A Statute of Limitations

Many people believe that embedded in forgiveness is forgetfulness; that is, we can move past our sins without further conviction. I don’t see that being the case. I am convicted—yes, to offer up more joyous and thankful praise with each and every sin that God brings to wonderful light in my life in the backdrop of the Cross. Haven’t you ever experienced when—out of the blue—you’ll remember something you had done so very long ago? That happened to me last night. At sixty-two years old, how can I remember something I had done when I was six? Sins, actions so obscure it’s mindboggling. Then, I’ll think, did I ever consciously ask God’s forgiveness? You know what that inspiration told me? That Father wanted me to remember. Why? To increase my love for His Son because He suffered the curse and wrath of God for even those sins that I thought were insignificant or were long forgotten.   

True forgiveness is finding in Christ that our guilt is wonderfully set aside. However, our transgressions—either by commission or omission—are not forgotten in the sense they didn’t happen or opportunities were missed. All too often we grievously hurt others, and just because we’ve found forgiveness in Christ doesn’t mean He doesn’t allow us to suffer an earthly consequence for the remainder of His allowed time for us here. In my view, the blood of Christ established a statute of limitations at the bar of God’s court and judgment. Suffice it to say that the prosecutorial limit for the Christian in having to face the consequence of his sins after death ended on the acceptable day of his salvation when the believer accepted Christ’s ransom in faith in payment for his sin. At that moment God declared him innocent by virtue of His Son’s blood atonement. In the Book of Hebrews we learn that without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins. So, yes, I see in the cross a statute of limitations; which brought to an end God’s wrath and curse; Christ having become a curse for us, and thus, freeing us from the guilt of even our worse and most heinous sins. We need only to consider King David’s adultery and murder to see the riches of Christ’s death and the value of the ransom He paid in the eyes of His Father. Consider too, that David was known as a man after God’s own heart! Are we as David? Moreover, with the Cross there was a statute of limitations set that brought to an end Satan’s reign and this world today as we know it. Knowing this, let us hurry to make amends; not to atone for what we’ve done. Jesus has done that for us, but to make amends… where called upon, to make restitution. That is our reasonable service unto God, for while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

As for the matter of forgetfulness, may I say that I don’t run and hide from what I’ve done, and when I ask forgiveness, I don’t expect the person that I’ve harmed to forget. That’s not my call. I leave that to the grace of God in working within the heart of the one I offended. However, when I am asked to forgive, I choose to set the offense aside and not to mention again; even as God has done for me. As for remembering, I do find the more I remember—without the sting of guilt—the greater my love for Jesus and how flabbergasted I am by the incomprehensible wonder of His grace and mercy. How can one take communion in remembrance of Him without also remembering what it was we had done that precipitated such a great salvation? Indeed, God removed my sin as far as the east is from the west, but in gaining a greater sense of the distance and enormity of my iniquities, how much louder my praise should become magnified! Moreover, I want to remember because I know that those around me remember, and they provide me the greatest reminder of all: to confess my sins and to forgive each other.

May our lives be marked by extending to each other a short statute of personal limitation in holding a grudge or withholding forgiveness. How short? Weren’t we told not to let the sun set on our anger? God is a God of mercy; even so should we be merciful. Amen.