The Sounds of Silence: Sin (Part 2)

Among all of the repercussions of sin, one that will exhaust and destroy us from the inside out unless we are able to deal with it is guilt.

There is a purpose for guilt; it alerts us to moral and spiritual injury so that we can correct course and get back on track. Jesus didn’t give His life so that we could spend our lives regretting the same mistakes over and over and being permanently miserable about a past we’ve done our best to leave behind.

Guilt becomes the focus when legalistic thinking is so obsessed with avoiding sin and hell it can’t embrace salvation and heaven. While “religion” based on fear, shame, and perfectionism may very well promote neuroses, it certainly doesn’t produce abundant life nor resemble anything of what it means to be free in Christ.

The truth is, no matter how many rules we keep, how many righteous acts we do, or unrighteous ones we don’t, we still end up thinking we aren’t good enough or righteous enough.

Because we AREN’T.

Thankfully the Gospel isn’t about us but rather about Christ.

We are holy, not because of us but because of Jesus. We are righteous, not because of our goodness but because of His grace. Accepting that does more than relieve us; it makes us effective in sharing that freedom with others.

In John 8, Jesus looked at a woman who had been caught in adultery and saw more than a guilty person. Instead of dwelling on what she had done, He focused on what she could become. He didn’t tell her her sin was okay but he didn’t condemn her either.

Instead, he called her to move on, to put away what was dragging her down spiritually and live at a higher level.

Go and sin no more.

If the bad news is that we live with the repercussions of our decisions and are in effect changed by our sins, the good news is that GOD is not. His faithfulness is not based on our faithfulness, and He never defines us by our worst moments but in the light of His Son.

We can mess up a lot of things but nothing we ever do changes His desire for connection with His creation. Even when we have failed ourselves, failed others, even God, His love for us is bigger than His disappointment in us.

“Lord, there are countless things in my life that are inexcusable. There are things unaccountable and things unexplainable. There are things irrefutable and things irresponsible. But it comes to me with unutterable relief that because of your amazing love nothing in my life is unforgivable.” (Beautiful Fact) Lord, I Keep Running Back to You by Ruth Harms Calkin