the Spirit of Life
- Pastor Gary Rideout
- 3 hours ago
- 2 min read
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. - Romans 8:1-2 NIV
When speaking of the guilt of our sins, I believe that there are two kinds of people. One type is totally consumed, burdened down when they do wrong. Overcome with remorse and guilt. Martin Luther, the 15th century theologian, the father of the Reformation would fall in this category. Luther was a man consumed by guilt for the sins he had committed. He was constantly in confessional, worried that he would die with unconfessed sin lingering. As soon as he finished his confessional who would remember something else he had done and back to the confessional he turned.
Then there is another group of people that are on the opposite spectrum in dealing with the guilt of their sins. And this group you could say is unhealthier than the overly remorseful group. These are the ones that soon forget about the wrongs that do. They seem to get over the guilt very quickly. They shrug it off. We excuse away our guilt, justify it, “it couldn’t be helped.” God’s grace will cover everything. There is no need to feel remorse. Why be burdened by guilt? Life is too stressful anyway.
For those who too easily write off our sins we should look back to the Old Testament and what the Hebrew people had to do to receive forgiveness of their sins. What if we had to do the same? If every time we sinned, we had to go to the temple and sacrifice one of our livestock, maybe we would pause to consider what damage these sins are causing, before we do them again. We are causing damage to our relationship with God.
I say this, not so that you will be overcome with guilt and remorse. But I say this to show you how extravagant, how compelling is the forgiveness that Christ offers us through His death on the cross. We are not worthy of such mercy. We have not earned it. But God offers it to us anyway, through Jesus Christ. And brings us into a new life, a new freedom through the one who was raised from the dead.
You cannot make amends on your own. But only through Christ are we forgiven, redeemed through his dying on the cross. Looking through these eyes can we try to grasp and understand the extreme sacrifice Jesus suffered for us – that we might be dead to sin so that we can be set free.