I will remember their sins no more

[tonychanyt]

Hebrews 8:

12 For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.”

Does God literally forget our sins?

No. The parallelism gives the meaning: God will be merciful toward our iniquities.

Barnes explained:

Will I remember no more - This is evidently spoken after the manner of men, and in accordance with human apprehension.

It is an anthropomorphism. Man forgets; God does not.

It cannot mean literally that God forgets that people are sinners, but it means that he treats them as if this were forgotten. Their sins are not charged upon them, and they are no more punished than if they had passed entirely out of the recollection. God treats them with just as much kindness, and regards them with as sincere affection, as if their sins ceased wholly to be remembered, or which is the same thing, as if they had never sinned.

 

[Mark Quayle]

Hebrews 8:


Does God literally forget our sins?

No. The parallelism gives the meaning: God will be merciful toward our iniquities.

Barnes explained:


It is an anthropomorphism. Man forgets; God does not.

Here is an analogous antithesis: