We’ve been looking at being renewed in Love. I wonder what you think about when you hear that? Maybe we’ll end up feeling better – feeling more loved? Maybe that will make us feel more like loving others.

The Bible has a lot to say about love. It tells us that God is love. How he loved even before the foundation of the world, of a love that existed within the three persons of the Trinity. 

That he is the origin of love, so that we love because he first loved us. 

That’s massively reassuring – because it means that when we love we’re doing something that has always been there.

And the love that the Bible talks about in these grand terms is more than romantic love. More than friendship or a relationship based on mutual attraction. Those types of love tend to be reactive – how we respond to another person, and how we feel.

The love that finds its origin in God is proactive. So it can be commanded. In fact, Jesus sums up the whole Old Testament law in two commands – Love God (with all your heart, strength and mind), and your neighbour as yourself. He later adds a new commandment – to love one another.

A definition of this kind of love might be something along the lines of ‘seeking the best for another, whatever the personal cost’.

Now we may find that we feel an affection for another person, and so want to seek their best. But we may not. When Jesus tells us to ‘love our enemies’, it’s unlikely he was expecting us to have much affection for them. Which means it’s possible to love someone we don’t like.

And that reflects the character of God. He made us in his image, but we have all turned away. We’ve rebelled, we’ve sinned. Sin causes a separation between God and us. Our essential problem is that God is holy and we are not. God’s holiness means he cannot even look upon sin. But despite that, he still loves us. Look at Romans 5:8. He loves us so much that he sent his Son, who willingly came to take on the penalty for our sin so that we might be reconciled. 

Many of us have probably heard that a thousand times, which carries a danger that we become overly familiar with it. I remember someone once saying to us that as a church we ‘never seemed to move beyond the Gospel’. I don’t think it was intended as such, but I took that as a compliment! Because we should never move beyond that Good News. I think maybe that’s what Paul had in mind when he prayed in Ephesians 3:18 that they might

“have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge”.

Taking this on board, thinking it through, meditating on it will have consequences. The first is that when we appreciate the great love that God has for us, we will want to love him back. Our feelings will change. How do we love God? Jesus said this “If you love me you will keep my commandments”. We obey as a response of love to an initiative of love.

And a further consequence is that we will love God’s people. In my first year at university a guy called Roger used to come and try to talk to me about Christianity. I didn’t exactly push him away, but I found his visits a little irritating. But it was at the end of that year that I became a Christian. 

At the start of the next year, I’d moved to a different hall of residence, and Roger had moved off campus. A few weeks into the term I bumped into him at a local shop and was really pleased to see him. I was actually surprised at my own reaction! It did not come from me, but was my first taste of the Holy Spirit giving me a love for God’s people.

That doesn’t mean that I immediately get on with everyone – far from it! But in a sense though, that’s important. Because it’s easy to love people we like. But when we don’t agree with, or particularly like another person, we have to decide to still look out for their best. And the strange thing is that often, when we ‘do good’ for them, and pray for them, God will turn our hearts, and our feelings towards them change.

And the additional, or extra-special, love for one another – other Christians – is important. Francis Schaeffer called love ‘the mark of the Christian’. Jesus said that our love for one another will be evidence to the world that we belong to him (John 13:35). For people to see love for one another they have to be able to see actions (see 1 John 3:18).

So a renewal in love has to start with a good look at God – who he is and what he has done for us. As the Holy Spirit burns his Word into our hearts, they will change. Instead of being hostile to God, we will warm towards him. And we will begin to see the world and its people through his eyes and begin to understand (or ‘see in a mirror dimly’ 1 Corinthians 13:12) the love that God has for his people and the world.

A witness is somebody who testifies what they’ve seen and heard. And it seems to me that, Biblically, there are two strands of evangelism or witnessing. There’s the evangelist, the one who is gifted in evangelism in the proclamation of the gospel. Not only do those individuals have a gift but they’re also seen as a gift to the church. There’s a verse in Ephesians 4 about how God gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers to build up the church. But then there’s also the evangelism of everyday life. Sometimes that’s been called ‘gossiping the gospel’. I think that’s a great phrase, and that’s brought about by living lives that shine; lives that stand out, so that people ask questions. 

Paul brings this out in Colossians.

Colossians 3 is all about how to live the Christian life – the qualities of a disciple. Then there’s a summary at the beginning of chapter 4 where he says this in verses 2-6:

Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.  At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison— that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak.

Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.

