“I, I am he who blots out your

transgressions for my own sake,

and I will not remember your sins. "

- Isiah 43:25

Our culture boasts of not forgetting when we have been injured or wronged. "Remember the Alamo", "Remember 9-11". However, our God boasts of not remembering our sins against him. Why is it we make such a practice of remembering our sins when God makes such practice of forgetting them? All through Scripture God reminds us of this: He remembers our sins no more (Jr. 31: 34), that He removes our transgressions from us as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12). Yet we seem to think we will find some solace in recounting them. But why is that? I have yet to find a single exhortation, or even a hint of one, that would encourage us to recount our own sins after we have received God's forgiveness. Perhaps it is our pursuit of self-atonement, or a penance of sorts. We punish ourselves where we feel God has left us off the hook. Perhaps it is our misunderstanding of living "cross-centered" lives. We gravitate towards making the cross an end in end of itself rather than the doorway to faith-filled joyful life that counts on God not remembering our sins and expects grace to change. So, in our self-sufficient attempts to keep the cross at the center we hang on to our sins longer or revisit old sins. I will be so bold as to say it is unchristian for us to remember our forgiven sins. I am not speaking of when we are sharing a testimony, but rather those times when we cling to condemnation in hopes of conjuring up some deeper sense of godly sorrow. But, I say to that Christian: Do not make more of the grief of your sin than you do the joy of God's forgiveness, for in doing so, you make more of yourself than you do of your God.