No More Guilt and Shame!

Early on in my faith, I heard many elders and deacons at the church I was attending pray on behalf of the congregation with these words: “Oh, God! Have mercy on us. We are less than worms. We are the worst of all sinners.” I accepted these words at face value. But when I read the Bible myself, I realized God never called those who are in Jesus with these words. God calls His people redeemed, saved, new creations, friends but never the words that were used by the elders and deacons I used to know. 

Romans 6 celebrates the glorious freedom we have in Jesus. Ephesians 2 celebrates the fact that we are new creations, created in Christ Jesus. In fact it uses the word, “poetry” to describe us who belong to Jesus. Poetry is emotional, expressive, thoughtful, moving...etc. God says you are my poetry! Over and over again, the Bible calls those who have accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior as saints and holy ones. The primary identity of those who are in Jesus has shifted from ‘sinners’ to sons and daughters of God!

 In Romans 6, Paul rejoices over the truth that, where as we were once slaves to sin, God has redeemed us through Jesus and we are now ‘slaves to righteousness’ [Romans 6:18]. Followers of Jesus ought to accept their new identity in Christ which the gospel provides; and we ought to stop trying to defend the old identity, ‘sinners’!

Read 2 Corinthians 6:11|And that is what some of you WERE. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Paul pens the above words after listing terrifying list of evils that had formally characterized the believers in Corinth. In fact, they were still struggling with much of their old habits such as idolatry, adultery, stealing, drinking...etc. So Paul reminds the Corinthian Christians, that the old habits were what they ‘WERE’ but now they are washed by the blood of Jesus, sanctified and justified in the name of Jesus by the Holy Spirit! Justified equated to being just as if they had not sinned! 

Some people may think that if we do not regard ourselves fundamentally as sinners, we will not value the cross and the blood Jesus shed upon the cross! But doesn’t the cross amaze you with wonder and worship, praise and thanksgiving, awe and surrender, not because you are a sinner but because a holy and supreme God, creator of all that exists, instead of ignoring us as He could have and sent to damnation in hell, decided to step out of eternity to save sinners so that they could be called sons and daughters of God? Don’t you think calling yourself a sinner essentially dishonor the wonder and the beauty of the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ? Friends we won the battle. We triumphed! It was a victory on the cross! From death to life.... sinners to saints!

To quote John Bunyan:

Run John run the law demands
But gives me neither legs nor arms
Better news the gospel brings
It bids me fly and gives me wings!

To quote Paul again, ‘If any man is in Christ he is a NEW CREATION. Old things are passed away, behold all things are become new.’ 

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones ‘A new principle of life has been put into the Christian. He has a new disposition – the life of God in the soul of man! That is Christianity!’

Does this mean that Christians do not sin? Of course we do, there is a conflict in the world between the Spirit who lives in us with the forces of Satan. So we do sin! But we sin as saints with all the sadness and inappropriateness of it but not as sinners with all the inevitability!

Friends, claim your identity as sons and daughters of God. You are the bride of Jesus sanctified by His blood! Your core identity has shifted! Paul writes to the messed up, conflict littered, and sexually immoral church in Corinth with the follower words...

“To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of the our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
1 Corinthians 1:2-3

Live not in guilt and shame but in the freedom Jesus provides for us through the shedding of the blood on the Cross! The Bible says that the resurrection power that raised Jesus from the dead resides in each one of His disciples! Live in that power! For it is for freedom Christ died for us! Blessings.