Hebrews 8:12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.

I was recently watching a TV Show where the main character found herself locked in the back seat of a car, or at least she thought she was locked in.  The problem was not that she could not get out of the car, but that the experience triggered in her a memory of a time in her past when she nearly drowned in a vehicle, it was the worst moment of her life.  It was amazing that everything was fine then suddenly, in one moment, her entire perspective of life changed.  It was an obvious case of PTSD (Post-traumatic stress disorder); a mental health condition that’s triggered by a terrifying event — either experiencing it or witnessing it.  The bottom line is that regardless of how bad or great life is, a trigger can bring back a memory which completely paralyzes you.  The thing is we do this quite often, as Christians, we often remember our worst days, our worst actions or our worst sin.  Those memories alone can’t harm us, but what the enemy will do is play those memories against our personal insecurities.  Which is why Hebrews reminds us that God knows all our “sins and their lawless deeds” and loves us anyway.  He goes further than that though, He not only forgives us of our sin and shows us mercy, He also refuses to remember them.  Let’s dig into that……

1. God Wills: For I will.
   Two times in this verse, God declares that “I will.” This is powerful because so often we wonder if God is willing to step into our lives; or willing to change our situation. Here God is letting us know that He is willing to show us mercy, He is willing to go beyond our poor choices and extend Grace. God knows everything about us, but He is still willing to enter our circumstances, our issues, our problems. Most times the people who want to get all up in our business, cannot do anything about what you’re going through. Yet, the one who can change everything is Willing to be on your side, He is willing to take action for your benefit. Before you give up the fight, know that God is willing to go to battle for you; He’s willing to disregard the things He knows about you or about what you’ve done in order to take up your cause.  God is willing, now are you willing to believe Him? 
   
2. God Covers: I will remember no more.
   The writer of Hebrews wants to let Israel know that the covenant that they’ve been taught about and have memorized since childhood has changed. The church must also know that God has changed His process/procedure of redemption after Jesus’ loving sacrifice. Our policy has changed. Have you noticed that every time your health care or insurance policy changes anything? The company is required to tell you when and if anything, to do with your coverage changes. God is using the New Testament to show believers the changes in our coverages. What is it that this new policy covers? What are the stipulations that cause us to lose our coverage? Sometimes our policy only covers us up to a certain amount or if there are preexisting conditions. You need to know today is that because of Jesus’ sacrifice we are now covered; our coverage actually increased. We are no longer penalized for our past; the conditions of our lives before we got saved.  God’s love covers our sin “1 Peter 4: 8 And above all things have fervent love for one another, for love will cover a multitude of sins;” “Proverbs 10:12 Hatred stirs up strife, But love covers all sins.”  God’s Sprit Care Policy covers everything we’ve done, will you file your claim?
   
3. God Restores: I will be merciful to their unrighteousness.
   Webster’s defines restoration as “the action of returning something to a former owner, place, or condition.”  They even use the example of restoring power to a king or politician who had it taken away. In that same way, man was made in the image of God, given Dominion and Authority over all the earth; yet when Adam sinned that was take away. Throughout the old covenant law, in an effort to atone for the sin every man carried, a series of sacrifices and ceremonies were executed. Sacrifices of bulls, goats, lamb and birds would temporarily make all of the sin, poor choices and actions go away. The animals would exchange places with us, they would become sinful man. Now God says, “I will be merciful to their unrighteousness,” why is He saying that? Because Jesus would make the ultimate exchange; becoming all sin for every man; replacing Adam and his failure with the Perfect Love of God represented in Jesus Christ.  Jesus restored us to God!  It was Jesus who replaced Adam and it was His sacrifice on the Cross that allows us to become the Righteous of God, “2 Corinthians 5:21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”  Man’s power and authority was restored, when Jesus replaced Adam.  His original sin, which caused each one of us to be born into sin, now has been replaced with Christ’s perfect love.  Just as Jesus restored the body of leapers when He healed them; Luke 6:10 And when He had looked around at them all, He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he did so, and his hand was restored as whole as the other.  Jesus has restored us by His Grace via forgiveness of sin, because “For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”  He has forgiven us of our past, then intentionally forgot everything He forgave so that it will never be able to show itself again to derail our walk.  We have been restored to be the image of God, with Dominion and Authority.  Will you receive it.   

We can walk boldly in our relationship with God, because the things that trigger our past can no longer paralyze us.  For we now know that God Wills to extend His Grace on our behalf; God Covers all sin and the acts that we’ve ever done; finally, God Restores us from sinfulness to God’s Righteousness.  Now when the enemy brings up our past to flare up our PTSD, we can resist (James 4:7 Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you) because Jesus replaced us on thru the Cross.