A Fresh Look at Forgiveness

By Shawn McMullen 
 

      I love theme park thrill rides. I've ridden the Beast, the Vortex, the King Cobra, the Magnum, the Demon Drop, and the Corkscrew, just to name a few.

      It's ironic, when you think about it. These rides are carefully designed to ensure the safety of their passengers while creating the opposite impression--one of fear and danger.

      And that's what most people seek from a thrill ride--the sensation of traveling higher and higher on a track, then plunging rapidly to the ground without being able to see what's below. It's turning a series of complete loops high in the air. It's the speed, the dropping, the sudden turning and jerking.

      And it's all designed to create an illusion. You feel like you're falling to the ground. It seems as though you'll be thrown from the car. You fear that the ride will return to the station with an empty seat--your seat--and that your lifeless body will be discovered hours later sprawled on the grass somewhere below the tracks. 
 What some people do for entertainment! 

Guilt's Illusion

      Now let's consider another illusion, one that plagues many Christians. The mastermind behind this illusion is not the engineer of an amusement park thrill ride. It's Satan, the prince of deception. "When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies" (John 8:44). He is "the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before God day and night" (Revelation 12:10).

      The deception I'm referring to, the one Satan seems to employ more frequently than any other in the lives of sincere Christian people, is the illusion of guilt.  

Satan's Deception

      Let's start with what we know. If you're a Christian, you live in a state of forgiveness. No, you don't deserve it, but you've accepted it as God's free gift, a gift of his grace. That's why the apostle Paul could ask such a rhetorical question as, "Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies" (Romans 8:33), and why the apostle John could affirm, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9).

      The Scriptures are clear on this. If you're a child of God, you're forgiven--of all sin. But Satan doesn't want you to think this way. He wants you to worry and agonize over yesterday's failure and today's struggles. He wants you to feel guilty. To be burdened. To question whether you really belong to God.

      Why? Because he knows guilt impedes your growth, stifles your spirit, and depletes your energy.

      Satan doesn't miss an opportunity to foster the illusion of guilt among Christians: the mate in a faltering marriage who feels like a complete failure; the parent who shoulders the blame for a prodigal child; the believer who struggles weakly against a sinful desire; the church member who can't forget--or forgive--a sin committed years ago; the leader who grapples with a stale spirituality.

      Circumstances like these can leave us feeling ashamed, remorseful, and guilt-ridden. Let me add here that guilt isn't all bad. Sometimes we need a little guilt in our lives to get us back on track.

      But when we find ourselves languishing in guilt, and when we allow that guilt to steal our peace and rob us of our joy, we are operating under an illusion. We have been deceived. We have bought into Satan's lie. 

God's Promise

      Paul exposes Satan's illusion of guilt with three truths in Romans 5:1-11.

      The Reality: We Are at Peace with God. "Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (v. 1). If you're a Christian, you are at peace with God. That's the reality, regardless of what Satan wants you to think. "But I've failed too greatly," someone might say. "Surely I don't deserve to be forgiven." You're absolutely right. You don't. But when did you? The answer is never. You didn't deserve to be forgiven when you became a Christian, and you don't deserve it now. Not on your best day. You are forgiven--and your guilt is taken away--only because you belong to the God of grace.

      The Reason: Jesus Died for Us. "While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (v. 8). On the cross, Jesus transferred his perfect righteousness to us, and took our sin and guilt upon himself. "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Corinthians 5:21).  To think that a particular failure is beyond the reach of the atonement is to deny God's power to forgive sin and to reject the adequacy of Christ's death on the cross.

      The Result: We Will Be Saved. "We also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation" (v. 11). When we accept Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, the blood of Jesus covers our sin and absorbs our guilt. From that moment forward, God looks upon us as though we have never sinned. Even when we stumble and struggle, we are covered by God's grace.

      So let's expose the lie. Let's take a fresh look at the scope--the incomparable breadth--of God's mercy, grace, and forgiveness, knowing that in Christ we are forgiven completely and perfectly. And let's live in the joy, peace, and confidence that come from that forgiveness.