There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.
– Romans 8:1-2
Reflect:
If Jesus’ work on the cross was enough to pay the penalty for our sin, why do
we feel the need to punish ourselves for our sin? Will forgiving ourselves
accomplish anything more for us in regards to our salvation?
When I was young, I remember struggling with
guilt and shame whenever I’d give into temptation. I’d think things like, “I
should have known better! I can’t believe I did this. I’m a horrible person and
a bad Christian.”
Whenever I confided in another believer about
my struggle, they’d tell me that I’m forgiven in Christ. They’d remind me that
“if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). They’d tell me that God
“does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our
iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his
steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west,
so far does he remove our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:11-12).
In my head, I knew all of that was true. But
in my heart, I thought, “Yeah, I know God has forgiven me. But I just can’t
forgive myself.” So, I searched Scripture for verses that specifically
mention forgiving ourselves and I didn’t find any. God’s Word has a lot to say
about forgiving others and so many passages explaining God’s mercy, grace, and
forgiveness - which I thought I totally understood. But what about forgiving
myself?
As I matured as a believer though, I realized
that those other believers who were reassuring me of God’s mercy and
faithfulness to forgive, were absolutely right about what my true issue was. I
thought I fully understood my standing with the Lord through Jesus Christ. But
I clearly didn’t because if I truly understood today’s verse, that in Christ
there is no more condemnation and that I have been set
free by the Spirit, then I wouldn’t have continued to hold myself captive
in my guilt and shame. If I truly understood that Jesus’ work on the cross was
completely sufficient, that “it is finished” like He said from the cross (John
19:30), I wouldn’t be sitting around wallowing in my sin, self-assigning
penance!
Imagine your sin as if it’s a cage that you
are trapped in. Without Christ, you will surely die in there! But through His
death and resurrection, Jesus unlocked the cage! Now, you are free to come out
and Jesus is calling you to get out of the cage and come to Him where you can
find life and freedom. You say that you totally understand His work on the
cross, that He died in your place to pay your penalty. But then, you say, “I
just can’t forgive myself” and you think you’ve crawled out of the cage…but you
really haven’t. You are still stuck in there!
Why? Because you are listening to the wrong
voice. Revelation 12:10 talks about Satan as “the accuser of our
brothers” who “accuses them day and night before our God”. I felt like I needed
to forgive myself because I was horrible, a hypocrite, unworthy, the
absolute worst…Those were the accusations that I was hearing in my head.
It’s as if I knew the Gospel but thought that I was some kind of special case
in which my unworthiness nullified the Gospel, but I could resolve it somehow
if I could just figure out how to forgive myself. But my unworthiness is the
whole point of the Gospel! My inability to forgive myself or make up for my own
sin is the whole point of the Gospel! These lies were keeping me in the cage
and that’s right where Satan wanted me!
In his Enduring Word online
commentary, David Guzik emphasized that the accuser has been defeated by
Christ: “The blood overcomes Satan’s accusations. Those accusations mean
nothing against us because Jesus has already paid the penalty our sins deserve.
We may be even worse than Satan’s accusations, but we are
still made righteous by the work of Jesus on the cross (Ephesians 1:7, Colossians
1:14, and Hebrews 9:14).”
In Christ, you are forgiven, and you are
loved. In Him, you stand before the Lord clothed in His righteousness, not your
own (Galatians 3:27). You are not a special case that Jesus’ blood cannot
redeem for some reason. You are not more powerful than Jesus, so His
forgiveness is what saves you, not your own forgiveness of yourself! We have to
get that through our heads and into our hearts. We can’t keep listening to the
accuser! In Christ, there is no more condemnation, and we are set free!
So, crawl out of the cage! Then, stand up,
square your shoulders, and walk confidently to your Savior, Jesus Christ!
Pray:
Lord, I confess that I am prone to wallowing in my guilt and shame. Help me to
fully grasp the truth that in You, I am no longer condemned! Protect my head
and my heart from the lies of the accuser. Help me to crawl out of the cage of
my sin and into true freedom in You. Amen.