Do you realize what forgiveness of sin really means?  It means it’s as if it never happened!  That’s right!  What if you could go back in time and “do it over” when you know you hurt someone?  Then you would do things differently so as not to cause the hurt in the first place.  That would mean the relationship would have suffered no damage whatsoever, and the trust, the love, the joy, would remain unbroken.
But going back in time only happens in our mind.  Imagine how many wonderful relationships you would be enjoying right now if strife or anger or wrong words had never happened in your entire life.  Well, we can’t imagine, because we’re not there, are we?  So all we can do is sigh and say, Oh, well…  What’s done is done, and that’s just the way it is.
When we ask God to forgive our sins, He does, and though often we have earthly consequences of our sins to deal with, as far as God is concerned, it never happened in the first place.  I’m reminded of a cleaning company that advertises on TV that comes in and cleans up and restores after a flood; they are so thorough that when they are through, you can go back in the house and never know the place was ever a stinking mess before they did their work.  So it is with God’s forgiveness.  It isn’t a new paint job over a rotten wall, it’s a complete renovation from the ground up.  What good is a new paint job if the mold and mildew and all that nasty stuff is hidden underneath?  Yet we see many Christians coming to church with their “Church Face” on.  Underneath the shouts of victory, and uplifted hands, and reading of the Bible, they are still covering up a disaster that has been merely painted over, cheaply at that.  It should not be so.
Our heavenly Father is not in the “cover up” business.  He is in the “total restoration” business, taking you apart to the tiniest detail, removing every hurt and all the “baggage” you’ve managed to accumulate, and throwing it in the garbage bin, and starting afresh and anew, making you better than you ever hoped to be.  Gone is sin…all of it!  As if it never happened.  Praise God!