The Holy Ghost destroys my personal private life and turns it into a thoroughfare for God.
~Oswald Chambers (1874-1917)
“This is like the days of Noah to Me: as I swore that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth, so I have sworn that I will not be angry with you, and will not rebuke you. For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but My steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed,” says the LORD, who has compassion on you.
~ from Isaiah 54
The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will He keep His anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His steadfast love toward those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does He remove our transgressions from us.
~ from Psalm 103
Oh beloved, it is true. There is that within us that will chide us and goad us and scream about our failures. And it is not that the failures are not real. It is that they are irrelevant.
You (who have cast your hope on Christ alone) are dead. And any voice we hear that would condemn us – is not us.
Oh yes, we have a conscience. And yes, the new man within us recoils from the sin that so easily ensnares us. We would not ever want to hurt our Best Friend and Captain and Lover. The point, though, is that this same One who is our All in all, does not condemn us if and when we do fail.
He would that we might but agree with Him, that apart from Him, we will indeed fail. And without Him, we can do nothing. His forgiveness is already in place, and as we agree with Him about this, we experience the freedom He has bought for us.
Ah, but the voice… why is it there?
The answer is simple: that we might fail again. Our flesh does not really feel contrite about its failures, it simply wants more of the same. So, it (and the forces of darkness) will work to hammer us with condemnation and drive us to recall the failure we had. However, this recall is not to drive us away from our sin – it is to draw us back into it.
And when we do this, it is like we are looking at the muddy floor beneath the altar of His grace. It is like Lot’s wife looking back at Sodom and Gomorrah with longing. It is like the prodigal son encountering euphoric recall of his time in a far country.
This fool of a writer could wax many words on the subject, but foolishness has its limits. So instead, may he give a little advice?
Stop it.
Don’t listen.
Look to Jesus.
Walk in His Love and forgiveness, instead.
And if you do, the probability of failure in the same area drops to zero. However, if you still think guilt and shame and self-flagellation are the key to freedom, keep doing your research beloved, and tell me how that works out for you.
So yes, there is no need to ever return to a yoke of bondage. But, the path away from that bondage does not include meditating on the thing that had us wrapped up or stained. The path away is Him alone. For He is The Way, and The Truth, and The Life!
Don’t Listen to Dead Men’s Tales
For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that One has died for all, therefore all have died; and He died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for Him who for their sake died and was raised. From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard Him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
~ from 2 Corinthians 5
