The Mystery behind 'Forgive and Forget'

The Mystery behind "Forgive and Forget"

“Forgive and forget”, commonly heard in society, is a phrase that has Biblical roots that is oftentimes wrongly used or interpreted. Despite the common misconception, to “forgive and forget” in its Biblical essence carries a hidden, deeper meaning; which when one comprehends it, one comprehends the amusement of God’s love to a greater extent.

The following article will firstly explain the two keywords (“forgive” and “forget”) according to its Biblical meaning; explain how it’s being misinterpreted and misunderstood; followed by an explanation of how it reveals God’s love and teaches how we are to love others the way God loved us.

Forgiveness and the ability to forgive sins is a sole attribute of God. Only God can forgive sins. (Mark 2:7; Luke 5:21; John 1:9; Acts 3:19). We are also exhorted to forgive one another as Christ forgive us (Matthew 6:14; Ephesians 4:32; Colossians 3:13), but one of the best verses which summarize the forgiveness of sins is Ephesians 1:7, which epitomizes God’s redemption through His Blood – the forgiveness of our trespasses – in accordance with the riches of God’s grace. Forgiveness is paralleled to God’s grace. Without grace, there is no forgiveness.

As for the word “forget”, it is rather complicated because our current postmodern worldviews have developed its own definition. Alongside Isaiah 43:25 and Hebrews 8:12, which does somewhat contain the idea of God choosing to forget our sins, one may misinterpret it as if God has truly forgotten our sins – in the way one deletes a picture on one’s iPhone, symbolizing how they (our sins) have been wiped out in a sense that it never existed.

The truth is, God does not and cannot forget our sins because He is omnipresent – beyond time. God knows all of our sins before the formation of the world, which signifies that He also knows where will we end up in our eternal state. Secondly, He has said that He chooses to forget our sins, but that does not signify that He is by any means forgetful. When it is written that He will remember our sins no more, it epitomized that His lovingkindness (or steadfast love), grace, and mercy will not be hindered by our rebellious deeds. This is evidenced as time and time again God reminds Israel of their rebellion and sin – signify that He didn't really "forget about it". Furthermore, considering Isaiah and Jeremiah, God reiterates His chosen people’s faithlessness and sin but states that even though they rebel against Him and practices harlotry, He will never leave or forsake them in a sense that He will cut ties with them whatsoever. In other words, our sins will not hinder God's love towards us to the extent as if He has forgotten them – in the way they were non-existent at all! Yet, Him mentioning their faithlessness contrasted to His faithfulness signified that He did not “forget” their sins whatsoever.

Third, if God did forget our sins, the First Advent would not have taken place because our sins would not be on His mind. Christ would not need to come for us if we sin and He forgets it. Lastly, He does not forget our sins because there is a Final Judgment where we will appear before His Great White Throne of Judgment, accounting for all our deeds - both good and bad (2 Corinthians 5:10; Romans 14:10-12; 1 Peter 4:5). 

Oftentimes when we bring up the notion of forgetfulness, it correlates with memory, but when God – who has perfect memory – speaks of it, He is referring to how His lovingkindness and steadfast love will not be hindered by our iniquities. Hence, the essence of God forgetting our sins is one of the core examples of God’s immeasurable Love. God says He has blotted out our sins (forgive) and will remember it no more (forget) because of the New Covenant - The first advent of Jesus Christ which shows the way to reach a good God (Mark 10:18). God loves us as we have never committed any sins, for they have been wiped out through the Blood of Jesus Christ. God has “forgotten” our sin in a sense that it has NO effect on how He sees us, blesses us and uses us. (this is not an excuse for us to sin; for sin does have an effect on us) Nonetheless, He does not forget our sins and transgressions when it is referred to His memory – as if the act is deleted permanently.

One of the hardest challenges in life is to love others, bearing in mind the immense love of our “forgiving and forgetting” God.  We are not to forget other people’s sins and transgressions, both against God and man, but we are to “forget” them in the sense that it does not affect or hinder our love for them. This is the ultimate essence of how we are to love others as God first loved us. We cannot love others, and “forgive and forget” what they have done if we have not tasted or experienced the love of God that is beyond our comprehension. If we have yet to feel what it is like to be sanctified by the blood of Christ and the Holy Spirit, and still be held dearly to Him; we are unable to do so in return for others.

All in all, the mystery behind “forgive and forget” is the love of the lamb who was slain; the One who has set Himself as the example of how to forgive and forget others as He has done so in the first place.

What does 'Oh my God' mean?

“Oh My God”

 “Oh my God” is a biblical phrase with a Hebrew equivalent: Eli. This is perhaps one of the most carelessly uttered phrases in our current culture precisely because of its biblical origins. The enemy wants us to unconsciously misuse a statement intended to address God in the form of a personal relationship, into a common but, pardon me for my bluntness, blasphemous expression.

Throughout Scripture, quite a few biblical figures have used the phrase “O my God”, including: David, Solomon, Ezra, Nehemiah, Daniel, and the Messiah Jesus Christ. Being “Christian” – which means “in the way of Christ” – means that we believe that the Word of God is authoritative and we are to use biblical phrases in Its correct context and method. Thus, when we use the phrase “oh my God” as an expression of shock, relief, excitement, or whatever the speaker intends it to be – rather than an intimate prayer, for ALL biblical characters used it in the form of an intimate prayer (2 Chronicles 6:40; Ezra 9:6; Nehemiah 13:31; Psalm 3:7, Psalm 25:2; Matthew 27:46 etc.) – one is using a biblical phrase in a blasphemous manner.