Paul’s making a distinction between his ministry: where he needs a door for the word, so he can declare the mystery of Christ and proclaim the gospel with clarity of speech;

and the ministry of the church: who are to continue in prayer, to pray for Paul, to walk in wisdom towards outsiders, to have gracious words and to know how to answer people. 

Peter says something similar in 1 Peter 3:15 where he says: 

In your hearts honour Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defence to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,

So the evangelists proclaim, and the believers are to give answers. 

At the moment in our current environment, engaging with anybody is quite difficult.

But it’s also the environment where people are asking about what’s going on. There’s a certain hopelessness around, which I think is a God-given opportunity for us to ‘show off’ our hope. Maybe something to do with making most of the time.

It’s interesting to see how our 40 days topics tie together. We have to be filled with the Spirit to empower us, not only to speak but to live the kind of lives that that are growing in Christlikeness. We have to have the word of Christ dwell richly so that we know what we believe in why we believe it. 

There’s an opportunity at the moment because people want to talk a bit more, and it seems to be easier to engage slightly deeper. 

The importance of these one to one conversations is something I learned many years ago.

I had just started work in a small computer department at Bostik in Leicester. I’d been talking with my boss, who was called Bill, in his office and he’d asked what I’d been doing the weekend. I felt very brave and said I’d been to a Christian meeting. He asked me about it, wanting to know what that was all about, and what I believed in. 

So I shared the Bridge Illustration (Look at it here). Bill listened quite intently to this and watched as I drew it out.

When I got to the end, he thought a bit then said, “Well, that’s all very well. But first of all, you have to believe in that.” 

And he pointed at the word ‘God’ on the drawing. That brought it to a close, and we never really talked much about Christian things again. 

I felt it was a failure. I’d done it wrong. I should have tried to listen to where Bill was before launching out. 

Some time later we moved to Macclesfield, and eventually lost contact with Bill. 

We’d got involved with young people’s groups and whenever we talked about the Bridge Illustration, I’d use that experience as an example of how not to do it. Because I just thought at the time that I’d been a failure.

But some years later, we had a phone call from the Down’s Syndrome Association. They’d had a call from someone called Bill who said he knew me, could I call him back.

I called him straightaway, and he said he’d remembered that one of the last things before we lost contact was that we were in the process of adopting a child with Down’s Syndrome. So he called the association on the off chance that they might know us. 

But his big message was “Mike, I’ve become a Christian!”

Wow!!

He went on to say that it had happened some while before that phone call, but they’d had a session at his church where they were thinking about the influences that led up to them becoming Christians. He said his story had started with that conversation we’d had in his office where I shared the Bridge. He said what I didn’t know was a lot of things had been going on in his life. And I’d unwittingly, stirred them all up, which he couldn’t talk about, but I’d put them into a context – the gospel – and it began to fall into place for him. But he wasn’t ready, so he had to push back to give himself time. 

But a seed had been planted, and now he’s involved in a Christian support ministry down in Leicester helping people who have mental health problems. 

Often we don’t know the results of our conversations, but in the process of a person becoming a Christian, they’re like links in a chain. 

This time God was very gracious and gave me the privilege of knowing how that conversation, years ago, actually bore fruit. 

That’s not to say other conversations don’t, in fact quite the opposite. It’s just that we don’t always know.

I want to close with a couple of verses. 

One is Isaiah 55:10-11 where God says this:

“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven
and do not return there but water the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”

And a great verse from the New Testament where Paul ends 1 Corinthians 15 with this verse (1 Cor 15:58)

Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labour is not in vain.

Renewed in Faith

This week’s topic in our 40 Days of Renewal series is Faith. Faith is one of those words that’s used a lot and can mean different things. So I thought it might be helpful to try to understand what faith is, particularly from a Biblical point of view. 

What is faith? The schoolboy put his hand up “It’s believing something you know isn’t true!”

Haha! But deep down, I wonder if we don’t secretly worry about whether that might be right?

Several years ago, I was speaking in church on a Sunday evening about the proofs for the Resurrection. Someone said to me afterwards that they weren’t happy with too many facts as it didn’t leave any room for faith. Were they right?

I think not. 

Christianity is a faith based on verifiable facts. Luke, who is regarded as one of the world’s greatest historians, opens his gospel with this, “to write an orderly account … that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught”. (Luke 1:3-4)

Similarly, he opens with book of Act with (after his resurrection) “(Jesus) presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs”.

