Day 34: Deliverance from Guilt

Satan’s greatest weapon against humanity is guilt. Thankfully, Jesus’ victory over guilt was complete— accomplished by His work on the cross. Through the death of Jesus, God provided for two areas of forgiveness to deliver us from our guilt. One has to do with our past guilt; the other, with our future guilt. First, God made provision for the past, all our acts of disobedience were punished in Jesus.

Paul states in Colossians 2:13 that God forgave us all our trespasses. Again, He can forgive us without compromising His justice—making our past clear. If you are a true believer in Jesus and have accepted His provision, there is nothing from the past against you in the records of heaven. Every evil deed you have ever done has been blotted out. God has said He will remember them no more. (See Jeremiah 31:34.) He has cast these past sins into the sea. (See Micah 7:19.) As Corrie ten Boom used to say, ‘God has put up a sign beside that sea that says ‘No Fishing!.’’

As believers in Jesus we should have a confident assurance that all our past sins are totally forgiven, never to be remembered again. Of course, if we have committed sins that have not been confessed, that is not necessarily true. The remedy for us is to confess these sins, because ‘if we confess our sins, [God] is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness’ (1 John 1:9).

Righteousness is not imputed to us on the basis of faith plus something: not faith plus good works, faith plus the church, faith plus baptism, or faith plus good intentions. It is only by faith that we can be accounted righteous with God. Not only has He abolished the law of Moses as a requirement for achieving righteousness, but He has not substituted any other law. For this we should praise Him. As we enter fully into freedom from guilt, we can defeat the enemy’s great weapon against us!