No Guilt in Life, No Fear in Death

Scripture is a love story from the beginning to where it leads us today. God created us in His image. He created us to walk in His ways and to worship him, but from the very beginning we have been failures. Our sinful nature and our selfish desires, ambitions, and actions have kept us from experiencing the fullness of God's love. God recognized that his people were in need of a Savior. His desire was for us to know Him, but He couldn't in all his glory be in the presence of sin, so He sent His Son to redeem his people. His Son brought hope, redemption, and freedom at the cost of His own life, but through His death we have life.

This past week, I've been in conversation with a couple of youth about God's love for us. The youth were struggling with the thought of God loving us even if we did things that made Him angry. It may sound childish to some of us, but I think most of us can relate to this paradox. It doesn't make any sense from our perspective. If someone does something that hurts you and they continue to do it over and over again, you wouldn't want to be around them much, but God, for some reason never leaves us (Hebrews 13:5). His love is perfect. It keeps no record of wrong and most of all it never fails (1 Corinthians 13).

We can't wrap our heads around this and I am not going to pretend that I have figured it out. In Hebrews 10, the author talks about Christ's sacrifice once and for all. In the Old Testament it was mandatory for the Jewish people to bring their sacrifices to the temple. Each sacrifice had specific instructions depending on what it was for: guilt, sin, fellowship, grain, wave, etc.

The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. Otherwise, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins. It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. (Hebrews 10:1-4, emphasis added)

Although sacrifice was mandated by the law, it could not cleanse anyone of their sins forever. They had to repeat the same ritual every year, but Christ came as the sacrifice once and for all. "Once" as in one time, the last time that blood would be shed for the sins of God's people and "for all" God's people:

"For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says : 'This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds (Jeremiah 31:33).' Then he adds: 'Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more (Jeremiah 31:34).' And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary."(Hebrews 10:14-18 emphasis added)

 Most of us know this or have at least heard that our sins our forgiven and that Christ's death has freed us, but we don't live and walk in it. We don't believe that He could love us that much. This type of unconditional and sacrificial love doesn't exist in our lives. We don't see it in the media, in the culture, and sometimes not even in our families, so how can we understand it? I don't believe we will until all things have been reconciled back to Him, but the life we live while we are here on this earth matters and God desires for us to know Him.

We keep ourselves from knowing God by hiding behind our sin. We try to explain that God couldn't love us this way because we feel guilty and we are ashamed of who we are. If God hates sin, which I believe he does, he must hate us, but this is inconsistent with the message of the Gospel. It's a lie that Satan uses to distract us from our Kingdom purpose. Christ's death, His love and grace, His mercy is sufficient for you. Nothing can separate us from this love (Romans 8:38-39). No matter what we do, his love remains the same. We have been failing since our first breath. That is why Jesus had to come.

As we approach Easter and the celebration of His resurrection, I pray that each of you would know this in your hearts and be confident in the Truth that He died for our sinful nature so that we could be free in Him. We can't hide behind our sins because everything that we keep in secret, God knows and sees. Let us fall to our knees before the cross in recognition of our brokenness and the life that he gave so that we would not be bound by the chains of sin. His love covers all sin and to think He is incapable of saving you is to doubt the victory that He claimed on the cross.