And in 1 Corinthians 15, Paul is almost challenging his readers to try to disprove the resurrection, by presenting them with evidence which they can go and verify.

Where is ‘faith’ here? Let’s look at what faith is. It’s vital we understand this because our eternal salvation is at stake. The Bible says that we are saved by faith (Ephesians 2:8,9), and without faith it’s impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6).

It also gives us a definition Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”

How do we get this faith? 

Noticia

Firstly, we have to understand what the ‘things hoped for’ and ‘things not seen’ are. In other words, the facts. What does Christianity teach? What is the Gospel?

The basic facts (or doctrines) are:

• The Creation – how God made the world which was ‘very good’
• The Fall – how mankind chose to rebel against God and bring death and suffering into the world
• Redemption – how God acted in history, culminating in sending his Son, who suffered the penalty for that rebellion in our place, and offering salvation to everyone who believes
• Consummation – how God will bring history to a close and usher in a new heavens and a new earth

Anyone reading the Bible, young or old, layman or scholar, believer or unbeliever, ought to agree that these are the things taught by the Bible.

At this stage it is simply fact-finding. The same applies to anything else we might want to learn about. When talking to others about their beliefs, we are listening to what they have to say. So that we understand where they’re coming from and understand their terminology.

It’s not necessarily agreeing with them, that comes next.

Assensus

Having identified the facts, the next question is – do we believe them? Do we think they are in fact true? Is it reasonable to believe those facts? For the Christian, this is where apologetics come into play. Arguments and reasons to believe the facts.  

But this is still not the faith that saves us. We can know the facts of Christianity, and believe them to be true, but that does not save us. Vital as this (and the previous) stage is, it’s only got us to the same place as demons! James 2:19

Fiducia

What we need now is to trust, commit. Act as though our lives depend on what we believe. It’s more than believing in God, it’s believing God. Taking him at his word and acting on it.

An illustration might help. 

Imagine you’re on a walk when you come across a ravine. Too wide to jump over, too deep to climb down. To fall down it is certain death. But then someone comes and points you to a rope bridge. You see the bridge and know that it’s there and it looks like it might reach to the other side (the facts). Fortunately, you’re an engineer, so you calculate that the rope will indeed hold your weight. You watch other people go over it which confirms that belief. When you finally put your foot on it and commit your life to your belief that the bridge will support you, that’s when you’ve exercised active trust.

Committing to a belief is what saving faith is. Active Trust. It is based on facts, which can be tested or verified. Those facts have to be believed to be true. But then we have to trust our lives to them. Or to make it more personal, we believe God and do what he says, even if (maybe especially if!) we can’t see the outcome. 2 Cor 5:7

And here’s the strange thing. What God asks us to do may seem odd, counter-intuitive, or even unreasonable. ‘Count it all joy when you go through various trials’, ‘Love your enemy’, ‘Deny yourself’, ‘Don’t grumble’, ‘Don’t worry’, ‘Give thanks in all circumstances’, and so on. But what is reasonable is that we do those things because it is God who is asking us to do them. It is entirely reasonable to trust the All-Powerful, All-knowing God who has demonstrated such love for us that he gave his Son for us. Our faith is in the Person of God.

Hebrews 11 is a great chapter. Having told us what faith is in Heb 11:1, the author goes on to give a long list of examples of people from the Old Testament who ‘by faith’ did something.

And that’s the point. If we trust God with our lives, we’ll be doing things that demonstrate that. Our lives will stand out as being different. They have to, otherwise our faith is not real (James 2:18-21)

So being Renewed in Faith has to do with going back to the basics. Knowing what we believe and why. And then risking our lives on them – which is no risk when it is God we’re trusting.

A famous Christian missionary, Jim Elliot wrote this: “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose”.

By the way – if you’re wondering what those headings are about, it’s the way theologians have categorised these three steps. Of course, it had to be in Latin…

It’s a great thing to look at and understand the Holy Spirit. He is the third person of the Trinity, which makes him equal with the Father and the Son. But he can be the hardest to understand. We can easily relate to the idea of Father and Son, because they are a part of our everyday lives and vocabulary. But the Holy Spirit is somehow more mysterious.

I’m not going to launch into an exhaustive examination of the Holy Spirit here – that would take a book! But there are a couple of things that will help with the idea of being renewed in the Spirit.

He’s a He!

