I read about a young nun who claimed to have had a vision of Jesus. Her bishop decided to test her truthfulness. He ordered that the next time she had a vision, she should ask Christ what the bishop’s primary sin had been before he became a bishop. Some months later, the nun returned, and the bishop asked if she had asked Christ the question. She said that she had. The bishop was a bit apprehensive when he asked, “What did Christ say was my primary sin?” The young nun replied, “Christ said, ‘I don’t remember.’”

That is the beauty of the forgiveness that is ours through faith in Jesus Christ. We have the assurance that God forgives and forgets. That is our certainty as believers. And this is not because God is old and forgetful. Rather, it is because Jesus paid our debt, our faith receives that forgiveness, and God puts our sins in the past. When we recognize our sinfulness, admit it to God and put our faith in Jesus, we have the assurance of His forgiveness. But don’t take my word for it. Look at the message from God Himself in His Word.

1 John 1:8–9 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

Jeremiah 31:31-34 “The time is coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord. “This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”