Verse 17 is another quote from the new covenant promise in Jeremiah 31. God says, “I will remember their sins and lawless needs no more.”
God, even though He knows all things, has put our sins away from Himself. He does not bring our sins to His mind, He does not treat His people as their sins deserve.
Often we are very good at remembering our sins. Some of us go around with a feeling of guilt in the background of our minds because we are not quite good enough. We sometimes confess the same sin again and again because we don’t feel forgiven. We are praying about a particular sin and God would say to us “What sin?” He has put our sins away. They are gone!
Verse 18 continues: “Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.” Sometimes we feel that we have to do things to repay God for our sin. We promise to try harder, work harder, pray more, read the Bible more, share the gospel more. All these things are good things to do, but if we do them because we are trying to make God love us more and forgive us, we are making them into a sacrifice for sin.
There is only ONE sacrifice and it for ALL our sins – it is the sacrifice of Jesus. It is finished. It is done. If you have put your trust in the ONE sacrifice of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven. You are free.
The best is yet to come 