Firstly, and maybe obviously, as the third person of the Trinity, he is a person. Not a thing or an object. The bible only ever refers to the Holy Spirit in personal terms – never as ‘it’. He does things that are associated with personality – he teaches, he guides, he grieves, he convicts us of sin and so on. As a person and part of the Trinity, he is as involved in our salvation as the other persons in the Trinity. The Father decreed salvation for mankind and sent the Son; the Son performed all the work necessary for our salvation – living a perfect life and dying for our ins; and the Holy Spirit applies the Son’s work into the lives of believers.

This is really important. If the Father had said to us ‘Jesus has died in your place so now you can come to me – take it or leave it’, we’d leave it. Because naturally our hearts are not inclined to seek God, rather the opposite. For sure, we’d like the benefits that God might offer – peace, purpose etc. – but not God himself. That’s what Paul spends the first chapters of Romans explaining. E.g. Rom 3:9-18.

Whether or not you get the theology behind this, the outworking is really simple! If you have any desire for God, any affection for him, then that’s a work of the Holy Spirit in your life. He has changed the inclination of our hearts to want to move towards God, rather than away from him.

The focus is Jesus

Secondly, look at how Jesus described the Holy Spirit, particularly in John 14-16. Again, there’s not time or space to look at everything there, just a couple of key thoughts.

John 16:14 – ‘He will glorify me’. The Holy Spirit’s work is to apply Christ’s work to us, so he does not draw attention to himself. There’s a great illustration of this – imagine a church building that is lit up at night.

In the same way that the lights draw our attention is drawn to the church rather than the spotlights, so the Holy Spirit directs our attention to Jesus and away from himself. ‘Illuminating Jesus’ is a work of the Holy Spirit.

In John 16, Jesus describes the Holy Spirit as ‘another Helper’. The word translated ‘Helper’ is ‘paraclete’ meaning one who is called alongside. It was a word used to describe the family lawyer, who could be called upon to help in times of trouble. Older translations use the word Comforter. Nowadays that word is associated with softness and consolation, but originally it would have meant ‘with strength’. In other words, the Holy Spirit is one who support and strengthens us in battle, rather than patching up our wounds afterwards. (He does do that, but that’s not the sense in this passage).

The Holy Spirit is a gift from God. He is the ‘driving-force’, the ‘powerhouse’ who enables us to become and live as Christians.

To be renewed in the Spirit is ongoing. This is the sense of Eph 5:18 which could read ‘be continually being filled with the Spirit’.

Word and Spirit

A final point. Look at these two verses.

Ephesians 5:18-19: “but be filled with the Spirit, ¹⁹ addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, ²⁰ giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ“.

And Colossians 3:16: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”

Very similar verses – the key difference being that one says ‘be filled with the Spirit, while the other says ‘Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly‘. The two things are two sides of the same coin. Being filled with the Spirit and letting the Word dwell in us. We can’t have one without the other.

The one who is filled with the Spirit is filled with Christ, God, and His Word.

Something that’s helped me quite a lot is an incident that happened in David’s life. In 1 Samuel 13 the Amalekites have been along and kidnapped the wives and children of David and his men. When David got back to the camp, he found they’d all gone. Then, on top of that, David’s men got annoyed with David and started talking about stoning him. 

So what did David do? Well it just says he “strengthened himself in his God”. 

Notice how personal that is. He strengthened himself in his God. David was falling back on a long-standing relationship that he had with God.

And I wondered, how did he do that?

Earlier on in 1 Samuel 23, there’s a similar incident where David’s being chased by Saul, who is after his life. David meets up with Saul’s son, Jonathan, who is his best friend. And it says Jonathan “strengthened his hand in God”. He strengthened David’s hand in God – which he did by reminding David of the promises that God had made to him about becoming King. 

And that is the key.

There are some verses in 2 Peter which say this: “His (that is God’s) divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us to his own glory and excellence and by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, that through these, we may escape the corruption which is in the world, because of sinful desire”. 

It’s about knowing God and going back to his promises. It’s those promises, according to Peter, that help us to grow in godliness and put aside sinful desires. Those things that might come at us from other people, but also they can be from within. So if we start to be angry or get envious and so on, the Word of God is the place to go. 

And for David, he had his faithful friend who helped him in his walk with God. 

So what are God’s promises? 

I once was asked that when I went to a youth group (back in the day!), where the activity was all about God’s promises. The last question was to list them! 

O course, there’s too many to list here, but think about things like: peace and guidance and strength and truth meeting our needs. 

He promises His Spirit, eternal life, abundant life. Answered prayer, forgiveness of sins, his presence… this list could go on. 

