When we are born again, we soon discover that one of the enemy’s most powerful tools is guilt over past sins. These may be sins committed either before or after you came to Christ, and they are often used by the enemy to keep you in a state of depression.
To be clear, I am not talking about hidden sins you refuse to repent of or will not surrender to Christ. Guilt over those should lead you to repentance. What we are talking about is guilt over sins that have been confessed—sins Christ has already forgiven.
The apostle John wrote, “If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.” (1 John 1:6–10, NKJV)
To be free from the guilt of sin, it must first be covered by the blood of the Lamb. You will never find freedom from guilt by pretending your sin is not really there, or by saying it is not really that bad. Sin is sin, and it always brings death. If you are ever tempted to justify your sin, remember it was the theft of one piece of fruit that led the entire human race into sin and has cost billions of souls. There is no such thing as a small sin.
Thankfully, the cross is powerful, and we have “been set free from sin” (Romans 6:18, NKJV) by the ministry of Christ. John continued, “My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.” (1 John 2:1–2, NKJV)
As believers, we should strive to live holy lives and battle the sins and temptations that so easily ensnare us. But it is never our battling or fighting against sin that gives us the ultimate victory—it is Christ, and Christ alone.
A common struggle among believers is still identifying with Adam instead of ChristW. what I mean by that is that, in their own hearts, they still see themselves as wicked sinners, failures, and as falling incredibly short of God’s standards and even their own. This is a powerful attack of the enemy, as the redeemed think and feel as though they are still condemned. John Wesley said, “But if any one sin—Let him not lie in sin, despairing of help; we have an Advocate—We have for our advocate not a mean person, but him of whom it was said, This is my beloved Son: not a guilty person, who stands in need of pardon for himself; but Jesus Christ the righteous; not a mere petitioner, who relies purely upon liberality, but one that has merited, fully merited, whatever he asks.”1 In 1 Corinthians 6, the apostle Paul lists several sins that were present in the church’s past—sexual immorality, homosexuality, idolatry, stealing, etc. Some of these sins were even still occurring in the church at Corinth. Yet in verse 11 he says, “And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:11, NKJV).
Notice that these sins no longer define them: “such were” (past tense), not “such are” (present tense). Jesus paid in full for our sins, and we must learn to see ourselves as redeemed, beloved, Children of God. As the Word says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” 2 Corinthians 5:17 (NKJV)
- John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament, Fourth American Edition (New York: J. Soule and T. Mason, 1818), 657.