REMORSE

Who can silence the voices that torment the guilty soul? Guilt is a cruel task-master.

In healthy spiritual growth guilt gives way to heart-felt conviction, contrition, and the commitment to restore through restitution what was broken by means of our sins; but, without Christ, there is no hope for freedom from debilitating guilt.

Jesus offers us a remedy. No one else can, because no one else took the responsibility for your sins upon themselves - no one else could. This is the beauty of Jesus' cross. No one else could pay the penalty and eternal consequences for your sins. Jesus did. He took your guilt upon himself. He became sin - all the sins you committed - past, present and future. He is the remedy for your guilty soul. He is the cure for the mind which has been sickened by the fall-out of our iniquity.

In Jesus, the old can become new. The wrong can be made right, and what cannot be healed can be forgiven and redeemed. His blood washes away all our sins, no matter how hideous.

So great is the magnitude of his personal sacrifice on our behalf that the eternal Father accepts it as more than a full exchange for all our rebellion against the Divine. This, and nothing less, is what GRACE is about.

There is no sin that cannot be expunged, no wound that cannot be healed, no scar that cannot be removed from your soul. It may take time, it may not be easy, and it may be gnarly and aggravating, but the gospel promises us substantial healing in this world, and complete redemption in the next, if only we will repent from our ways (change our mind about ourselves and our ways, agree with God that we are in need of redemption and cannot save ourselves), and trust in him to do this work for you (me) and in you (me).

Can you - will you - believe this?
I pray you will, for this is one of the central truths of the good news of God through Jesus.

God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself.
So, we beg you, dearest friends, be reconciled to God.
Release your guilt and let him restore you, as only he can.
Let the past go. Release your guilt. Let him transform you from what you once were to what you will become. A new future awaits you, if you will but turn to him with sincerity. He will work it out for you, in you and through you.

Consider these scriptures from the Book of Hebrews.

Hebrews 10:16 "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."17 Then he adds: "Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more." 18 And where these have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sin. 19 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. - Selah -

(Painting: The Remorse, by William Bourgereau)