Forgotten on Purpose, A Weekly Reflection by Pastor Lap Dinh on Isaiah 41–43; Hebrews 9

We have excellent memories for the wrong things. We forget birthdays, sermons, promises we made last week. But the thing we did ten years ago? We can replay it frame by frame. The conscience keeps receipts. And we have learned to live with the filing cabinet: bury it under work, balance it with good behavior, pray a little louder on Sunday. It does not work. The drawer keeps sliding open at two in the morning.

Now hear what God says to people exactly like us. Israel in Isaiah 43 is not a model congregation. Listen to the charge: "You have not bought me sweet cane with money, or satisfied me with the fat of your sacrifices. But you have burdened me with your sins; you have wearied me with your iniquities" (Isa 43:24). They brought no offering. They brought a load. The very next line should be the sentence. Instead: "I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins" (Isa 43:25).

Stop. Read that again. For my own sake. Not because we finally got serious. Not because our record improved. God forgets on purpose, and the reason is found in Him, not in us.

But how? A judge who simply forgets is not merciful. He is corrupt. Isaiah leaves the question hanging, with only hints: a Servant given "as a covenant for the people" (Isa 42:6), a God who speaks of ransom (Isa 43:3), a "new thing" on the way (Isa 43:19). Hebrews 9 walks straight into that open question and answers it with one word. Blood.

Here is the bridge, and we must not miss it: what Isaiah promises, Hebrews shows that it was paid for. The old tabernacle had gifts and sacrifices that "cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper" (Heb 9:9). The body got clean. The filing cabinet stayed full. Then Christ came. "He entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption" (Heb 9:12). God does not forget our sins by looking away. He forgets them because He looked straight at them, on His Son. "Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins" (Heb 9:22). So blood was shed. His.

So hear this. If God has chosen not to remember it, we have no authority to keep it on file. To keep punishing ourselves for what Christ has paid is not humility. It is unbelief in humble clothes. Our guilt is not more accurate than His blood. And the cleansing is not for sitting still. It is "to serve the living God." Clean people get up and serve.

He appeared once "to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself" (Heb 9:26). He will appear a second time, "not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him" (Heb 9:28). Not to reopen the file. To bring us home. "Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine" (Isa 43:1).

What sin are you still remembering that God has said He will not, and what would you do for Him this week if you believed the file was truly closed?

— Pastor Lap