“What is sin? It is not an accident, nor in impudence, nor a misfortune, nor a disease, nor a weakness. It may be all these, perhaps; but it is something beyond all these; something of a more fatal and terrible character. It is something with which law has to do, which righteousness abhors, which the judge condemns, which calls for the infliction of punishment from God. In other words, it is guilt—it is crime. Man’s tendency is either to deny it or extenuate it. He either pleads not guilty, or he smooths over the evil; giving it specious names. Or if he does not succeed in these, he casts the blame off himself; he shifts the responsibility to his nature, his birth, his circumstances, his education; nay, to God Himself. But human sin is not thus to be diluted or transformed into a shadow. It is infinitely real, true, deep—terrible in the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. It is the transgression of law; and as such must be dealt with by God, and felt by ourselves. Let us not trifle with sin, either in the conscience or the intellect. Let us learn its true nature from the terribleness of the wrath and condemnation threatened by God against every sin, great or small. …
“But there is such a thing as forgetfulness with God. ‘Their sins will I remember no more.’ This is the true oblivion; divine oblivion of sin; perfect and eternal oblivion. And how is this? The prophet in the Old Testament, and the apostle in the New Testament, tell us that this is one of the provisions and results of the New Covenant; that covenant which has been sealed with the blood of the Son of God. It is the blood that enables God to forget sin; that blots out all sin of ours from His eternal memory; so that it becomes as if it had never been. But this oblivion is no accident; no mere result of time and intervening circumstances. It is righteous oblivion! … Sin is buried beyond the possibility of resurrection.
“But when does God cease to remember sin in my individual case? When I have accepted the covenant; when I have fixed my eyes upon the blood; when I have received the divine testimony to that great propitiation which has made it a righteous thing in God to remember my sins no more!” —Horatius Bonar, Light & Truth: The Old Testament
Craig T. Owens 