The Root of Guilt

Tuesday, January 17, 2023

The old system under the law of Moses was only a shadow, a dim preview of the good things to come, not the good things themselves.  The sacrifices under that system were repeated again and again, year after year, but they were never able to provide perfect cleansing for those who came to worship.  If they could have provided perfect cleansing, the sacrifices would have stopped, for the worshipers would have been purified once for all time, and their feelings of guilt would have disappeared.  But instead, those sacrifices actually reminded them of their sins year after year.  For it is not possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.  Hebrews 10:1-4

Taking away sins is indeed a tricky business.  We can hear the preacher say:  In the name of Christ, you are forgiven…and a nanosecond or two later we are having the same thoughts and desires that got us into the debt of our evil in the first place.  And the guilt starts a new cycle.  Our base problem (sin nature, courtesy of Adam) makes us (as the hymn-writer has it) prone to wander and we can no longer imagine we are forgiven than jump over the moon.

What’s not so tricky is understanding this about me.  Having spent the better part of 8 decades in this human skin of a life examining the insides of Russell, knowing just how crumbly human clay feet can be, and how permanently the scars of our sins can destroy our sense of peace, I have become acutely aware of how successfully guilt can rob us of everything powerfully-good in our daily lives.  The annual sacrifices at the Temple could do nothing to asuage a guilty conscience.  Something greater was required to get at the root of our guilt. 

Paul[1] later described for the Jewish tribes of believers how Jesus’ sacrifce was that something better to root out the assault our arch-enemy, Lucifer makes on our vulnerable conscience:

Under the old covenant, the priest stands and ministers before the altar day after day, offering the same sacrifices again and again, which can never take away sins.  But our High Priest offered himself to God as a single sacrifice for sins, good for all time.  Then he sat down in the place of honor at God’s right hand.  There he waits until his enemies are humbled and made a footstool under his feet.  For by that one offering he forever made perfect those who are being made holy.  

Hebrews 10:11-14

A careful reading of Paul’s explanation offers the subtle (but sure) difference between a clear conscience and overwhelming unrest in the soul.  It is the enemies of Christ that are destined for humbling punishment, not the friends!

To be a friend of Jesus means trusting him.  When we trust him with our future, our past is included in the forgiveness of all the sins we have done, or ever will do.  Jesus, the flawless friend is the fulfillment of the title, Best Friend Forever

…a real friend sticks closer than a brother.  Proverbs 18:24b

For You Today  

Somewhere during your walk with Christ, the enemy will whisper in your ear an accusation or two about stuff you shouldn’t have done, or stuff you should have done, but didn’t, or maybe the desire for something evil that you just didn’t get around to doing….yet!  Remind the serpent that when you repented of that sin, God forgave you, and God never lies.  Apostle Paul wrote that too:

Even if everyone else is a liar, God is true.  Romans 3:4b

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

Go to VIDEO (read by author)

There are about 2,000 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper on today’s topic, explore some of these: 

A Clean Sweep, But Not Swept-Away  and  Out of the Frying Pan, Into the Fire

Images:  Title Wikimedia Commons   Images without citation are either personal property of the author, or in public domain.

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©  

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[1] Paul was more than likely the author of Hebrews according to many scholars.