The Wednesday Word ~ 21 January, 2026 A.D.

Forgetful Grace 

“I, even I, am He that blots out your transgressions for My own sake and will not remember your sins.” -Isaiah 43:25 [KJV]

 

“For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more” (Hebrews 8:12).

 

One of the most neglected doctrines in the Bible is that of the forgetfulness of grace.  Simply stated, it teaches that when God forgives, God forgets. When God forgives our sin, He puts it out of His mind; He forgets it. He doesn´t hold it against us.

 

Consider Noah´s story.

 

The word “grace” makes its Bible debut in the story of Noah (Genesis 6:8). Noah, we are told, found grace (favour) with God.  Then when the fateful day of destruction arrived the Lord shut Noah and family into the Ark.  They were spared and saved from the judgment of God.  After the flood, however, Noah got drunk out of his mind and lay naked in his tent (see Genesis 9:20-27). 

 

To see one’s parents’ nudity in ancient culture had the connotation of sexual intimacy and at times even incest or rape.

 

The truth is this, we never lose our vulnerability and availability to sin.  We never become unassailable.  Noah had walked with God for more than 600 years but then had a drunken escapade.  We should, therefore, never forget that the best of men are men at best.  Even the godliest of people are prone to failure.

 

But here’s the most significant discovery, when we come to the New Testament there is no mention of Noah’s drunken incident. In fact, the New Testament calls him a “preacher of righteousness” (II Peter 2:5) who condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith (Hebrews 11:7). “But,” you say, “he failed.” Yes he did … and God forgot about it! 

 

God is the God of all grace. Our sins have been punished on Christ; the Lamb has taken them away.

 

The Lord declares that He will not remember our sins (Isaiah 43:25). He blots them out. To blot out, is an image from an accounting book, in which, when a debt is paid, the charge is blotted out. It is cancelled. Such is the power of the blood of Christ that God forgets the sins of His people. He blots them out.  This is very good news.

 

And what about Lot? Lot seems to be, at best, a half-hearted believer, waffling between his position in Sodom and his faith in the Lord.  When we read his history, we see a pattern where Lot just goes with the flow.

 

He’s a compromiser. He pitches his tent towards Sodom (Genesis 13:12) then eventually moves to the doomed city and sits with the city elders (Genesis 19:1).  His family laughs at him when he warns them of coming judgement (Genesis 19:14). As a man of God, He had no credibility.  He had even allowed his daughters to marry pagan sodomites. In the end, the rescuing angels had to compel him to leave the city. Had they not, Lot would have stayed (Genesis 19:16).

 

Then, after Sodom’s demise, things could have taken a turn for the better, but they didn’t. In the next scene, we are confronted with a wretched tale of drunken incest between Lot and his daughters.

 

Surely, there’s no hope for a man like that … he’s a wishy-washy compromiser! True!

 

But such is the power of grace that when we get to the New Testament, Lot is held up as an example of righteousness, someone, vexed with the filthy conversation (lifestyle) of the wicked … he was distressed by the unrestrained behavior of the immoral (see II Peter 2:7).  He is called a just man in the New Testament … Literally a righteous man.

 

How can that be?  The only answer is the beautiful, marvelous, matchless grace of God! The grace of God`s forgetfulness.

 

And that’s the Gospel Truth!

 

-preacher Miles McKee