Letting Go of Guilt
by Katie Harding on March 4, 2024
It was pretty exciting last week to hear Dr. Daniel Dapaah, one of the professors teaching our Foundational Theology Class, define the word salvation as deliverance. It’s the same way I have defined the word for years after learning deliverance is the meaning of the Hebrew word for salvation.
The Father sent Jesus to deliver people once and for all from the enslavement of sin. As Daniel said, “Salvation is the saving action of God the Father through Jesus Christ the Son by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
After being sent by the Father, Jesus offered His life as a blood sacrifice for the sin of the world. Scripture tells us “…without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins” (Hebrews 9:22). Jesus’ death upon the cross for the forgiveness of sin is fundamental to our Christian belief. Yet, over the years, what has amazed me most is that even though we know this, there is often a discrepancy between what we profess and what we practice.
It’s easy to believe Jesus died for the sins of the world. It’s a lot more difficult to believe He died for “those particular sins” in our own lives – the mistakes we’ve made, the burdens we carry, the words we wish we never said. Somehow those sins seem to go with us from place to place, year after year.
At least that’s what the enemy would like us to believe; even though Jesus has forgiven our sin, the enemy makes us feel we still can’t get rid of them. They seem to weigh us down like a ten-pound bag of rocks on our back. But it’s not sin that weighs us down because Jesus died for our sins once and for all. Period. If not, we would still be performing annual sacrifices at the altar, and Jesus’ death would be in vain.
What’s actually weighing us down is the enemy’s most effective weapon in his toolbox – guilt. God forgives us of all our sins, but when the enemy whispers his reminders of them, the thoughts give rise to guilt with one poke after another. So, instead of sin, it’s the enemy’s promptings of guilt we carry, trying not to feel overwhelmed by our feelings of shame.
But here’s the good news; when God delivered us from being enslaved to sin and gave us a new life in Christ, we experienced the same purification Isaiah did when the seraph touched his lips with the live coal taken from the altar. He had just confessed his sinfulness, “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” And the seraph responded with the same good news God tells us today, “Now your guilt is removed, and your sins are forgiven” (Isaiah 6:6-7).
We don’t have to carry guilt any more than we have to carry sin – regardless of what the enemy wants us to believe. If there is no sin, there is no guilt. We have been delivered by Jesus. We are redeemed. We are freed from sin AND shame.
As we continue this Lenten season and journey to the cross with Jesus, let us not only accept the forgiveness He offers, but let us let go of the enemy’s promptings of guilt Jesus has already removed. Let us glorify our Savoir and live with Him in the freedom He brings.