Dear Failure, He Remembers You

Letters to a Weary Pilgrim

Dear Failure,

I often forget the Lord. You do too.

Sometimes after I ask my son why he disobeyed and didn’t do what I asked, he responds with, “I forgot.” I resonate with his response; it turns out I’m more like my son than unlike him.

The Bible compares sin to intentional forgetfulness—ignoring God in the world He has made and casting His law behind our backs. We forget the glories of His gospel. We forget who Christ is and who we are, leading us to partake in what is evil or omit what is good.

The weight of our sinful forgetfulness is a crushing weight. We sometimes wonder if God will return the favor and forget us as well. But there’s good news that assures you of pardon and gives fresh power: Jesus remembers you. We must trace the history of God’s sinful people to see the glory of this reality.

Tracing the Forgetfulness of God’s People

1. Adam and Eve Forget, God Promises

After God gives Adam and Eve the command to avoid eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the serpent comes to Eve and says,

“Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”

And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” (Genesis 3:1-3)

Already, we see that, with Satan’s deceptive questioning, she’s forgotten the Lord. She separated the law from the Lawgiver. To her, God became an austere and malevolent slave master, and thus His law was no longer a delight.

Mankind has been forgetting the Lord ever since. Thankfully, God gave them the promise of the skull-crushing seed of the woman who would come and deliver those who forget His holy law. This promise unfolds throughout the covenants of scripture, showcasing that, though God’s people forgot Him and He kicked them out of His paradise, He still remembered them. There’s only one explanation: The covenant of grace.

2. Israel Forgets, God Remembers

Amid their forgetfulness and rebellion, God still remembers Israel. Why did God deliver Israel from bondage in Egypt? “And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob” (Exodus 2:24–3:15).

But Israel’s story is a sad one; it is one of constantly forgetting the goodness of their God, leading to idolatry and greater depths of depravity.

Multiple times throughout the Old Testament we read of God commanding His people to remember Him:

Then Moses said to the people, “Remember this day in which you came out from Egypt, out of the house of slavery... (Exodus 13:3–20:8).

You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you; therefore I command you this today (Deuteronomy 15:15–16:3).

Remember the word that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, saying, “The Lord your God is providing you a place of rest and will give you this land” (Joshua 1:13).

Unfortunately, the people of God are led into the hands of evil men time and again due to their forgetfulness. In the book of Judges, God’s people forget Him and he delivers them into the hands of their oppressors.

And the people of Israel did not remember the Lord their God, who had delivered them from the hand of all their enemies on every side (Judges 8:34–9:2).

Even when He raised judges (like Samson) to rescue them they still forgot the Lord. And many of the judges forget God too. As a result, just like Adam and Eve, God casts them out of their land. Though the exiles returned to the promised land, the temple was not what it once was, idolatry continued, and God's people forgot the law of the Lord (See the end of Nehemiah). After the book of Malachi, there was no revelation, no word from the Lord for four hundred years. Had God forgotten His people?

3. We Forget, Jesus Remembers

God indeed remembers His covenant. His unbreakable covenant of grace is seen when Christ, the eternal Son of God, established a New Covenant by becoming incarnate for us and our salvation.

Christ alone lives a life of unshakable remembrance of His Father’s commandments and always does what pleases Him; He never forgets. Not only does He not forget His Father’s commands, but He eagerly remembers the forgetters.

As Jesus was hanging on the cross, giving His life for the sins of the world, what do we read from the utter failure who is dying next to Him? “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom” (Luke 23:42). Thankfully, Jesus remembered him upon drawing His last breath: “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43).

In my last post/letter, I summarized Peter’s sin of denying Jesus. Peter ran off and wept bitterly, knowing He failed His Lord. But Christ, being risen from the dead and having a covenant commitment to His people, relayed this message through His Angel, “But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee” (Mark 16:7).

Jesus remembers and names Peter after His resurrection. The last thing Jesus hears Peter say before He dies is his denial; the first thing Peter hears when he sees Jesus again is grace.

Our Response

Amid my forgetfulness, Christ remembers me, not because He turns a blind eye to sin, but because He has a covenant commitment to me by grace.

What is our response? “Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel” (2 Timothy 2:8). Because Christ remembered you on the cross, you now have the power to repent and remember Him.

Amid your failure, remember Jesus Christ. Remember His glorious person; remember His perfect life; remember His sacrificial death; remember His victorious resurrection; remember His imminent return.

You often forget the Lord. But remember, dear saint who is a failure just like me: Christ remembers you which means His pardon and power are forever yours, empowering you to remember Him when the world, the flesh, and the devil tell you He should be forgotten.