Do we have to forgive and forget?

Many people have heard the cliché often used about the sins others have committed against us that says, "I can forgive but I can't forget." However, is this what the Bible teaches? Does God Treat Us This Way?
Does our Heavenly Father forgive but don't forget our sins against HIM? Does it temporarily give us a "pass" to our many transgressions just to remind us later? Even if he claims that he will no longer remember our sins, can he still remember them at any time?

The scriptures are clear about what it means for God to forgive the transgressions of repentant sinners. He promised to be merciful and never to remember our disobedience again and to forgive us permanently.

For I will be merciful to their injustices, their sins and their illegality that I will never remember (Hebrews 8:12, HBFV for everything)

The Lord has, and will continue to be, merciful and kind to us and will grant us plenty of mercy. Eventually, he will not treat us according to what our sins deserve, but for those who repent and overcome, he will forgive and forget all their transgressions from east to west (see Psalm 103: 8, 10 - 12).

God means exactly what he says! His love for us, through the sacrifice of Jesus (John 1:29, etc.), is perfect and complete. If we sincerely pray and repent, through and in the name of Jesus Christ who has become sin for us (Isaiah 53: 4 - 6, 10 - 11), he promises to forgive.

How extraordinary is his love in this sense? Let's say that ten minutes later we ask God, in prayer, to forgive us for some sins (which he does), we report on those same sins. What would be God's answer? Without a doubt, would it be something like 'Sins? I don't remember the sins you have committed! '

How to treat others
Is simple. Since God will forgive and totally forget our many sins, we can and should do the same for the sin or two that our fellowmen commit against us. Even Jesus, in great physical pain after being tortured and nailed to the cross, still found reasons to ask those who were killing him to be forgiven for their transgressions (Luke 23:33 - 34).

There is still something more surprising. Our Heavenly Father promises that a time will come when he will decide never to remember our sins forgiven in the ages of eternity! It will be a time when the truth will be accessible and known by everyone and from the point where God will NEVER remember, never remembering any of the sins that each of us has committed against him (Jeremiah 31:34).

How seriously should we take God's command to forgive the sins of OTHERS in our hearts as it does for us? Jesus, in what is known in the Bible as the Sermon on the Mount, clarified what God expects of us and told us what the consequences are for not obeying him.

If we refuse to neglect and forget what others have done to us, then it will not forgive our disobedience against him! But if we are willing to forgive others for what ultimately equates to small things, then God is more than happy to do the same for us on great things (Matthew 6:14 - 15).

We do not truly forgive, as God wants us to do, unless we also forget.