As we’ve been exploring forgiveness together, maybe you had the thought,
“Okay, I see that I must forgive others, but the person I really hate, the person I can’t forgive is myself! How can I forgive myself?”
We can’t forgive ourselves. We can’t forgive ourselves because it isn’t our commission. Nowhere does Jesus command us to forgive ourselves. So what’s driving this feeling that we need to forgive ourselves? It’s our guilt. It’s our sense of justice. We find ourselves on the wrong side of God’s commandments.
We feel the weight of our past actions. We have lied. We have betrayed trust. We have wounded someone deeply, perhaps in a way we can never repair.
If you find yourself judged and sentenced by your own mind – if you find that you’re being assailed by the guilt of what you’ve done, you are not without hope! You rightly sense your need to be forgiven. But you can’t forgive yourself. We do need to ask for forgiveness and repent before God. All sins are committed first against God. We should also admit our fault and ask forgiveness from those we have wronged. Whether they forgive us or not is between that person and God. We can’t force it or expect it but we should pray for them!
There’s a thought that has found its way into Christian culture and worship lyrics, “It doesn’t matter who you are or what you’ve done” In a sense, that’s true. Christ’s death has covered us. It wraps us in His Light, clothes us in his righteousness. If we are following him, his Spirit dwells within us and we are a new creation. However, what we’ve done with our lives, with our energy, with our bodies and our words absolutely matters. Another song we sing is “refiners fire”. Following Jesus can be like standing in a refining fire. A flame purposed to burn away dross and make something pure. If we are in that fire, the brilliance of his glorious light shows us the disfigurements of our own flesh, of our hearts, the sins of our past and present.
I thank God right now that we are not our own judges. That we are not our own advocates. Instead, that we are saved by Jesus, that we have Him as our High Priest and sacrificial lamb, who has died to pay our debts so that we may be forgiven and that He lives to intercede for us in the heavens.Who are we to sit in judgement of ourselves? Dare we ignore Grace and Mercy Himself who died to free us? Are you right now holding tight to the chains of your past saying, “Lord you’ve freed me and declared me righteous, but I deserve these shackles. I must be bound in chains, it’s who I am. You have died for me, but I still need to suffer and die myself, it’s what I deserve. Does Jesus tell us that we’re free when we decide? Does Jesus say we can forgive our own sins? Does he say to sit in judgment over ourselves? Is that what Jesus says to us? No, instead we are told:
“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.”
– John 5:24-25
In his abounding mercy, God has granted us forgiveness of our sins through Jesus Christ. Pastor Jonathan recently preached that God is seeking us, looking not to hunt us down and punish us, but instead to invite us to accept the astonishing gift of salvation. Of the cancellation of our debts owed. Of forgiveness of the errors we’ve made, the pain we’ve caused, and the sins we’ve committed against God and man. It’s the heart of the gospel; the good news that God loves us and desires to forgive and restore his creation. He loves us so much in fact that he sent his only Son! He sent Jesus to suffer and die in my place, for what I’ve done. Jesus willingly went to the cross to suffer and die in your place, for what you’ve done. The Apostle Paul says,
“But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.” – Romans 6:22
If we believe that Jesus death has paid it all – that “all” includes whatever you can’t let go of. Whatever ugliness that is within my past and within myself. All means all. Jesus Paid it all. Paul says that where sin abounds grace abounds even more. It does matter who you are and what you’ve done for from that knowledge, from that previous darkness, the radiant light of Christ in you and through you shines all the more. May we cry tears of joy looking at what Christ has saved us from. The self-afflicted torture of condemnation. The tyranny of sin. The deserved punishment for our transgressions. The sting in the finality of death. The terror of eternal separation from God.
All the more, in those moments when we recall our sins and find ourselves overrun by guilt, look to Christ! Look to His glorious light and the truth of your salvation in Him! I wonder if this is what prompted the Apostle Paul to tell us, “Rejoice, evermore!”
Rejoice, sinner, for you have been set free from the chains of sin that leads to death! Rejoice, dust of the earth, for you have been granted life eternal and glorious through Jesus. Rejoice, disciple of Christ, that he has called YOU, yes YOU, crippled in spirit and crooked in your ways. Rejoice, weary wander, orphan and criminal. Jesus is calling your name, Jesus has died for your crimes, Jesus, resurrected and seated in the heavens has set you FREE. REJOICE, EVERMORE.
“So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” – John 8:36