I could hardly wait to write this particular “gospel-sanity devo.” Why? First, like all the other reflections on the way Paul defines/describes Jesus’ love, I need this one, I need to be more committed to demonstrating this aspect of the love of Jesus. Second, I’m excited to share what God is actually saying to us in this portion of Paul’s muse on gospel-love.
When Paul states that love doesn’t “keep a record of wrongs done,” he’s actually using the same word (logidzomai) he uses in Romans 4:3-11, among other places, to describe how God “reckons” Jesus’ righteousness to be ours. God has kept a record of all the righteous things Jesus has done for us as our representative/substitute and he “reckons”, he legally considers them to be ours! A Christians is NOT someone who has earned a relationship with God based on the righteous things they have done. Rather, a Christians is someone who has freely received a relationship with God based on the righteous things JESUS has done for us.
God does not remember against us the long record of the ways we have failed him, how we love him so poorly, and worship other things/people more than we worship him. He remembers unto us all the righteous things Jesus has done, thus, declaring us to be righteous in his sight-that is, justified.
Finally the point! When we “keep a record of wrongs done” and rehearse them against one another, we are sabotaging, contradicting and violating the wonder of the gospel. Don’t misunderstand, none of us is called to have amnesia. We aren’t expected to pretend or deny or minimize the ways we have been failed and hurt by others. When the Bible says that God forgets our sins, it certainly doesn’t mean he has amnesia. It means something far more glorious; it means God doesn’t remember our sins against us because he has remembered our sins against Jesus on the cross.
So, are you and I more notorious for the way we forgive one another, the way Jesus has forgiven us, or are we more notorious for the way we constantly rehearse, ruminate and re-punish people for the ways they fail us? One way is the way of the gospel, the other is the way of anti-gospel. Don’t you reckon?