Do not forgive yourself

I was fishing with a couple of guys recently and one of my buddies was lamenting some stupid sinful things that he had done. It was weighing heavily on his mind. Most of all he said he just could not sleep at night and the guilt was eating him up.

My other buddy told him that he needed to forgive himself. He said, “Remember that no one is perfect aside from Jesus Christ”.

Hmmm At least he got the part about Jesus being perfect right. On the forgiveness issue however, search as I might, but I have never seen anywhere in the Bible where it says that we should forgive ourselves. We are told to forgive others, but not ourselves. Only the blood of Christ can forgive us our sins.

I told my friend that he should petition God to forgive him. The Bible tells us that if we confess our sins and then repent, or turn from them, that He will “remember our sins no more”. When that happens we should follow the Lord’s lead and do likewise. End of story. Put it behind you and follow Jesus from that point on.

If God forgives us, but then we still continue to wallow in guilt like a pig in a mud hole, the message to God would not be one of thankful praise for His mercy, but one of disbelief that God has the power to forgive our sins totally and forever. In my estimation it only insults God when someone searches for a way to forgive themselves after God has already done so. God’s forgiveness is sufficient and there is no sin too great for Him to conquer.

Not many people have ever performed the kind of black sins that I committed throughout my misspent youth. If I had elected to dwell in that cesspool of guilt I would still be in it. I am not proud of what I was and did, but I have grown to realize that the power of God and the blood of Jesus Christ miraculously washed my black sins away as clean as new fallen snow. The Bible states that God now sees born again Christians as new spirits, completely in the likeness of His own Son. Since He does not instruct us to search for a way to forgive ourselves over and above what Jesus did, it should be fairly obvious that He thinks the scarifice of Christ should be sufficient.

Jesus radiates pure love towards me and I can feel it. I believe the Bible when it states that He remembers my sins no more and His mind is far from the stupid wicked mistakes that I made in my life prior to His salvation transformed my life. If I were to continue to feel guilt even though God has truly forgiven me, it would prevent, or at least hinder me from being the person that God wants me to be and serve His purpose for even creating me. I don’t want guilt or anything to interfere with that mission I tell you.

How about you?

I believe the Apostle John had a big smile on his face and tears of gratitude and heartfelt love streaming down his face as he wrote, “God has made us kings and priests by washing our sins from us in His precious blood. Glory and dominion to Him forever and ever! I know it makes me tear up to think about it


Rev 1:5-6
Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,
and has made us kings and priests unto God and his Father;
to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever