I was speaking with a brother recently who had sinned against someone, and he was struggling to move past it. He said something hurtful reflexively rather than intentionally, and he corrected it almost immediately. He asked the Lord for forgiveness as well as the person against whom he had sinned. When we spoke, he said that he knows that God forgives; he has faith in that. But he still couldn’t let go of the guilt and shame he felt as a result of his sin.
I suspect that many of us can relate to that brother’s plight. I know this is something that I sometimes struggle with. I think the issue is that we try to convince ourselves that we’re sorry enough for God to be wiling to forgive us. It is almost as if we believe that self-flagellation is a part of godly sorrow that is required to receive God’s forgiveness.
Do you see the problem here? The issue, as is often the case, is that we are focused on ourselves and our efforts rather than on the Lord and His faithfulness. It isn’t that there is some threshold of guilt that we have to be sure that we reach, a spiritual “You must be this sorry to proceed” sign before entering into the joy of our Lord. We are either sorry that we did what we did, or we are not. There is no in-between when we stand naked before the God who knows our hearts.
This is not a modern problem as the subject is addressed in multiple New Testament passages. For example, John writes in 1 John 1 about our sins and God’s faithfulness to forgive: ” 8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Confession is our acknowledgement to God that we have transgressed His law, and more than just an acknowledgment, our penitence for the transgression. That is the confession that John is writing about, and when we approach God to confess our sins, His faithfulness to His nature compels Him to forgive.
Consider David’s egregious behavior recorded in 2 Samuel when he, abusing his power as God’s prince over Israel, fathered a child with another man’s wife and then murdered her husband to try to cover his sins. In 2 Samuel 12:7, Nathan begins the most well-known rebuke in Scripture with the words, “You are the man!” He then details David’s sins against God, culminating with the promise of God’s coming punishment. There is no other account in the Bible of one of God’s people choosing such abhorrent wickedness as that which David committed. And yet his confession consisted of only these six words: “I have sinned against the Lord.” Even more stunning is God’s response through Nathan to that simple confession: “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die.”
Perhaps no other account in Scripture so clearly illustrates the blessedness of our covenant relationship with God. Of this moment, David writes in Psalm 51, “16 For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. 17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.“
When confronted with his sin by Nathan, David quit trying to conceal it. He gave it up to God with “a broken and contrite heart.” God did not despise him, but instead forgave him. Immediately. Of course David still had to deal with the consequences of his sin, but his relationship with God was restored at that moment.
I advised my brother that weak faith was keeping him from the joy of forgiveness and that he could increase his faith through Bible study and prayer. It takes a strong faith to overcome fear, and a weak faith leaves us prey for the lion who is seeking to devour us. We must believe that God forgives when we confess our sins to Him, openly and wholeheartedly. The fact is, he wants to take away our sin (Exodus 34:6-7) because more than anything, He wants a relationship with us. Although He will punish those whose lives end in rebellion against him, that is not His desire: “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). Because of His covenant loyalty to His children, we can approach Him, confident that we will receive His mercy and His grace in our time of need (Hebrews 4:16).