The other thing to go back to is the Gospel. The Gospel itself. John 3:16 is a very well-known verse. And in John 5:24 Jesus says very simply, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word, and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgement, but has passed from death to life”. 

And there’s many other verses you could find that summarise the Gospel. 

The key thing is what promises are significant to you? 

Some perhaps some more so than others, but just go for the ones that mean something to you, that you can go back and rest on, and find the ones that help you. 

In closing, just three things: 

• Learn to strengthen yourself in God, 

• Find others – find a faithful friend who is able to encourage you in your walk with God. 

• Look out for others that you too can help and encourage. 

1 Peter 1:13 says this, “Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ”. 

If we were to paraphrase that in today’s language, it might be something like this:

Fasten your seat belt and press on!

I was 17. I’d had a road accident, and I was in hospital. I had a variety of injuries in varying degrees of severity, but the biggie was a broken leg, and the treatment for the broken leg was traction.

Without going into the gory details, traction involved a frame across the bed with ropes and pulleys and weights and stuff. And it’s fair to say, it wasn’t going well. That first month was a kind of fog of shock and pain and painkillers and more pain and more painkillers. In the middle of all this, the vicar came, he put a card on the frame. And the card just had these words on it “when you pass through the waters. I will be with you”. 

I didn’t know, but I kind of guessed (as he was a vicar!) that it came from the Bible, and it just got me thinking that if God was there then maybe I should be praying that God would give me strength to get through it rather than just take it all away. 

A few years passed, and I found myself in the balcony of Quorn Baptist Church in Leicester as part of a Christian group of students. We were there to do some work, helping with maintenance on the church. And we were all encouraged to have our quiet times before we started for the day. 

I’d been going through a reading plan, and I got to Isaiah, 43, which starts “But now thus says the Lord, He who created you O Jacob, he formed you O Israel. Fear not, for I have redeemed you. I’ve called you by name. You are mine. When you pass through the waters. I will be with you”. 

Wow! There it was, that was the verse! And then I realised that not only did God speak to us as a bunch of Christians who are together as the church; He does, but he also speaks to me. And here was a situation, and circumstances, that were unique to me. No one else had gone through that. So I took those verses, and the ones around it because they were quite good, and I said, those are mine. But you can have them too! They’re not just for me, of course, but they’re very special to me, particularly verse 4 “because you are precious in my eyes and honoured and I love you I give men in return for you, peoples in exchange for your life”. And then again in verse 5, “fear not, for I am with you”. 

And that began for me a love affair with the Word of God. I wanted to get to know it. To learn how to hear God’s voice speaking to me, it was the start of a journey. A journey I’m still on – reading, studying, memorising and applying – putting it into practice, making it become real. 

2 Timothy 2:5 says this: “do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth”. 

That’s what I wanted. Rightly handling this word of truth. 

It seems to me that God has given us His Word. And we’ve got to work toward getting to know it. What does it say? What does it mean? How does it apply? 

And this is massively worthwhile investment of our time because it’s how God reveals Himself to us.

When we were first married, Julie I went to a church in Leicester. It was at the time that the Living Bible had just been published. We were quite impressed with this, so we took it to our church. A 12-year old girl there just dismissed it and said, “Well, yeah, all Bibles are living”. 

That’s profound especially from a 12-year old! But indeed, Hebrews 4:12 says exactly that, “for the Word of God is living and active and is sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart”. 

God speaks to us. And he speaks to our hearts and it goes deep in us. And it’s vital and relevant to everyone. And it becomes precious. Psalm 119 is a long psalm but it’s all about the Word of God. 

Verse 72 says “this law of your mouth is better to me even thousands of golden silver pieces”, it is of huge value. And then verse 97, very simply “Oh how I love your law”. 

And that gives it the key dimension – the personal. It’s not just a collection of historical books, though it is that, but it’s also God speaking to us. And he uses his Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit who wrote the scriptures is the same one who interprets it, to speak through it, into our lives.

Peter says this, “no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:20-21)

Paul says something similar in in 1 Corinthians 2:12 “now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is God, that we might understand the things freely given to us by God”. 

This is something that God has done, so many times in my own life. Sometimes in big things – like the story, maybe for another time, of how Julie and I got married and how the Word was a key component of God bringing us together. 

And it’s right that we seek God’s will in the big things, but most of us don’t get married very often! What we really need is a daily walk with the God who says, “I will be with you”. 

