Past Commentary by a Common Terry
What is this spiritual healing?
April 26, 2026
Last week I cited several verses in the New Testament that announce the renewal of the Christian man and woman. We are not simply adapted and adjusted with our sins glossed over, still always lurking under the surface. We are renovated. The old is done away with. The eternal damage of sin is not simply patched up with some kind of cosmic duct tape and baling wire. The damage is gone. There is no presence of sin. There is no residue. There is no scar.
That’s the spiritual truth of forgiveness and renewal through Jesus, granted by the Father and guaranteed by the Spirit. When the Hebrews author considered Jesus as our new, ultimate High Priest, he included a lengthy quote from Jeremiah 31:31-34. That text, God’s words to His people, ends with this Divine promise: “For I will be merciful to their iniquities and I will remember their sins no more.” (Hebrews 8:12)
This notion of forgotten sins...it’s a God thing. We’ve all heard the advice, when dealing with a difficult conflict with someone, that we need to, “...forgive and forget.” Yeah, sure. That ain’t gonna happen. It is not humanly possible. The only One in scripture who does that is God. He can truly forget our sins. They are gone. Whatever spiritual and eternal damage they might have done, that has been remedied.
Psalms 103 begins with a wonderful shout of gratitude and praise: Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name! (Psalm 103:1) David beautifully demonstrated why we get up every day with a worship of blessing toward God. One of the reasons we bless the name of God? For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His steadfast love toward those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. (Psalm 103:11-12)
We can’t, in reality, do that. It’s God territory. But here’s what I know: God will so completely work in our hearts and souls that the sins we’ve committed, and the sins others have committed against us, can become so overwhelmed by His grace that they have no impact. When Satan prompts us to remember, we focus on forgiveness, not injustice. It is as if they are gone. This is spiritual healing on earth. Memory is memory. It can’t be erased. But we are becoming so in step with God through His Spirit that the sins are far, far away and cannot influence us more than God’s mercy and grace influence us.
In fact, we need to be able to admit the reality that we are sinners if we are going to tell the story of redemption, renewal, and renovation. But we do not revisit the pain and guilt of sin. We celebrate that God removed them as far as the east is from the west.
Just how far is the east from the west? Well, speaking globally—literally—the two never meet. I don’t know if this is what David had in mind, but it sure works today for us to understand. If we travel north or south, we eventually go as far as we can go. When we hit the North Pole, any direction we go is south. And the same is true at the South Pole. Everything is north.
But east and west? We just keep going. We don’t reach a stopping point. We never go as far as we can go to the east or to the west. That’s how far God has removed our sins from us. An infinite distance.
The next to last verse of the prophet Micah adds another layer of “Wow!” to this. God will trample our sins. He destroys them. And then, just for good measure, He will “...cast all our sins in the depths of the sea.” (Micah 7:19) Some Bible scholars have labeled this sea The Sea of Forgetfulness. This imagery assures us that our sins, once they have passed through the forgiving blood of Jesus, are tossed and are irretrievable.
It is unavoidable that we cannot eliminate the scars of life. There are consequences. There are outcomes. There are reminders. But can we be so swept up in “as far as the east is from the west” and the “bottom of the sea” forgiveness of God that we are no longer burdened by the scars?
That’s spiritual healing. That’s renewal. It is our lives being renovated down to their very core.
It is a misery to relentlessly revisit our sins and guilt. It is a mystery of joy when the guilt and burden is released. A new creation!
That’s the spiritual truth of forgiveness and renewal through Jesus, granted by the Father and guaranteed by the Spirit. When the Hebrews author considered Jesus as our new, ultimate High Priest, he included a lengthy quote from Jeremiah 31:31-34. That text, God’s words to His people, ends with this Divine promise: “For I will be merciful to their iniquities and I will remember their sins no more.” (Hebrews 8:12)
This notion of forgotten sins...it’s a God thing. We’ve all heard the advice, when dealing with a difficult conflict with someone, that we need to, “...forgive and forget.” Yeah, sure. That ain’t gonna happen. It is not humanly possible. The only One in scripture who does that is God. He can truly forget our sins. They are gone. Whatever spiritual and eternal damage they might have done, that has been remedied.
Psalms 103 begins with a wonderful shout of gratitude and praise: Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name! (Psalm 103:1) David beautifully demonstrated why we get up every day with a worship of blessing toward God. One of the reasons we bless the name of God? For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His steadfast love toward those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. (Psalm 103:11-12)
We can’t, in reality, do that. It’s God territory. But here’s what I know: God will so completely work in our hearts and souls that the sins we’ve committed, and the sins others have committed against us, can become so overwhelmed by His grace that they have no impact. When Satan prompts us to remember, we focus on forgiveness, not injustice. It is as if they are gone. This is spiritual healing on earth. Memory is memory. It can’t be erased. But we are becoming so in step with God through His Spirit that the sins are far, far away and cannot influence us more than God’s mercy and grace influence us.
In fact, we need to be able to admit the reality that we are sinners if we are going to tell the story of redemption, renewal, and renovation. But we do not revisit the pain and guilt of sin. We celebrate that God removed them as far as the east is from the west.
Just how far is the east from the west? Well, speaking globally—literally—the two never meet. I don’t know if this is what David had in mind, but it sure works today for us to understand. If we travel north or south, we eventually go as far as we can go. When we hit the North Pole, any direction we go is south. And the same is true at the South Pole. Everything is north.
But east and west? We just keep going. We don’t reach a stopping point. We never go as far as we can go to the east or to the west. That’s how far God has removed our sins from us. An infinite distance.
The next to last verse of the prophet Micah adds another layer of “Wow!” to this. God will trample our sins. He destroys them. And then, just for good measure, He will “...cast all our sins in the depths of the sea.” (Micah 7:19) Some Bible scholars have labeled this sea The Sea of Forgetfulness. This imagery assures us that our sins, once they have passed through the forgiving blood of Jesus, are tossed and are irretrievable.
It is unavoidable that we cannot eliminate the scars of life. There are consequences. There are outcomes. There are reminders. But can we be so swept up in “as far as the east is from the west” and the “bottom of the sea” forgiveness of God that we are no longer burdened by the scars?
That’s spiritual healing. That’s renewal. It is our lives being renovated down to their very core.
It is a misery to relentlessly revisit our sins and guilt. It is a mystery of joy when the guilt and burden is released. A new creation!