We understand the doctrine of divine forgiveness to mean that God no longer remembers our sins. That seems to conflict with the existence of books that contain an accurate and complete record of whatever we have ever done. The solution to this riddle is the biblical meaning of the word remember as it relates to God. There are no holes or white spots in God’s memory in the sense that he forgets something or did not notice something. Rather, God’s remembering a particular event or person means that now God acts in relation to that event or person (see Genesis 8:1; Genesis 19:29; Genesis 30:22; Exodus 2:24). God’s forgiveness does not imply forgetting; it implies instead that God does not treat sinners as we deserve (due to the Saviour’s sacrifice).

We choose to think that some of our sins are committed in such secrecy that no one knows of them. That may be true in relation to people, but it is never true in relation to God. What we hide from people is well-known to God, recorded in his books, and will be brought up at the final judgment. At that point we shall need to give account in God’s court for every idle word we ever spoke and every crooked deed we ever committed—though we have long forgotten them. This fact gives us cause to think carefully before we speak or act.