Bummer, Man!

Have you ever done something and then felt really bummed about it later? Or maybe not really bummed, but maybe a little bothered by your decision? I sure have. It may have been a decision you made that you knew in your gut wasn’t quite right but did it anyway. Most of the time (I’d say over 90%) it’s probably guilt you’re feeling because what you did offended God in some way. AKA sin. It is God’s way of communicating to you His displeasure with your thoughts or actions. You have been convicted of whatever it was that you did. The good thing is that God is a God of grace. We usually don’t immediately reap the “rewards” (consequences) of our behavior, but sometimes we do. His grace period exists so that He can teach us and build us up in His image.

So how do we get rid of our guilt? How do we wipe the slate clean? Well, we can’t really wipe the slate clean, but we can get rid of the guilt. See, God is perfect, and he expects nothing less than perfection. But you and I both know that we’ve missed the mark. And we can’t go back and undo the things we’ve done in the past. In old times, the Israelites had to periodically make sacrifices to atone for their sins. But the sacrifices were only good for a while, and as they went along in life they found that they were in need of another sacrifice because they had messed up again. Last time I checked, I haven’t done any animal sacrifices. And I don’t think anyone else has either, or we’d have heard from PETA. But thankfully God has a plan.

Enter Jesus. He lived a perfect life. The fact that hell couldn’t hold him is proof of that. He died a sinner’s death, but because He didn’t ever sin, hell had no authority to keep Him. God raised Jesus up from the grave as an example of what will happen to all who call on His name. He was the perfect sacrifice that atones for our sins – past, present, and future. If we call on His name, we will be saved. And His sacrifice on the cross opens up a way for us to go directly to God and ask for forgiveness for our sins. God tells us that “if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). We can rest assured that God IS faithful and will not hold our sins against us. Therefore, if we rest on this truth, we can remove the feelings of conviction we experience when we sin because Jesus paid the price for that, we have called on His name, we have confessed our sin to God, and He is faithful. Doing these things adjusts our perspective to the truth of the matter and allows us to remove the guilt of the sin and the conviction associated with it.

So don’t be bummed!