Freed from the penalty of sin
How often do you feel guilty because of something you have thought, said or done? One of the Holy Spirit’s jobs is to makes us sensitive to sin in our lives, which means we will as Christians often feel guilty as we confront sin in our hearts. But what do we do with that guilty feeling? Wallow in it? Give in to despair? Or ignore it? God forbid we do any of those! We use the gospel cure.
We are to tell ourselves the great gospel story that Jesus has set us free from the penalty of sin and taken away our guilt so that God does not count our sin against us. How do we do that? There are probably several ways you could do it, but I find the most helpful way is to paraphrase some key Bible verses and make them personal. Here are some examples:
As far as the east is from the west, so far does God remove my transgressions from me (Psalm 103:12).
God, my Father, has blotted out my transgressions for his sake, and he will not remember my sins anymore (Isaiah 43:25).
Jesus was delivered over to death for my sins and raised to life for my justification (Romans 4:25).
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for me because I am in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1).
Then praise God for the stain-removing death of his Son. And do it everyday!