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About Jesus - Steve Sweetman The
Meaning Of Guilt I
appreciate my Evangelical roots, that is, except for some of the guilt
laden sermons I heard as a youth. Those
sermons left me with the impression that I was saved by faith and not by
works, but, in order to stay saved I needed sufficient good works
recorded in the heavenly record. This,
along with the notion that any little sin could doom me to hell caused
me to live in fear of losing my salvation.
A nagging uncertainly concerning my salvation inflicted me with
what I called guilty feelings. These
feelings prevented me from freely serving Jesus from a heart of love for
my Saviour. It wasn't until
I was 19 years old, in February 1970, that Jesus blasted these feelings
out of my system for good. Not
one faint hint of these feelings has ever returned. I've
come to understand that guilt is not a feeling.
In legal terms it's a designation placed on a convicted person by
a judge. Whether the person
feels guilty or not is irrelevant. In
Biblical terms guilt is the designation placed on every person who has
not accepted God's pardon and His declaration of innocence.
Guilt is the position in which we stand before God, the Judge of
all things. One is either
guilty or innocent, no matter how he feels.
I
stand before God free from the designation of guilt.
I am innocent of any and all charges of which I've been rightly
convicted. Every sin I've
ever committed or ever will commit has been erased from the divine
record. Jesus' name has
replaced my name in God's list of offenders.
The moment I understood this was the moment I was released from
the feelings associated with guilt that plagued me and prevented me from
freely serving Jesus. Fear
of eternal damnation was banished for good.
The Apostle John was right when he said there is no fear in true
love (1 John 4:18).
The
Apostle Paul understood these things.
He admitted to the presence if his sinful nature as seen in Roman
7. "I am unspiritual,
sold as a slave to sin (verse 14). What
I hate I do (verse 15). What
a wretched man I am (verse 24)."
After this admission you might think Paul would have been buried
in a pit of despair, riddled with guilt and grief, but he wasn't.
He proclaimed his innocence.
"There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ
Jesus (Romans 8:1)." Paul
stood before the Judge of all things free from the designation of guilt.
He was innocent, despite his sinful nature.
He could freely serve and love the One who had acquitted him of
sin and granted his pardon.
Like
Paul, I am in Christ. The
designation of guilt has been lifted from my life.
I no longer have any feelings associated with guilt.
I can freely serve Jesus from my heart without fear.
Despite my sinful nature God views me as being without sin, even
as Jesus Himself is without sin. Understanding
how God views our sinful nature, I conclude that this is the ultimate
miracle. I have no other
logical choice but to agree with Paul.
"Thanks be to God, through our Lord Jesus Christ (Romans
7:25)."
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