14 Bible Verses About Forgetting the Past

Isaiah 43:25

“I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.”

Reflection: The line comes straight after a complaint: Israel has not called on God or brought him offerings, but has “burdened me with your sins and wearied me with your offenses” (verse 24). God blots out those offences “for my own sake”, a reason located in himself and not in anything the people had done. The next verse invites them to “review the past” and state their case, and verse 27 answers that their first father sinned.

Jeremiah 31:34

“For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”

Reflection: This is the closing promise of the new covenant Jeremiah announces to Israel and Judah, which will not be like the covenant their ancestors broke after the exodus (verses 31-32). God will write his law on their hearts, everyone will know him, and he will forgive their wickedness and remember their sins no more. Hebrews 8:8-12 quotes the whole passage, and Hebrews 10:17 repeats its last line: “Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.”

Psalm 103:12

“as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.”

Reflection: The heading attributes the psalm to David. Verse 10 says God “does not treat us as our sins deserve”, and verse 12 measures how far he has removed them with the distance between east and west. Two verses later the psalm says what God does remember: “he remembers that we are dust.”

Micah 7:19

“You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.”

Reflection: Near the end of Micah’s book comes the question “Who is a God like you, who pardons sin?” (verse 18). Verse 19 answers with two pictures of sin put out of reach: trodden underfoot and thrown into the depths of the sea. Verse 20 adds a further promise: God will be faithful to Jacob and show love to Abraham, “as you pledged on oath to our ancestors in days long ago.”

Isaiah 43:18-19

“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”

Reflection: Verses 16-17 describe the Lord “who made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters, who drew out the chariots and horses”, and verse 18 follows directly: “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.” The new thing God announces is a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland, and verse 14 speaks of bringing down the Babylonians.

Isaiah 54:4

“Do not be afraid; you will not be put to shame. Do not fear disgrace; you will not be humiliated. You will forget the shame of your youth and remember no more the reproach of your widowhood.”

Reflection: The chapter opens by telling a “barren woman” to sing (verse 1) and later addresses her as “Afflicted city, lashed by storms and not comforted” (verse 11). Here she is promised that she will forget the shame of her youth and remember no more the reproach of her widowhood. The reason follows in verse 5: “For your Maker is your husband”, the Holy One of Israel who is her Redeemer.

Genesis 41:51

“Joseph named his firstborn Manasseh and said, ‘It is because God has made me forget all my trouble and all my father’s household.’”

Reflection: Joseph had been sold by his brothers and imprisoned in Egypt before he rose to govern the land. His firstborn’s name, Manasseh, comes from a Hebrew root meaning to forget. The forgetting has limits: he names his second son Ephraim because God made him fruitful “in the land of my suffering” (verse 52), and when his brothers arrive to buy grain in the next chapter he recognises them at once (Genesis 42:7). In Genesis 45 he weeps, makes himself known, and tells them not to be angry with themselves.

Philippians 3:13-14

“Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”

Reflection: Verse 13 does not say what lies behind. A few verses earlier Paul lists circumcision on the eighth day, descent from the tribe of Benjamin, life as a Pharisee, zeal shown in “persecuting the church”, and a righteousness under the law he calls faultless (verses 5-6), and then says, “whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ” (verse 7). He describes the forgetting in a runner’s terms, straining toward a prize he says he has not yet taken hold of.

Luke 9:62

“Jesus replied, ‘No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.’”

Reflection: In Luke 9:57-62 two men offer to follow Jesus, and between them Jesus calls a third (verse 59). The second volunteer asks first to say goodbye to his family. Elisha had made the same request when Elijah called him from ploughing, and Elijah let him go; Elisha slaughtered his oxen and burned the ploughing equipment before following (1 Kings 19:19-21). Luke 17:32 gives Jesus’ other warning about looking back: “Remember Lot’s wife!”

Ephesians 4:22-24

“You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”

Reflection: Paul contrasts his readers with the Gentiles who live “in the futility of their thinking” (verse 17). What they were taught has three parts: put off the old self that belonged to the “former way of life”, be made new in the attitude of the mind, and put on the new self created to be like God. Colossians 3:9-10 uses the same pair of pictures and says the new self “is being renewed”, a process still going on.

2 Corinthians 5:17

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”

Reflection: The verse follows Paul’s statement that “from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view” (verse 16), including Christ. Verse 19 says that “God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them.”

Lamentations 3:22-23

“Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”

Reflection: The writer does not forget his suffering. Verses 19-20 say, “I remember my affliction and my wandering… I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me.” Verse 21 then turns: “Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope.” What he calls to mind is the Lord’s love and compassions, new every morning, set beside the memory of affliction.

Isaiah 65:17

“See, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind.”

Reflection: The verse before says “the past troubles will be forgotten and hidden from my eyes” (verse 16). God promises new heavens and a new earth in which the former things will not come to mind, and verse 19 adds that the sound of weeping will be heard in Jerusalem no more.

Revelation 21:4

“‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

Reflection: John sees “a new heaven and a new earth” (verse 1), and a voice from the throne says God will dwell with his people. Death, mourning, crying and pain end because “the old order of things has passed away”, and in the next verse the one on the throne says, “I am making everything new!”