For I will be merciful toward their iniquities and I’ll remember their sins no more.
– Hebrews 8:12
Did you hear that? This is a quotation in Hebrews 8 from Jeremiah 31:31–34, and the very end. This is God speaking to all who trust in Jesus. I will be merciful toward their iniquities and I will remember their sins no more.
Hebrews 8:12 teaches us the certainty of God’s forgiveness in the new covenant.
Do you ever think about your sin with sense of guilt or shame over what you’ve done? Do you ever beat yourself up in a sense over sin that you’ve thought or desired or done or acted upon? If so, hear this good news. The greatest news in all the world. When you put your trust in Jesus and for all who have trusted in Jesus, we confess our sins. This is 1 John 1:9, “He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, to cleanse us from all unrighteousness in such a way that he remembers our sins no more.”
What a thought. I remember using an illustration. I haven’t used it in a long time. Years ago, about a guy who had bought a Rolls Royce car. Just an extremely expensive car that was advertised as the car that will never, ever, ever break down. And so he buys it at a hefty price. He’s driving it one day in the countryside and it breaks down. He calls them up and he is like, “Hey, this car that wasn’t supposed to break down, broke down.” They’re like, “We’ll be there immediately.” They send a mechanic on a helicopter with parts out to where he is in the countryside. They fix the car and he goes on his way. They bring the mechanic to him, fix it. He drives on his way.
Hebrews 8:12 teaches us the cleansing power of God’s forgiveness.
Later on, he’s looking for a bill for all that that cost to fix the car and it never comes. Finally, he calls up Rolls Royce and he’s like, “Hey, I want to pay my bills so I can kind of get that behind me.” They say to him, “Sir, we have no record of anything ever having gone wrong with your car.” I’ve used that illustration before just to think that when you put your trust in Jesus, God looks at your life and he says, “I have no record of anything ever having gone wrong.” And not just no record of anything ever having gone wrong, he has record of everything going right. You are cleansed from all your unrighteousness and clothed in the righteousness of Jesus.
God, this is the greatest news in the world. God is merciful toward your iniquities. He’ll remember your sins no more when you trust in Jesus as the Savior and Lord of your life. Let’s pray. If you’ve never put your trust in Jesus, let this be the moment when you do. Why go on another moment and guilt and shame in your sin? Trust in Jesus now, and for all who have, remember this, that God doesn’t remember your sin so you don’t have to live in the guilt and the shame of sin in your past.
God, we praise you for this truth. Jesus, we praise you for your righteousness, for your perfect sinless life and for your death on the cross for our sins. We trust in you as our Savior, and our Lord, as the one who saves us from our sins. Lord, we praise you for your victory over sin, for rising from the dead. We praise you for the not just forgiveness you give us, but for the freedom you give us from guilt and shame over sin. Oh God, we praise you for remembering our sins no more. So, free us from guilt and shame that the adversary would want to heap on us or that we would be inclined to heap on ourselves.
Prayer for the Bangka People
God, help us to trust in your Word in Hebrews 8:12, that you are merciful toward our iniquities and you, you said it, remember our sins no more. God, we pray for the spread of this good news through our lives today. Help us to lead others to this forgiveness and freedom through sharing Jesus and God. We pray for the spread of this good news around the world, to the Bangka people of Indonesia, 447,000 of them, no known followers of Jesus in this Muslim people group remote part of Indonesia on this island of Bangka in the South China Sea.
God, please cause the good news of your grace and the gospel to spread to the Bangka people of Indonesia and use our lives and your church today to do whatever is needed to get the gospel of forgiveness and freedom from sin and guilt and shame to the Bangka people of Indonesia. We pray all of this according to your Word in Hebrews 8:12 in Jesus’s 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.
