Stop Pulling the Rope

Is it possible that we remember more than the all-knowing God?  Before you write me off as a heretic, please hear me out.  The writer of Hebrews quoted Jeremiah (31:34) who quoted God who said, “Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more” (Hebrews 10:17).

In both the Old and New Testaments, God wanted His children to know that He chooses to forget all of our sin.  The Lord is willing to forget, it is typically US who struggle to do the same.  The late psychiatrist, Karl Menninger once said that if he “could convince the patients in psychiatric hospitals that their sins were forgiven, 75% of them could walk out the next day.”

Obviously, the best solution for guilt is to avoid sinning altogether.  But since that’s not possible, the next best thing is to seek forgiveness and then follow God’s example by forgetting what lies behind.  Now, that is easier said than done – I know!  But may I give you a suggestion that may help?  Stop pulling that rope.  Here’s what I mean.

When I was a boy, the church I attended had an old-fashioned bell and belfry.  It was a rite of passage to be tall enough to reach the bell’s rope, and heavy enough to make the bell ring.  Here’s a truth about that bell.  It would ring as long as someone tugged the rope.  After the rope was released, the bell would ring a time or two until its momentum slowed.  Then it stood silent. 

The same is true with the “sound of our sins.”  It will haunt us as long as we continue to dredge them up daily.  But if we will drop the rope and walk away, the bell of past sins will stop ringing and the sound of them will eventually fade. 

Yes, guilt, shame, and regret are consequences of sin.  They are the peals of a bell which has been rung.  But here’s the thing – God doesn’t want us to hear them forever.  If sin is forgiven (and it is), then it can also be forgotten.  Stop pulling the rope – God already has! –Dave

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