God not only forgives, but also forgets our sins.
Believing Jesus is the basic condition for having eternal life. Having believed Jesus, our sins are already forgiven and forgotten by God, and we have crossed over from death to life:
Truly, truly, I tell you, whoever hears My word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life and will not come under judgment. Indeed, he has crossed over from death to life. Truly, truly, I tell you, the hour is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in Himself, so also He has granted the Son to have life in Himself. John 5:28
God promises to forgive our wickedness and remember our sins no more:
“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord,
when I will make a new covenant
with the house of Israel
and with the house of Judah.
It will not be like the covenant
I made with their fathers
when I took them by the hand
to lead them out of the land of Egypt,
because they did not abide by My covenant,
and I disregarded them,
declares the Lord.
For this is the covenant I will make
with the house of Israel
after those days,
declares the Lord.
I will put My laws in their minds
and inscribe them on their hearts.
And I will be their God,
and they will be My people.
No longer will each one teach his neighbor or his brother,
saying, ‘Know the Lord,’
because they will all know Me,
from the least of them to the greatest.
For I will forgive their iniquities
and will remember their sins no more.” Hebrews 8:8-12, Jeremiah 31:26-40
For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His loving devotion for those who fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him. Psalm 103:12
“I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.” Isaiah 43:25
In the future, when God creates a new heavens and a new earth, where “righteousness will be at home,” the Lord told Isaiah that in that new heavens and new earth, the former things will not even be remembered, they will not even come to mind. This will be a great blessing for people who endured trauma, and for those who sinned and caused trauma as well:
For behold, I will create
new heavens and a new earth.
The former things will not be remembered,
nor will they come to mind. Isaiah 65:17
In Hebrews 10 it says that Jesus’ offering for sins on the cross made perfect for all time those being sanctified, and the Holy Spirit says that because of Jesus’ offering for sins: ‘their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more’:
…The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First He says:
“This is the covenant I will make with them
after those days, declares the Lord.
I will put My laws in their hearts
and inscribe them on their minds.”
Then He adds:
“Their sins and lawless acts
I will remember no more.”
And where these have been forgiven, an offering for sin is no longer needed. Hebrews 10:11-18
Isaiah 44:22
I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud, and your sins like a mist. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you.
2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
Romans 4:7,
Blessed are they whose lawless acts are forgiven, whose sins are covered.
Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him.”
Isaiah 1:18
“Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. (Amen)
~~~~
What a blessed deed it is when a friend ‘covers’ the sins of another, and never remembers their past sins or brings them up in conversation again later. This is such a blessing on a family or a relationship, and really images the love of God:
Above all, love one another deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.
1 Peter 4:8