When we confess our sins and accept the forgiveness that Jesus offers us, all record of our sins is wiped clean from God’s record. He cannot find any record of our sins after that. Several witnesses have witnessed this when they were visiting the archives room in heaven. One witness saw an angel with a red (blood-stained) cloth wiping the pages of a record book for someone who had just been saved and as the cloth swept over the pages all writing just disappeared. Roland Buck was taken to the throne room and God allowed him to see the record of Abraham and Sarah. He saw the things we know from Genesis, but he also saw how generous Abraham and Sarah were with visitors, something Scripture doesn’t tell us. But he didn’t see the record of when Abraham lied to Pharoah about Sarah being his sister and when he laughed at the angel who told him he would have a son in his old age. He asked God about the other book and God said there is no other book. He does not record failures.
Okay, so God does not remember our sins after we have repented and accepted Jesus, but I remember my sins. Sometimes they haunt me making me wish I had done differently. Sometimes we are permanently affected by the consequences of our sins. There are other times I should have done something and didn’t. One time I was looking for a way to go back and correct such a mistake, and the Spirit told me I couldn’t go back. We are to walk with God day by day, not live in either the past or the future. The past can’t be changed, but God has already prepared a wonderful future for us based on where we are today, not where we would have been had we obeyed Him before, but, nevertheless, from God’s perspective it is a wonderful place because His current plans for us are the best. Also we can’t do anything about the future until it gets here and is then the present. Jesus told us to pray “Give us this day our daily bread,” for it is only today that we can make the right decisions to receive the future blessings God has for us.
That is all true, but I am still troubled by grieving the memory of some of my past mistakes. But God has an answer for this, too, just not now. Several witnesses to heaven said when they entered the River of Life and came out they had a special sensation; their earth life and memories of sin had been wiped away. Oden Hetrick described it this way: The blood of Jesus has cleansed us from our sin but the memories and scars of the sin remain. The Spirit flowing in the river washed away the memories and scars of our sin so that in heaven there will be nothing bad in our memories or our experience there. This takes away any thought or feeling that we are unfit for heaven because of the memory of our sins. We know we are fit for heaven entirely because of God’s redeeming love.
Hallelujah! I am not doomed to remember my sins and their effect on me forever. When I leave this earthly body and bathe in the River of Life, those memories will be gone and I will be totally free to receive and enjoy the love of the Father and the Son forever!