people that sanctification has often been mistaken for relying on our own morality that we have learned from people/family around us. But, that is not good enough to have the holy Spirit of Christ. We must daily repent and stay repentant before Jesus, walking in humility that comes from the realization of our past grievous sins. The typical person not schooled in the gospel doesn’t walk in the memory of past falls to temptation. Like Paul said, “I was alive without the Law once.” (Rom. 7:9). That is the normal human mindset, not just in America but over the whole planet. But, God who is super gracious, continues to bring us to repentance. He calls not the righteous, but only sinners. If the sinner accepts His call and yields to His condemnation of sin in them, then the Judge brings the yielding sinner to His Priest to show the sinner what his sinfulness cost the innocent Sacrifice. If the sinner yields to the cross, then he receives the Spirit from a reconciled God. And he also receives the love of the Law, a love of the truth.

 

That is the only way we can love the Law. We are all naturally destitute of Law loving. It takes a total replacement of mind and heart and soul to love the Law. And I was meditating on a recent problem I caused someone, over which I had grieved and grieved before Jesus. In connection with the Day of Atonement, we see that we are atoned for at our reception of the gift of repentance from Jesus. Acts 5:31. And in Leviticus 4 we see four different levels of mercy and atonement given for each different cost of grace from Jesus. Yet, there still remained another atonement at the end of the year to cleanse the sins brought into the Lord’s house.

 

This means that the Lord forgave at the first atonement, but He did not forget. When we repent He forgives, but doesn’t forget. He can’t forget until the Day of Atonement. Then and only then will He forget the whole thing. And that is when glorious eternity begins! But, for ancient Israel that final atonement required resting with no distractions and praying and searching the soul as never before, because that day determined whether or not He would retain such a sinful nation.

 

But, even though Jesus and His Father don’t forget immediately, when They forgive They forgive fully and freely. Not like us who often don’t forgive. People say, “I’ll forgive, but I won’t forget.” But, the reality is that they don’t forgive. Their forgiving, but not forgetting isn’t like Jesus’ forgiving and not forgetting. They don’t forgive full and free. If they remember a sin against them, they repeal their pardon. But, for everyone who has received the reconciled Spirit from God knows that they have been accepted, regardless if God still remembers their sin. They are so happy in Jesus that He accepts them that they can live under the memory of their sin still remaining in the heart of God and among memories of the heavenly hosts. They have yielded to the Law of a holy God and to the crucifixion of the innocent Son of God. They have a new humbled heart, and are perfectly fine with the presence of their sins still on record in heaven. True humility can take that. Valid humility says that it deserves much worse.

 

But, for everyone who has never surrendered to the authority of God to condemn them and their sins, so that the Schoolmaster therefore can never bring them to Christ to be justified, the idea of accepting that God still remembers their sins after forgiving their sins is completely unacceptable. In their hearts they say, “God, if that’s the way You want to be, forget it! I don’t need You!” But, they never yielded to the condemnation of the Law of God, by which means they could have yielded to the cross of Christ. Therefore they never received a new heart of humility that can accept God not forgetting their sins. And therefore, another atonement after 1844 cannot be accepted in their theology or church doctrine. So they call us a cult because they never yielded to the condemnation of God/sacrifice of Christ to receive a new mind that accepts the special help that God is providing us by imbuing us with a constant reminder of how wicked we were and of how we never want to be again. All who have truly repented have a hard time forgetting the wickedness they committed. And if they ever slip up and forget how they miserably failed, then they know that their weakness in that wicked failure will most certainly cause them to commit that evil again more easily than before. They fear to kill and to steal and to destroy, ever again. They are actually thankful to God for never forgetting their evil sin, and for letting them know that He hasn’t forgotten. In their minds, if He doesn’t forget, then they shouldn’t either. And that is exactly why God remains not fully committed to blotting out their sins upon forgiveness. He knows how mischievous sinners and sin and Satan are. It’s for our good that He doesn’t forget.

 

Satan, on the other hand, hates the condemnation of sin. And he inspires the same hatred in his children. Any form of bringing sin to light he rages against. He is “king over all the children of pride” (Job 41:34). In a million ways he prevents people from surrendering to the claims of the Law of God, and thereby prevents them from coming to Christ for justification and reconciliation to God. Thus, Satan’s children never receive the humility many Christians claim to have, and they remain children of wrath.

 

But, all who have the true holy Spirit of God through the Spirit of Christ are glad for the forgiveness and the continued remembrance of their sins until the end when, if they hold the beginning of their confidence steadfast to the end, they will pass through the times of trouble ahead of them and then can have their sins fully blotted out. Until that day they will walk humbly before God in the true humility that He gave them by leading them down into the waters of submission to His Law and to His Son’s cross. And they are happy for His continued attention. Even if it is negative attention, at least it’s attention!

 

Bless you, brother,

David