Put me in remembrance
Of this gracious promise of free remission of sins, and of all
others of the same kind; not that God ever forgets any of his
promises, but he may sometimes seem to do so; wherefore he would
have his people put him in mind of them, that he may by his good
Spirit make a comfortable application of them to him: "let us
plead together"; or come together in judgment, as God and the
sinner may upon the foot of remission of sin, through the blood,
sacrifice, and satisfaction of Christ; which may be pleaded, and
will be allowed, in the court of justice: declare thou, that thou
mayest be justified; declare the promise before made; declare the
grace that is expressed in it; plead the blood and righteousness
of my Son, that thou mayest be justified by it, on which account
remission of sin is: or it may be rather, these words are
directed to another set of men among the Jews, who rejected the
doctrine of forgiveness of sin by the grace of God, through the
blood of Christ; such as were the Scribes and Pharisees in
Christ's time, those self-justiciaries, who sought to be
justified by the works of the law; setting at nought the grace of
God and righteousness of Christ: now these the Lord calls upon in
a way of derision, to put him in mind of any of their good
actions they had done, and he had forgotten, for the sake of
which they expected pardon, and not for his name's sake; and to
come into open court and plead their own righteousness, and see
whether they could carry their cause upon the foot of their own
merits; and declare publicly what these merits and good works
were, that they might be justified by them, if they were
sufficient for such a purpose; but alas! these would not bear
examination at the bar of strict justice, and would be far from
justifying them in, the sight of God; and as their own works
would be insufficient, it would be a vain thing to have recourse
to the works and merits of their forefathers; for it follows,