Forgiveness vs Bitterness #4 - Receiving Forgiveness
| How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, Who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God! (Hebrews9:14) |
The writer of the letter to the Hebrews knew something important: Sometimes we struggle to believe that God really can forgive us.
Some people say that our consciences are actually the Holy Spirit whispering His truth into our hearts. This is not entirely accurate. We all have a conscience - a God-given capacity to recognise and evaluate right and wrong. Our consciences are a place where God can and does speak to us powerfully through the Holy Spirit.
But our consciences can be damaged in two ways:
1. They can be seared or corrupted (1Tim4:2 and Titus1:15). When this happens, we care less and less about the things we have done wrong.
2. But our consciences can fail to grasp the forgiveness of God.
In a pastoral context I hear this quite often.
- "I don't know how God can possibly forgive me for the terrible thing I did."
- "I keep doing it over and over again. I can't see how God can forgive me."
- "I promised God that I would not do that and then I did. I don't deserve forgiveness."
But the letter to the Hebrews gives us GOOD NEWS:
- Jesus' death does not only cancel the legal debt of our sins and brokenness,
- but His blood will also cleanse our consciences
So that we can serve the living God.
Paul says: ""Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." (Rom.8:1)
So here's the conversation that should be happening inside us.
Conscience: "I did a bad thing."
Gospel: "Yes. And Christ died for it."
Conscience: "But I don't deserve forgiveness."
Gospel: "That's why it's called grace."
Conscience: "But I still feel guilty."
Gospel: "Christ's blood cleanses even the conscience."
This does not mean that we treat sin lightly. When we confess our sin it should be accompanied by repentance which may require restitution, apology and changed behaviour, but when the guilt-trip in our conscience tries to overshadow the forgiveness God offers then we need to bring our consciences back to the cross.
Christ's blood is sufficient not only to forgive our sin, but to cleanse our consciences so that we can stop looking backwards and begin serving the living God.
God is the Judge,
Christ is the Redeemer,
and we don't need to appoint ourselves as a second judge over sins God has already forgiven.
What God has forgiven, we do not need to keep condemning.
