I have always been thrilled to know that God does not remember my sins any longer. Every time I have read this verse that is what has always spoken to me. The other night at bible study though it spoke to me in a different way for the first time.

I began to dwell on the first part of the verse and began to think; “what if it said “righteousness” instead of unrighteousness?” What if God were only merciful to our righteousness? What if there were some things that were so bad that God would not show mercy to them?

If God were “merciful to our righteousness” then our Christian walk would be based upon works instead of Grace. Our whole basis would be to do things that were designed to please God. We would walk in fear worrying that something we did might fall outside of God’s mercy.

We walk instead in the knowledge that God’s mercy reaches to our greatest failure. There is nothing that we could do that would make God turn His back on us. The scripture tells us: “But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound”