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Washed; Sanctified; Justified
By Watchman | November 24, 2008
Has sin engulfed your life to the point where you feel God wouldn’t listen to you even if you tried to get His ear? Have you committed one tremendous sin that you feel will keep you out of the Father’s presence forever? If so, you’re not alone. Many people, including many born-again believers, struggle for years with the guilt caused by their own actions in the past. I know, because I’m one of them. There’s very little that you can have done that I haven’t done quite efficiently. I know about the shame, the feeling of self-loathing, the feeling that God could never forgive you no matter who else He forgives; that salvation now belongs only to other people, never to you. If you are struggling with these emotions, get ready to end the struggle once and for all! It took me years to understand the boundless grace of Almighty God and to be freed by Him from my guilt and shame. Now, God has laid it on my heart to address those of you who are secretly separated from God and afraid that you can never be reunited with Him.
First, let me get started by explaining that, although we proclaim constantly that “Jesus is love” and that “God loves everybody”, it is still difficult to comprehend the limitlessness of His love. He does not love as we love. There is no reservation in His heart when He loves. There is no resentment for past slights (or sins) lurking in the recesses of His Spirit. When we come to Him, confess our sin and ask His forgiveness, He not only forgives but promises that He will “remember their {our} sin no more.” (Jeremiah 31:34) Do you see? Once we come to Him, He no longer holds our sin in His remembrance! When we come to God, ask His forgiveness, and ask Jesus to come and be our Lord and Savior, He is gracious and merciful to forgive–ALWAYS–and will remove our sins “as far as the east is from the west!” (Psa. 103:12) Why? Because He loved us enough to send His Son, Jesus, to pay the penalty for the evil we have committed. His precious Blood cleanses us from ALL sin! Every bit of it! Gone! Why be afraid to take your sinful self to the Almighty? He already knows what you’ve done, and His arms are open and beckoning for you to turn to Him! Nothing you can ever do will make Him unable or unwilling to hear your cry of repentance or refuse to grant you His salvation! You don’t deserve it? Guess what? None of us do! To God, sin is sin: we have ALL sinned and come short of His glory. As I stated before, my sins were big, fat, UGLY sins–yet God forgave me for them, and He will forgive you, too, no matter what your sin entailed! You can be washed clean in the shed Blood of the Lamb!
“Know you not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but you are washed, but you are sanctified, but you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.“
(I Corinthians 6:9-11)
Beloved ones, let go of your guilt and crawl into the lap of the forgiving God Who loves you so much! There is no crime so heinous that God will stop loving you and refuse to allow you to be part of His family! All you have to do is repent and ask. Martin Luther said that remorse before you come to Calvary is of God (i.e., the Holy Spirit convicts you of your sin in order that you might repent and be saved), but after Calvary, it is of the devil. He was so right! Don’t let the guilt that Satan brings constantly to your mind keep you from accepting this precious gift of salvation! You can be free of sin, of guilt, of shame.
Sanctification is the act of being set apart to God. When we accept Jesus into our hearts, our sins and our “old selves” are crucified up on that cross with Jesus, and we are made new in Him; set apart as His children! We are “justified” in the Father’s sight; not because we are in ourselves righteous, but because we receive, as His free gift, the righteousness of Jesus. In other words, because Jesus died for us and we accept His sacrifice with love, thanksgiving, and obedient hearts, God sees in us not our old sinful selves, but Christ within us! When He looks at us, He does not see our past sins (be they ever so horrendous) but the exact same righteousness that only Christ possesses! Satan is the accuser of the brethren: yet every time he accuses one of us to the Father, Jesus says “No! He/she is in Me; therefore, see My righteousness!”
Satan wants you to be his. He knows that if he can feed the flames of your guilt to the point where you will never feel forgiven, he wins your soul by default. He never has to work on you again and his job is made easy. If your guilt drives you to madness or suicide, so much the better. I’m afraid that the growing rate of depression and suicide in this country is partially the result of a society indulging openly in sinful behavior leading to feelings of hopelessness and guilt and which does not at all understand God’s promise of redemption. Because you are a sinner does NOT mean that you must be damned to an eternity in hell. God has made a way where no way existed. When Christ died for our sins and was raised to sit at the right hand of the Father, He made it possible for us to defeat Satan! The battle belongs to the Lord: all we have to do is repent and submit to Him!
I once heard that the word “Justified” means “Just as if I’d never sinned.” While I hesitate to use this definition because I think many self-proclaimed Christians have used this as a means to excuse away further sinning, I must admit that it is, in some ways, apropos. Our being justified means that it is now as though we had :
–Never taken the Lord’s Name in vain
–Never stolen anything
–Never slept with someone we we not married to, or indulged in another forbidden sexual act
–Never murdered the unborn child in the womb
–Never said something that hurt another person’s feelings
–Never had a mean thought
–Never lost our tempers unrighteously
–Never lied
–Never felt hatred or resentment
And the list goes on and on.
Will we be able to completely forget our “old selves?” Probably not. God allows us to retain the memory of what we have done in order that we never forget the depths from which He has brought us. In that way, we have a constant reminder of His great goodness to us. It also serves to remind us not to judge too harshly those who have not yet been saved, since we too were once living completely outside of His divine will. Although we may always experience a certain amount of Godly sorrow that we have lived part of our lives (in some cases, most of our lives) in rebellion towards God’s law, God can and will take away the shame, the depression and the heartache of a life sinfully lived. I hear frequent complaints that Christians are too “bound”. I’m so saddened by the knowledge that so many people will never understand or know the true freedom that comes with life in the Lord! Freedom to live a life of love; freedom from fear of the future or even of present circumstances. Beloved ones, please don’t let another day go by in which you feel you cannot come to Jesus because because of your sinful nature! Don’t let Satan fool you any longer than he has already, and don’t be afraid you can no longer be of use to God. Your testimony to God’s faithfulness may be just what someone else needs to hear! God will forgive you your sin, and then, as Paul tells us In the third chapter of Romans, you will become servants of righteousness!
If any of the above speaks to you, please pray with me now:
“Heavenly Father,
I am truly sorry for the horrible sins I have committed, and I ask you to accept my repentent heart! I love you so much, and I thank you for the love you have given me that has set me free from my sin and cast it away as far as the east is from the west. Thank you for making me new again; for washing me in the Blood of Your Son, Jesus, for my sanctification, and my justification in Christ. I pray now, Father, that you will heal the wounds in me caused by the sin which has kept me from You. Ease my spirit, Lord, and grant that I may serve and please You from this day forward. Amen. “
Praise the Name of our Most High God! God is not mad at you: He loves you and has forgiven you. Now be free to forgive yourself and serve our Risen Savior!
Maranatha
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