Many use the phrase “oh my God” or “oh my gosh” without deciphering what it really means. The stress on the biblical term is on “my”, for “my God” evokes a personal relationship. “My God” is different from simply saying “God”, “your God”, “our God”, or “the God of someone”. If I say: “my God”, it resembles that I have taken ownership of my faith, for I do not only believe in the existence of a divine being, but the Lord God of Hosts who is my personal Lord and Savior. If you recount of the biblical usages of the phrase, King David or Jesus Christ did not use the phrase whenever they prayed or addressed God. If you look up scripture with the phrase “my God”, you would realize that whenever David or Christ spoke to God, they were addressing Him in a personal, intimate manner – crying out to Him with their all.

King David demonstrated the profound meaning of the phrase in Psalm 31:14, “But I trust in You O Lord; I say, “You are my God”, for “You are my God” once again evokes a personal relationship with between him and God. This is further evidenced as “O my God” and “You are my God” is the same Greek equivalent. In fact, the deliberateness of “O my God” is further evidenced in Ezra 9:5-15. This passage, titled “Ezra’s prayer” begins with Ezra praying an intimate prayer to God, in which he says: “O my God, I am too ashamed and embarrassed to lift my face to you, my God, for our iniquities have risen higher than our heads…” Yet, in verse 9 and 10, he begins to say “our God” instead of “my God”. The reason is that his prayer transcends to a corporate prayer in which he is pleading to God on behalf of the remnant of Israel. This is just an example of how deliberate every “O my God” is used – which is totally not the way it is used in our current culture. Every biblical character who used this sacred phrase, whether it may be Jesus, David, Solomon, Ezra, Nehemiah, or Daniel, they were thinking of God whenever saying it. Nonetheless, do you think of God whenever you mutter “oh my God” or “oh my gosh”? In fact, if God is the center of your life, you should think of Him with everything you say, reflecting through the Spirit whether or not it could be un-glorifying in His eyes.

On the other hand, there were those who did not address God in a personal and intimate manner, evoking their lack of personal relationship with the King of kings and Lord of Lords – even though they had acknowledged who He was. King Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon addressed Him by saying to Daniel: “Truly, your God is God of gods and Lord of kings, and a revealer of mysteries, for you have been able to reveal this mystery” (Daniel 2:47) after Daniel interpreted his dream. The Babylonian king also said: “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, who has sent His angel and delivered His servants…” (Daniel 3:29) when God delivered them from the furnace, and “How great are His signs, and how mighty are His wonders! His Kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and His dominion is from generation to generation” (Daniel 4:3). King Darius, or Cyrus the Great of Persia, also said “I make a decree, that in all my royal dominion people are to tremble and fear before the God of Daniel, for He is the living God, enduring forever; for he is the living God, enduring forever; His kingdom shall never be destroyed, and His dominion shall be to the end…” (Daniel 6:26-27)

Both the king of Babylon and the king of Persia addressed and praised God when they acknowledged His existence as the one true God, yet they did not have a personal relationship with Him nor did they worship Him. They addressed Him as “the God of [someone]”, or “[to a Hebrew] your God”. Neither kings addressed the Lord God of Hosts as “my God”. Furthermore, if you take account of what King Darius said, as shown above, to what apostle Paul said in 1 Timothy 1:17 “To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever”, you would probably realize there is not too much of a difference. Once again, despite the similarity in content, it was uttered by completely differently people. Therefore, let us not use the biblical and sacred saying “my God”, or “O my God” like a non-believer would do today. Our personal relationship with God, or, in other words, how much we love God and treat Him as the center of our lives, is reflected in the way we talk – just as how it was reflected in the way the people in the Bible talked. One who loves God will love godliness and holiness, for it is God’s nature. Thus, if we talk carelessly in a worldly fashion, adopting unholy and ungodly sayings, we may as well be careless in our relationship with Him, not loving Him in everything we attempt to do. Just as it is written: “But he who is careless of his ways will die” (Proverbs 19:16 NAS), a careless soldier always puts one’s life and those in one’s camp in danger.

Many Christians use the euphemism “oh my gosh” or other variations because they know that “oh my God” is a biblical phrase and it takes the Lord’s Name in vain. However, to glorify God is to use the phrase in its originally intended manner – an intimate prayer that addresses God in an intimate relationship. There is nothing wrong with saying “O my God” if its used in the way Christ used it. In our current culture, through the media and other schemes, the enemy wants us to use a biblical phrase in a secular fashion where God is forgotten whenever we mention about Him. Oftentimes, we are caught up in a society where offending others is a heavy cause, while offending God is considered as nothing. “O my God” or “my God” is a phrase which epitomizes a personal relationship between the speaker and Yahweh. Let us live in a Kingdom-minded culture and not profane a beautiful biblical phrase and fall into the enemy’s schemes.

-Barnabas Kwok

PS: Kritian Stanfill's song "Always" actually misused 'Oh My God' - not blasphemously, but carelessly. The chorus "Oh My God, He will not delay" is Biblically wrong, for whenever we use 'Oh My God' (refer to the given examples), we are directly and personally addressing God; making it 'You'. Thus, it should be "Oh My God, YOU will not delay..."