Forgiving Myself (A Bible Study)

Psalm 103:08-12

The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. (NIV)

This is an Old Testament picture of God. The Old Testament is not all about a God of judgement and wrath. If we believe Psalm 103 above then why do we feel so guilty? We can believe the verses but we can’t feel it. Understanding what Jesus did for you is the beginning point. For that we do a quick study of Hebrews 10:11-25.

One of the most outstanding verses in the Bible on this topic is verse 14 “because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. (NIV)” This verse is about the Christian. It is about you. You are made perfect forever. To say we are not forgiven is to say that the sacrifice of Christ was not perfect and was not enough to forgive us. Realize that sin still has consequences. We will harvest what we plant. The worst imaginable consequence is total separation from God forever and that has been taken away from us forever. Sin can never again separate us from God because our sins are as far as the East is from the West.
Christ did the work on the cross for us. So we don’t have to keep sacrificing or working by doing more and more good things to make up for all the bad things we have done. Romans 8:1 says “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus… (NIV)” We don’t have to make restitution.

There is no legal guilt now. We are justified, that is, acquitted. To be justified is an act of God that is based on the complete sacrifice of Christ. God pronounces us “perfect” that is, that we have met all the requirements of God’s law. God does the acquitting and it is a legal action. We get the righteousness of Jesus legally. We must take action to receive the holiness that goes along with it. Christians still sin and sin still has its consequences. However, knowing how God feels about us can change how we think about ourselves. The Holy Spirit convicts the believer of sin and we feel badly about our sin as we should. We ask forgiveness from God and accept it. If you never feel badly about your sin and you use as an excuse that you are totally forgiven by God and He accepts you just the way you are, then that’s a problem. If however, you always feel bad about yourself then that is condemnation and it comes from the Devil.

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“The conviction of the Holy Spirit always comes packaged in the comfort of God’s love and acceptance, in the hope that you can and will change, and with the power to make it happen.”

“The condemnation of the devil always comes packaged with a feeling of God’s rejection of you, with the hopelessness that your life will probably never change, and the helplessness of it all. “

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You can “draw near to God” (Hebrews) because you have a pure heart since God has forgiven you. He has given us the faith to believe it. That means you have a guilt free heart, you have forgiven yourself. We must “fahgitabahdit” if we are going to move on. When the Bible tells us to forget about something it does not mean we will have some kind of religious amnesia. Our brain will store the memory and we can call it up. What it means to forget about it is that when you do think about it, you refuse to let it hold you back. God doesn’t remember our sins because He has legally acquitted us (we are “perfect”) and therefor our sins can never separate us from God forever. So if God does not remember our sins we need to fahgitabahdit! “Salvation is Jesus plus nothing.”

From Gary D. Kinnaman, Pastor at Word of Grace, Mesa , From a message called, “Getting Past Your Past: Forgiving Yourself”

From published notes, April 28-29, 2001