A Clean Slate

What does it mean to be saved? As Christians we use the word a lot, but do we understand it? Romans 10 tells us, “If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved” (verses 9–10 NLT).

One of the great benefits of salvation is that God justifies us. One aspect of justification means that God has forgiven us of all our sin. Even more, He has removed all the evidence of our sin as well. That’s important, because we’ve all done things we wish we hadn’t. We’ve all said things that we wish we hadn’t. But God will forgive our sin if we repent of it.

Not only does God forgive us, but then He forgets our sin. God says in Hebrews 10:17, “I will never again remember their sins and lawless deeds” (NLT). God is omniscient, which means that He knows all things. It doesn’t mean that God is literally forgetting things. It means that He’s choosing not to hold those things against us. God is saying, “I choose to no longer remember the thing you did that was a sin against me and an affront to me.”

In this passage from The Message version, God says, “They’ll look high and low for a sign of Israel’s guilt—nothing; search nook and cranny for a trace of Judah’s sin—nothing. These people that I’ve saved will start out with a clean slate” (Jeremiah 50:20).

That’s what God does for us. That’s what it means to be saved. We have a clean slate. Our sin is removed.