Thursday, December 16, 2021
For God’s will was for us to be made holy by the sacrifice of the body
of Jesus Christ, once for all time. 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. And the Holy Spirit also testifies that
this is so. For he says, “This
is the new covenant I will make with my people on that day, says
the Lord: I will put my laws in
their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.” Then he says, “I will never again
remember their sins and lawless deeds.” And when sins have been forgiven, there
is no need to offer any more sacrifices.
Hebrews 10:10-18
A common, but quite amazing phenomenon among Christians, is guilt that
drives us over and over to seek God’s forgiveness. Guilt is that sense of moral outrage against
one’s own deeds because they offend our Creator, God (let’s call it “holy
guilt”). We seek God’s forgiveness
because we understand deep inside us, there is no way to purge that uneasiness
with the future while the past has such a deadening influence on our
present. We worry about facing God some
day with whatever “forbidden fruit” we took still staining our hands. In short, we become stuck,
unable to move forward with life, because we are broken inside from
self-condemnation. We knew the cookie
jar was off-limits, but we still have those crumbs to witness against us. Our crime was first-degree. We are guilty, so we labor under the
downward-spiral load of guilt, until driven to God’s grace.
But the most amazing, most puzzling reality (for me) is failing to
accept the joy of being forgiven.
Instead of getting-up from the altar to live a joy-filled, abundant,
overcoming life, we return to wallow in unforgiveness, rejecting that we are truly
forgiven, and cleansed. His Word
declares it, but we sense such guilt that we live in fear of being
condemned. And then we even worry about
the guilt being a manifestation of our unbelief…another sin. As a result we sink further into the abyss, that
downward-spiral of wondering how we can be saved at all if we can’t trust God
to forgive what has been confessed?
The process I’ve just described is not something theoretical
with me; this is something with which I’ve wrestled. When much younger I struggled with wanting that
which didn’t belong to me. When I chose
to take what belonged to another, guilt became my travelling companion. It was real, overpowering, and (in hindsight)
highly effective to drive me to confess my sin to God. What I didn’t know then was the enemy would
use the knowledge of my untrustworthiness to invade my walk with Christ for
decades.
I once heard a minister friend describe the enemy’s arsenal of weapons
for the warfare he conducts against God’s family. He said one of the tools of which Satan is particularly
fond is accusatory guilt. (One of the
names Scripture dubs him is the accuser of our brothers and
sisters)[1]. This accusation’s purpose is to destroy God’s
joy in us, to falsely convict us of that which God has
truly forgiven. My friend’s word to his
flock that day was: If Satan can’t
keep you out of Heaven, he will move mountains to make sure he ruins your
witness here on Earth.
I’ve needed that word in my life.
It has helped a sinner experience grace, and true forgiveness. Imperfect people need that!
For You Today
Do you know any imperfect people who are plagued with
the downward-spiral of failing to live-into God’s forgiveness? Could be you live with one, right inside your
own skin. If so, it’s time to shed that
convict mentality; those whom God has forgiven are free to live, serve, and
bless their God with joy unspeakable, and full of glory!
[1] Title and Other Images: Pixabay.com Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©
For another post on this text
see Never-Ending Sins
