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When God forgives us our sins, He washes us clean and grants us a record that is white as snow (Is.1:18). When He says He will not remember our sins any more, what He means is that He will look at us now as if we had not sinned, and He will not hold our sins against us any more (He.8:12). God cannot forget what we have done, but He will not bring them up to His mind any more. This grace is so amazing that it almost looks fantastic. Now the question is, when we forgive others their sins, how we continue to look at them!

We know our human nature. We have a great tendency when we look at others, to focus on all their past sins and mistakes even to the point of forgetting all the good they may have done. Even if someone has been generally good to us, one mistake they make can so turn the focus of our attention, that from then onwards we look at them as 'bad' people! It is as if we have put on a pair of coloured glasses and we can see everything only in that colour. This is so unfair towards them!

Just think of it, who among us is perfect, without sin? The answer is, none. What if everyone looked at us as wicked people because they could remember what all wrong we have done to them in the past? Even after we have repented from our sins and changed in our behaviour, what if they keep thinking of us only as those who have committed those sins in the past?

God tells us to forgive others just as He has forgiven us, because of our faith in Christ (Ep.4:32). We have not been forgiven because we were good people, but as an unmerited favour from God. When we forgive others, it is not because they deserve it, but as coming from us who have been forgiven as a gift from God. Then, if God does not remember our sins any more, should we not stop thinking of their sins too? We can't forget them, but we need to stop holding their sins against them.

In a practical sense, we can't blindly pretend that they haven't done anything wrong. It is that even though we remember their sins, we seek to look at them as they are now, and not as they used to be in the past. We ought to allow for their change, and not hold on to the same view that we used to have earlier, when they sinned against us. They have moved on, and so should we.

This is not going to be easy in practice, is it? Every time our memory brings up their sins before us, we have to remind ourselves that they have been forgiven already, and turn our attention to how they are now. That is how we want others to look at us. Even when we observe them now, let us be reasonable enough, not to let our past experience with them overshadow our present observation of them.

Every time we recognise that we are viewing someone through coloured glasses, let us take them off. Let us put on colours of mercy and patience towards them, remembering how the Lord is looking at us with compassion and tenderness. That is a part of becoming godly, or becoming like Christ (Co.3:13).

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