The Power of Right Believing: 7 Keys to Freedom from Fear, Guilt, and Addiction (6 page)

Completely and Irrevocably Forgiven

Beloved, you are completely and irrevocably forgiven. Because of His love for you, Jesus has already borne the punishment for your sins. This is why you can receive God’s love afresh even when you fail and every time you fail. He has forgiven you. It’s time for you to forgive yourself too! Don’t for one moment think that He wants you to remain in guilt when you fail. The truth is,
the more guilty you feel, the more you are doomed to perpetuate that sin
. Unfortunately, there are religious folks who believe that when people fail or fall into sin, one needs to make them feel really bad about themselves and crush them with guilt and condemnation until they repent of their wrongdoing.

But this teaching is erroneous. In actual fact, the more people remain in guilt and condemnation, the more they will continue in their sin! You don’t have to teach people to feel guilty and condemned. Their conscience condemns them whenever they
fail. But here’s the good news: God has provided an answer to the conscience that persistently calls for payment for all our transgressions. He sent His Son to ransom us with His own body and blood.

Today when your conscience condemns you and calls out for justice when you fail, see yourself cleansed, washed, and made righteous by the blood of Jesus. Activate your faith to see yourself righteous in God’s eyes because of the precious blood of Jesus Christ. The conscience, which calls for punishment every time you fail, has in truth been silenced by the blood of the Lamb of God, who was punished and judged in your stead. Every time your conscience condemns you, take out and wave the receipt of your payment—the cross of Jesus! Keep seeing your sins washed by His precious blood. Guilt and condemnation stop where the blood of Jesus has been shed.

So when you fail, don’t wallow in guilt and condemnation. That will only bring you to a slippery downward spiral toward defeat, depression, and destruction. Jesus didn’t die on the cross to make the guilty guiltier. He didn’t die on the cross to give the sick more diseases. He didn’t die on the cross so that the condemned would be more condemned. Absolutely not! Jesus did not sacrifice Himself on the cross to justify those who are perfect and godly.

God Justifies the Ungodly

The Word of God clearly exhorts us to give up on our own self-efforts to be justified and to believe on Him “who justifies the ungodly” (Rom. 4:5). Be sure that you get this right. Who does God justify?

Did God die to justify the godly or the ungodly? My friend, He came to justify the
ungodly
—those who have failed, fallen short, made mistakes, and sinned. Have you failed? Made mistakes? Fallen short? Great, because it means that
you qualify for His justification
! Doesn’t this truth just impart such hope and faith into your heart?

Be encouraged to know this today: your failures qualify you to receive Jesus’ love, forgiveness, and justification. Jesus didn’t come to save those who are perfect (in their own eyes); He came to save and redeem those who are imperfect and ungodly. And when you just believe on Jesus who justifies the ungodly, your faith “is accounted for righteousness” (Rom. 4:5). This means that the moment you believe right, Jesus makes you righteous with His blood. What a secure foundation that is compared to having your righteousness contingent on your right doing! What a Savior we have in Christ!

Beloved, remember this the next time you fail: Jesus didn’t die
to make the guilty guiltier. He died to free the guilty from the torment of guilt, to heal those who are sick, and to make forever righteous those who have been condemned. Now that’s the gospel. And let’s not be apologetic or ashamed of the gospel, for it
is
the power of God unto salvation for all who believe (see Rom. 1:16)!

Jesus Loves the Sinner

Do you believe in a God who justifies the ungodly? Have you been hearing the true gospel of His amazing grace? Or have you been feeding your mind with human conjectures based on man’s traditions and ideas about God that are not from His Word? Look at the Gospels. The corrupt tax collectors, the prostitutes, the foul-mouthed fishermen, the lame, the blind, and the sick who encountered the love of Jesus were all forgiven, transformed, delivered, and healed. He never made a single one of them feel more guilty, more ashamed, and more condemned than He knew they already felt.

There is an account of a woman in the Bible who is described as “a sinner” (Luke 7:37). Many believe that she was a prostitute. When she came to Jesus, who was having a meal at Simon the Pharisee’s house, Jesus allowed her to approach Him and worship Him with an alabaster box of ointment. The loving Savior knew who she
was, but did not chase her away, humiliate her, or condemn her for her sins. Neither did He coldly tell her to get her life right before she dared step into His holy presence again.

The Jesus of the Bible had compassion for her and knew how guilty and deeply condemned she already felt. As she neared Jesus, she broke down in His presence and began weeping. Lovingly, she washed Jesus’ feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. She reverently kissed His feet and anointed them with the precious ointment that she had brought. It is said that this ointment would have cost her an entire year’s wages, but without hesitation, she lavished it on Jesus’ feet and worshiped Him.

On seeing this, the Pharisee was filled with indignation. He said to himself, “If this Jesus is the real deal, He would know that this woman is a great sinner. How could He allow her to come close to Him, let alone touch His feet?” (see Luke 7:39). He was disgusted at what he was witnessing in his own dining room. (Sadly, legalistic Christians today are a lot like this Pharisee.)

While Jesus welcomed the sinner and allowed her to worship and touch His feet, this religious Pharisee didn’t even have an ounce of compassion for this woman who was weeping unceasingly, overwhelmed with Jesus’ love and forgiveness toward her. Her shame and her tears meant nothing to him. As far as he was concerned, she deserved to be condemned. And if he had had it his way, she would not have been allowed to enter his house.

You can see from this biblical account that Jesus is the very antithesis of anyone or anything religious. His heart overflows with love and compassion for those who have failed. This was not a secret. Everyone who met and heard Jesus knew about His love.
This word spread far and wide from Jerusalem to Galilee, which was why sinners sought Him out instead of avoiding Him and running away from Him.

