I occasionally hear this phrase. Whilst I might baulk at the use of ‘forgetting’ in relation to God, there is a powerful truth here.
The writer to the Hebrews, quoting the prophet Jeremiah, promises that God will remember their sins no more. This is not mere divine carelessness, were there such a thing! This is the wonderful promise that God will deal with our sins so comprehensively that they cannot and will not be recalled. The hymn goes:
Oh, wonder of all wonders,
That through Thy death for me,
My open sins, my secret sins,
Can all forgiven be.
The glorious miracle of Christ’s death and resurrection means that our sins are put away, dealt with, buried, gone forever.
That we have received forgiveness motivates us and inspires us to forgive others. Christ Himself explained this in Matt 18.21-35, the parable of the unforgiving servant. The sum of money forgiven is impossibly huge, a deliberate hyperbole, to communicate the truth and power and reality of divine forgiveness. How foolish for one forgiven so much to hold any claim over another.
The apostle Paul takes a different angle; “Love keeps no record of wrongs” (1 Cor 13.5). Jesus Christ manifested this love towards those around Him. He never referred to past wrongs; never recalled them as an embarrassment; never recalled a past sin to gain advantage over another.
This is a simple command. But it is not easy. We feel vulnerable when we are unable to gain advantage over someone else. We like to feel in control of our situations. True love, motivated by real faith, enables us to ‘forgive and forget,’ choosing not to recall past wrongs, confident in our own forgiveness, and able to leave our lives truly in God’s hands.