Our forgiveness should be the drive to fulfill our call to Evangelism and Discipleship. Jesus has forgiven us of all our sins, so we should be in search of souls needing the same forgiveness. We walk in freedom because of forgiveness, and we should strive to see many walking in the same freedom.
Isaiah 43:25 does a great job at explaining to us what God’s forgiveness can do. He says, “I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake;
And I will not remember your sins.”
To blot something out is to wipe it out or to obliterate it completely. God has no memory of our sins once they are forgiven. He doesn’t function like we do and reminds someone or ourselves of past sins. Another example of God’s forgiving power can be found in Psalm 103:12:
As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us.
In this metaphor, God uses two known points of distance. Points that are and forever will be separate from one another. Points that no matter how far you go, they will always be the polar opposite to the other. Our sins are removed this far because of God’s love. He wants us to acknowledge His compassion and His love for us. For example, in Micah 7:19, it states, “He will again have compassion on us, and will subdue our iniquities. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.”
The love of God is deeper than the ocean, it goes farther than the east is from the west, and it can destroy anything that prevents us from connecting with Him. To be like God, we must not only remember this, but also share the same kind of forgiveness with those in the world. This includes people who have wronged us. It is not by mistake that Jesus’ prayer says, “to forgive us of our trespasses as we forgive those who trespassed against us.” God loves us enough to forgive us and we need to do the same for others.