Jesus said, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God”. We’re encouraged to pray “give us our daily bread”. 

And the most important thing about the Bible is that it’s all about Jesus. “You search the Scriptures because you think in them you have eternal life and they bear witness to me” (John 5:39). Also on the Emmaus Road (Luke 24:27)

And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

And that’s what we need more than anything else. Yes, we need to know the big things, but God’s will for our lives, is this, “this is the will of God your sanctification” (1 Thess 4:3)  

And the Word is how that happens – look at Jesus’ prayer in John 17:17

Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.

Now I’m still on that journey, it’s not always smooth, and every now & then requires a ‘kick-start’!

So it’s my prayer now that we would all be renewed in our love of the word, our knowledge of word and our desire for the word. 

I’d encourage everyone to be on that journey – it doesn’t matter how fast you’re going, but rather that you’re on the journey, devoting whatever time you have to God and His Word.

Let’s close with a prayer from Colossians 1:9-10 where Paul prays “that we may be filled the knowledge of his will it all spiritual wisdom and understanding so as to walk in a manner, worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God”.

And just may we truly know the truth of those words, “I will be with you”.

This is the transcript.

I’ve been reading through the book of Hebrews recently. And one of the things the writer talks about is the Old Testament, how the Old Covenant is not as good as the New Covenant. And how the New Covenant is foretold in the Old Testament – there’s a famous passage in Jeremiah, where the Prophet says ‘here’s a new covenant I’m going to make for my people’, and it ends with this phrase, ‘and I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sins no more’. 

And that phrase ‘I will remember their sins no more’ crops up twice in the book of Hebrews, which kind of indicates it’s probably quite significant. The idea of God not remembering. 

Some people think that maybe God forgets sins – but God doesn’t forget things, otherwise that would mean that God is not omniscient if there’s things he doesn’t know. Rather it says that he chooses not to remember our sins. And I think it gives us a few responses for us as we live our lives. 

The first one is obviously one of thankfulness that God has chosen to remove our sins from us. We have the burden of sin removed – that great weight is taken off us, and that came at a big price. It came at the price of Jesus and His death on the cross. 

I think another response is that of faith – just to believe that. We may not actually feel forgiven. 

And in many ways how we feel about it is not the point. The point is, God has promised to forgive us. This verse 1 John 1:9 “if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness”. And if we believe that, then we believe that God, in forgiving our sins, has chosen not to remember them. So it’s not really very good for us to start dragging them up again, saying ‘well I can still remember it’.

We just need to believe that God has put them away, and has chosen not to remember – not to bring them to mind. And we need to do the same.

But the big thing I think is that we also need to learn how to forgive. There’s a verse in Ephesians, which talks about how we are to be together, ‘to be kind to one another, tender hearted’ and it finishes with ‘forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you’. 

And when we forgive other people, we have to do it in the same way God has forgiven us, which is to choose not to remember the sin or the offence that they’ve caused. And, of course, that’s really difficult if someone has offended us. Often when we see them, or even think of them, all we can see is that offence. As though that offence sits between us and them. And yet we’re to choose not to remember it. 

I think in that verse there’s a clue as to how we might do that, because it says that ‘God in Christ forgave you’. So in the same way that Christ is our substitute, in the sense of being the payment, the sacrifice for our sins, he’s also a kind of substitute in the way that we see other people. When God sees us, he looks, as it were, through Christ. He looks at Christ’s sacrifice and says that person is forgiven; the sin has gone away. ‘And I will not bring it to mind anymore, because I don’t need to’. 

And in the same way I think this is how we should see someone who’s offended us. (Because that will happen, we’re a bunch of sinners trying to live together, aren’t we? We are going to offend one another. Probably on a fairly regular basis. Sometimes, but very rarely, intentionally, but often unintentionally – we offend one another.)

How do we put that aside, how do we choose not to remember it? The key is that we substitute Christ – we put Christ in the way. We can pray for the other person – we can recognise that the way God sees that other person is that he’s forgiven them, and he’s not bringing their offences to mind. And therefore, neither should we. 

So rather than dwell on the offence – because if we do that, we’ll never be able to put it away –  if we dwell on the individual but mostly we dwell on Christ, who died for that individual, as well as for us, and has forgiven them, then I think we can start to grow in learning how to forgive. 

So that was just very quick – with that ‘I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sins no more’. And that drives thankfulness; it drives faith; and it drives a pattern of forgiveness that we can offer to other people.