Forgiveness & Freedom / Part 2

Getting Past Regret

We all have things we regret from our past.

The Level Playing Ground of Sin

Romans 3:23-24 (TPT) says:

23 for we all have sinned and are in need of the glory of God.

As I said in Part 1 of this series, the point of bringing up the truth that we ALL have sinned is not to condemn.

Romans 8:1 says there is no condemnation in Christ Jesus. That means condemnation, even in the midst of sin, is simply not allowed. Hang with me. Why? Because we are forgiven and have been made the righteousness of God in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:21) by Christ on the cross. Did Jesus do a good job? Your sin is not greater than His performance!

Romans 3:24 (TPT), the verse following the sad human diagnosis of sin, gives a very powerful “yet” –

24 Yet through his powerful declaration of acquittal, God freely gives away his righteousness. His gift of love and favor now cascades over us, all because Jesus, the Anointed One, has liberated us from the guilt, punishment, and power of sin!

Whoa! How does liberation from guilt, punishment and the power of sin grab you?

How about all that love and favor cascading over you?

That is the scandal of the gospel, my friend.

Is Sin OK?

So, since all sin is forgiven, is sin OK?

Paul knew that the scandal of forgiveness, unconditional love, and unlimited grace would bring this question. Romans 6:1-3 (KJV) says:

1What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? 2 God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? (Emphasis added)

Sin is stupid – always!

It opens all sorts of doors to destruction. Very often we feel condemned and separated from God. He feels distant, even though nothing has changed about how He sees you. If you need some help with this, you may want to read my “Can God Be Disappointed in Us?” blog.

Motive Matters

Sometimes our behavior looks godly, but our motives are not!

One of my core values is purity of heart.

Motive matters.

The means is as important as the ends.

Unfortunately, I have seen in way too many ministries, families, businesses, any endeavor, how doing something God called you to do can go awry. The call gets filtered through brokenness, insecurity, and personal ambition, it props up false identities, and takes advantage of people in the name of Jesus.

It is ugly and way too common!

Getting Past Regret

We were made in the image and likeness of Love, Himself (1 John 4:8, 16) to love God, ourselves, and one another. Many of us are so very aware of where we have violated love.

Regret is a horrible thing.

And it is something the Lord does not want His kids stuck in.

The past was never meant to haunt you.

God wants you free!

First Things First

As I discussed in the first blog in this series, your DO is not your WHO.

What you do – good, bad, or indifferent – does not define who you are. It reflects who you believe you are.

If you believe you are a sinner, you will sin all the more.

If you believe you are a liar, you will tend to lie.

If you believe you are a pervert, you will tend to act perversely.

If you believe you are a thief, you will tend to steal.

And so on…

This also works in a positive fashion (which is why God wired us this way in the first place!

If you believe you are a righteous, your default will be doing righteous or good things.

If you believe you are an honest person, you will tend to act honestly

If you believe you are a whole, you will tend to act in whole ways.

And so on!

Every behavior comes from a belief system.

BUT, the truth is that your true identity is emphatically without spot or blemish. Your true identity is based on God’s performance not yours!

Ephesians 4:23-25 (NASB) says:

23 and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and put on the new self, which in the likeness ofGod has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.

I’ve preached and written about this a lot, but it bears repeating. We need to get this into our hearts. The word for “putting on” is the word, ”endýō” that brings the sense of:

sinking into a garment; to invest with clothing (literally or figuratively):—array, clothe (with), endue, have (put) on.

This relates to you – your truest self, made according to God’s design of original innocence! You do not have a sin nature – that was nailed to the cross and you were raised a new creation without a sin nature (Galatians 2:20, Romans 6:3, 5, 11, 23, 2 Corinthians 5:17, 21). If you need more help with this, my “How to Know You Are Complete” blog will help you. Also “Embracing What is Right with You” will help as well.

Original Innocence is Our True Nature

Colossians 1:20 (TPT) says:

20 And by the blood of his cross, everything in heaven and earth is brought back to himself—back to its original intent, restored to innocence again!

Original innocence is our true nature.

We were chosen and crafted by God before the foundation of the world to be without spot or blemish before Him in love (Ephesians 1:4, Ephesians 2:10).

This is truth apart from our fallen mindsets, fallen programs, strongholds, false identities, unrenewed mind etc. These deeds of the flesh cause you to sin – NOT your nature (Romans 8:13). Mindsets, strongholds, false identities (deeds of the flesh) are changeable, whereas your nature is not. Being chosen and created by God to be without spot or blemish trumps all those things.

How to Get Free from Guilt and Condemnation

With all that said, however, the truth is that we have all sinned.

Ask the Lord if there is something you need to own and to ask His forgiveness for.

Recognize that He has already forgiven you. But we often need to let Him minister that forgiveness to us.

You may need to spend some time pouring out your heart to Him and letting Him minister His forgiveness for every infraction.

This is also a time to forgive yourself. You may need a lot of grace to do this. But ask for His grace to do this godly thing.

I say that forgiving yourself is a godly thing because you get to come into agreement with God’s forgiveness of you. God’s opinion is always truer than yours!

Say:

“By the grace You are giving me, Jesus, and as an act of my will, I choose to forgive myself for…”

Then let all the guilt, shame, dishonesty, abusiveness, perversion, manipulativeness… all the ugly out, blow by blow with all the shame, guilt, and self-accusation and hand it to Jesus. He wants it. Choose to let yourself off the hook, because He has!

Let Him minister His truth and peace here.

If you still feel condemned, understand condemnation is not from God. That would be saying Jesus did a crappy job on that cross! You need to resist condemnation as much as you resist sin, because it cuts you off at the knees to walk in the righteousness God has given you!

Continued condemnation means that your conscience is defiled and needs cleansing. There is only one thing that can do this – the blood of Jesus (Hebrews 9:14, Hebrews 10:22).

Ask the Lord to come into the place of your shame, condemnation… and cleanse your conscience by His blood. Let Him minister this cleansing as long as you need. He is faithful – thank Him for cleansing you!!

Ask the Lord if there is something you need to own and ask forgiveness for with someone you have harmed.

Also, ask if there is something you can appropriately and realistically do to help clean up your mess.

If so, ask Him to give you the grace to write a letter, meet with, call on the phone… however He is leading you into cleaning up.

Make plans to follow through with any recompense that He leads you to do.

If the person is no longer alive or available, you may want to write a letter to them, even if you can’t send it. Perhaps there is a cause that you can contribute to/volunteer with that can help others harmed the way you harmed someone else. Let God guide you.

This is not penance, it is being part of restoration. It is making something evil be turned around for good!

I hope this has been a blessing. I would love to hear from you!

Much love,

Catherine