Isn’t it sad that today there are believers who have failed and are running away and hiding from God when sinners in Jesus’ day had the confidence to seek Him out to find forgiveness, restoration, healing, and deliverance? Don’t you think that something is amiss here? Believers who have been purchased with the blood of Jesus Christ should, of all people, be bold, confident, and courageous to talk to God about their failings and be reminded that they are still righteous in Christ even when they have failed.

You’ve Been Forgiven Much

Let’s continue with the story (see Luke 7:40–46). Jesus, perceiving Simon the Pharisee’s thoughts, asked him a question: “Imagine that there was a creditor who had two debtors. One owed a million dollars, and the other owed a hundred dollars. This creditor forgave them both. Now, who do you suppose will love the creditor more?”

Incredulous at the simplicity of the question, Simon replied, “I suppose the one he forgave the most!”

Jesus then said, “You are absolutely right! I came into your home, and you gave me no water for my feet. This lady has washed my feet with her tears and wiped them with the hairs of her head. You gave me no kiss, and this woman has not ceased to kiss my feet. You didn’t anoint my head with oil, and this woman has anointed my feet with costly and precious ointment.”

Now pay careful attention to what Jesus said next: “Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little” (Luke 7:47). What Jesus was saying is that those who know and believe how much God truly loves and has forgiven them will end up loving God very much. Simply put, those who have been forgiven much, love much. Those who have been forgiven little, love little. That’s why the emphasis of the new covenant is not about your love for God; it is about God’s love for you. If you know how abundantly God loves you and has forgiven you of all your sins, you will end up loving God—he who is forgiven much, loves much!

Do you see what I’m saying? Your love for God in the new covenant is birthed out of a genuine and authentic relationship with Him. It is not a groveling display that is birthed out of the fear of punishment or religious obligation. Under grace, we are able to love God because He first loved us. That is why people under grace
become the holiest people you will ever meet. They are not holy because they fear punishment or because of their commitment to two cold tablets of stone. Their holiness flows out of their love relationship with Jesus! They have experienced His unconditional love for themselves in an intimate and personal way. Love transforms them. They just want to live lives that glorify and honor the name of Jesus. What the law could not do to transform God’s people from the inside out, God did by sending His own Son, Jesus Christ!

Friend, we have all been forgiven much. The problem is, many don’t know and don’t
believe
this. Give up on your own self-efforts to be righteous. Give up on trying to overcome your own failings, mistakes, addictions, and bondages. Be like the woman with the alabaster box of precious ointment. When you fail, don’t run away and hide. Come before His loving presence. Jesus already knows the guilt and condemnation that you are being tormented with. Come with boldness and confidence like this woman did. Feel free to weep in His sweet presence and simply worship Him. Pour out everything that is on your heart to Him. Don’t worry, He will not heap more guilt, shame, judgment, and condemnation upon you. He will show you His nail-pierced hands and remind you of the cross. He will say to you, “Your sins are already forgiven. I have already paid the price for your sins at Calvary. Rest in My forgiveness and love for you.”

I received a letter from a man, whom I’ll just call Patrick, who struggled with sexual addictions for more than ten years. He knew it was wrong, but he couldn’t break free from those addictions no matter how hard he tried. His conscience would plague him with
reminders of his sins every time he tried to read the Word. This fed his belief that he wasn’t good enough for God and that God didn’t want anything to do with him because of his addictions.

This man lived in this realm of self-torture day after day. Then one day he read one of my books,
Destined To Reign.
Through the book, he came to discover and believe in Jesus’ finished work at the cross. He said, “I just decided to rest in Jesus’ finished work, His forgiveness, His victory, His grace, and His love,
and pornography and masturbation now have no power or dominion over me
. It truly is awesome especially because I had tried for more than ten years to get victory, and all it took was for me to know the truth and rest in Jesus’ finished work. All glory to God!”

I don’t know what guilt you may be struggling with today, but God does. You no longer have to live under the dictates of your conscience, which condemns you every time you miss the mark. See the blood of Jesus cleansing your heart, and be free from the prison of guilt to experience victory like this precious brother.

Abandon Yourself to His Love

My dear reader, the love of God is not a theological concept. Love is an emotion. God created us in His image with emotions, and one of the best ways to experience His love is by simply abandoning yourself to Him and worshiping Him. The Bible tells us that “worshipers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of
sins” (Heb. 10:2). When you no longer carry a sense of condemnation, when you believe that His blood has cleansed your sins, you become a worshiper enraptured with His love.

I encourage you to fill your heart with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs that are full of God’s love and grace. When your heart is full of Jesus, wrong beliefs will begin to be replaced by right beliefs. Destructive addictions will be replaced by new, positive habits. Fear, shame, and guilt will begin to dissolve in the warmth of His perfect love for you. His love is not an intellectual exercise. It needs to be experienced.

The psalmist calls out, “Oh, taste and see that the L
ORD
is good; blessed is the man who trusts in Him!” (Ps. 34:8). Do you trust in His love for you? God wants you not just to have head knowledge of His love, but also to believe in and
taste
His love for yourself. It can’t just remain in your mind or in the cerebral realm of logic; it has to be experienced in your heart.

Today, believe with all your heart that God loves you. He is for you. No matter how many mistakes you have made, He has not given up on you! The first key to right believing is to believe in His unconditional love for you. Cast all your failings at His feet. Feel free to cry in His loving presence. Begin to see your fears, guilt, disorders, and dysfunctions fade away as you abandon yourself to His love and worship Him with these simple words:

Jesus loves me! This I know,

For the Bible tells me so.

Little ones to Him belong;

They are weak, but He is strong.