People are regularly being crushed by guilt. They are burdened by their past. Damaging words and sinful actions just won’t leave their memories. This heavy weight of guilt is experienced by both believers in Jesus and those who do not believe. Those things of the past intrude uninvited into our minds and often at the most inopportune times. I recall a youth pastor telling me of a time when he was teaching his teens and encouraging them to seriously follow Jesus. While speaking, suddenly into his mind came memories of a time when he was immoral and this brought a kind of mental paralysis to him. He could hardly finish his message. Unfortunately, this is not a rare experience. Sometimes a person is told to “just put it behind you,” but that doesn’t seem to work. Those memories keep surfacing. But the good news is that guilt generated by past sins can become a non-issue in our lives. It really can. Let us listen to four basic facts that the writers of the inspired scriptures give us.
FACT #1 – Christ’s work on the cross removes the penalty, power, and the guilt of sin. Hebrews 9:14 says, “how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our consciencefrom dead works to serve the living God.” And Hebrews 10:22 adds: “our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience”. The removal of guilt is an important part of what Jesus Christ accomplished on the cross. He never intended for His people to live burdened by the load of guilt. He took care of that. Penance on our part does no good.
FACT #2 – When sin is committed, complete cleansing is available. Most Christians are quite familiar with 1 John 1:9, which informs us that when we confess our sins that God forgives that sin and He also cleanses from all unrighteousness. First, we must confess, which means we say the same thing about that sin of ours that God says. We take His view of our sin. We don’t shift blame to someone or something else. We did it. We come clean. When we do that, then the promise is that God not only forgives that sin, but He also cleanses us from all sin. This point is significant because realistically we just do not remember all of the sins we commit on any given day. For example, if we sin 10 times during the day today and then come to the Lord to confess. We might just remember sins #1-6, but don’t recall #7-10. Honest confession brings forgiveness for #1-6 but also for #7-10. If this were not the case, we all would have closets full of unremembered, unconfessed sin. All sin is completely taken care of by Jesus Christ and we, therefore, do not make any contribution to its payment.
FACT #3 – Satan has a significant role in bringing guilt into life. Satan often has a very direct role in our guilt. When dealing with the matter of a man’s sin in the church at Corinth, Paul observed that Satan regularly gets involved. The Apostle stated that “we are not ignorant of his schemes” (2 Cor. 2:11). What scheme? It is that Satan loves to resurrect old sins and offenses of people. He delights in bringing to mind our failures, and by so doing, brings a spiritual paralysis to us. A believer can feel both useless and unworthy. Such a one does not believe that they can serve Christ in any meaningful way. When that happens, the Evil One wins twice; first at that moment when sin was committed, and second, in keeping that believer on the sidelines through guilt. Coming clean about our sin prepares the way for guilt-free living. Since perfection has eluded all of us, we are all candidates for this scheme of Satan.
FACT #4 – The powerful solution to guilt is given to us by the Apostle Paul. The Apostle said that “Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all” (1 Tim. 1:15). He looked at his terrible sinful past and concluded that he was the worst sinner of all. He said, “I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and violent aggressor” (1 Tim. 1:13). He was responsible for the imprisonment and the death of followers of Christ. He did his best to destroy churches and believing families. He was obsessed with persecuting Jesus’ people. And he never forgot what he had done to Jesus and His followers. And we can be absolutely sure that Satan brought this up more than once. Paul simply would not be able to “just forget about it.” What did he do? He shares a critically important truth in 1 Timothy 1:12-17. When he thought about his past sins (or Satan brought it up), he did not deny that reality or try some technique to block it out of his mind. Instead of focusing on his sins, he focused on God’s abundant mercy and grace which he had experienced. He turned those moments of remembrance into times of worship, thanking the Lord for His grace, patience, mercy, and love. Instead of thinking about his failures, he thought about the goodness of God. I believe that every time those past sins came to mind, Paul turned that moment into a time of praise and worship. And here is a key point. It is highly likely that Satan eventually stopped bringing Paul’s past sins to his attention, because all it did was to turn into a worship service.
The same pattern needs to be employed by all believers. If we have confessed our sins, then the matter has been completely taken care of. The Holy Spirit never brings forgiven sin to mind since it has been fully resolved by Christ’s work on the cross. Satan wants us to focus on ourselves and our failures. Paul instructs us to focus on the grace, mercy and love of our Lord. Every time we have past sins and failures come into our minds, just pause and praise Christ Jesus for His complete and sufficient work on the cross in taking away the power, penalty and guilt of sin.
When you follow the Apostle in this matter, the Evil One will soon figure out that this scheme of his no longer works on you. It must be noted that many believers have found freedom from guilt by following the example of the Apostle Paul. That terrible past sin of yours was completely paid for on the cross and you do not contribute to paying for it by making monthly installments. The penalty, power and guilt of sin are gone. There is nothing quite like being free from the past.