“For I will be merciful toward their iniquities and I will remember their sins no more.”
– Hebrews 8:12
I just want to encourage you to meditate on Hebrews 8:12, to soak in this verse, to let it soak into your heart. This is in the middle of the author of Hebrews, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, just talking about what Jesus has done on the cross for us, what He has made possible for us and this is a quotation. This is God speaking from the Old Testament in a way that is all the more true through Christ. Christ is the fulfillment of God’s promises and God says, “I will be merciful toward their iniquities.” Make it personal through trust in Jesus, through faith in Jesus. God says to you, “I will be merciful toward your iniquities and I will remember your sins no more.” Don’t you want to let that soak in?
Let us not beat ourselves up for that which God remembers no more. When Satan tempts you to despair and tells you of the guilt within, look up and see Him there who made and end of all your sin.
You think about all your sins? Well, here’s the challenge. You’re thinking about them. God Himself chooses not to remember them. God, the omniscient King of creation, the One who knows all things. So it’s not like He has amnesia. But the beauty of what the Bible is teaching here is the God, who knows all of your sins, my sins more than even we do, I don’t even know all the ways I’ve sinned against God, the gravity of those sins against God. I’ve confessed my sin to God. But I don’t even know the breadth and the depth and the seriousness of what that means because I still don’t understand the depth and breadth of His holiness and what it means for me to sin against Him. I have an idea of that. But I know I don’t even grasp the reality of it. But God does.
This Verse Wants Us To Not Feel Guilty For Our Sins In The Past
He knows how serious our sin is. He knows every way we have sinned and the beauty is God says, “I will be merciful towards your inequities and I will remember your sins no more.” No more. Just let that soak in, those two words. No more.
So when the adversary accuses you, when the adversary reminds you of all the things you have done, tries to beat you down with the weight of past sin, just soak in Hebrews 8:12. God has said to you, “I will be merciful towards your inequities and I will remember them no more,” and so if He remembers them no more, then you do not have to dwell on them. Yes, yes, let’s learn from the pain of past sin as we pursue holiness in the present and the future. But let us not beat ourselves up for that which God remembers no more, for that which God has said, “I am merciful toward you.
Hebrews 8:12 Praises God For His Mercy
Oh God, we praise You. We praise You for Your mercy. We praise You, Jesus, for paying the price for our sins, for covering our sins with Your blood, just like Hebrews chapter nine teaches, so that we can stand before You and You remember our sins no more. Oh, glory be to Your name that You don’t count any one of our sins against us.
So God, I pray. I pray especially for those who feel beat down by past sin. Those who feel like they’re walking around with a scarlet A on them or are walking around. They feel like they’re just scarred and stained by sin in the past. They’ll never get past it. So God, we pray that by Your grace, they would get past it. God, that by Your grace, they would know You don’t remember their sins anymore and that just Hebrews 12 would just shower over them constantly, just the all throughout the day.
You remember their sins no more. You are merciful toward their inequities. And you remember theirs sins no more. God, help us to live in this mercy. Help us to grow in holiness based upon this mercy, empowered by this mercy, to leave sin and thought of it behind and to walk in holiness and righteousness that You’ve bought for us. So God, we praise You that when we one day stand before You for all who have trusted in Jesus as the sacrifice for our sin. Trusted in Jesus as our savior and Lord, that on that day, when we deserve to be cast away from You into eternal punishment for sin, that You will look at me and all who trusted in You and You will say, “I don’t remember your sins.”
Hebrews 8:12 Prays For The Baloch In Iran
Oh God, thank You for this mercy. I pray that You’d help us to spread this mercy. God, we pray that and there would be more people who hear those words on that day because of our lives. Help us to make the gospel known today. God, we pray for the Baloch in Iran, Muslim people who don’t know Your mercy in this way. So God, please, please, please may they know the good news of the God who will remember our sins no more through faith in Jesus. God, we praise You for Hebrews 8:12. So we pray You’d help us to live in this mercy day in and day out. Thank You for being merciful toward our inequities and remembering our sins no more. In Jesus’ name, amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
