Can God forgive me for the life I’ve lived—for the things I’ve done? For the hurt that I’ve caused? It doesn’t feel like he can. If he really knows who I am and all I’ve done, then there’s no way he would forgive me.
Our guess is that if you’ve landed here, you sincerely understand the gravity of what you have engaged in. You see it as wrong (Psalm 51:3). You have a sense that it displeases God. You may even expect his anger, his rejection, and even his punishment.
So when guilt came knocking, you fortified your heart and closed yourself off to the possibility of redemption.
Why Guilt Is a Good Thing
Guilt is appropriate. Sin is appropriate grounds for shame. Each one of us ought to feel horrible for the ways we hurt others and we ought to be horrified at the evil that arises from our own heart (Matthew 15:19). But we do not want guilt and shame to hold you captive.
Guilt is a catalyst, a driving force. God sends it when you sin. Too often we let it steer us in the wrong direction toward self-loathing, or exhausting attempts to do better, or depression. Guilt exists to lead you to repentance. What is repentance? Repentance means change.
True sorrow over sin will lead you toward genuine change. For, the sorrow you feel over sin is the work of God’s own Spirit in you, propelling you away from who you once were into the person he desires you to be.
God’s Grace for You
But to go from guilt to repentance (or change) you must believe that God has grace for you. Grace means undeserved kindness. You must believe that God is kind to you, even though you do not deserve his kindness. In the Bible we read of God’s great initiating kindness in our undeserving: “For while we were still sinners Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8 NIV).
He’s ready to hear your confession.
He’s ready to grant you the forgiveness you need.
He’s ready to cleanse you of sin and clothe you in his own righteousness (1 John 1:9).
He’s ready to help you walk the path of obedience—to forsake your sin and fight against it (Romans 8:11-13).
He’s ready to comfort you where sin has wrought sorrow in your life (2 Corinthians 1:3-4).
He’s ready to apply the obedient life, sacrificial death, and life-giving resurrection of his Son Jesus to you—to give you the forgiveness Jesus offers, having borne your sin on the cross, and to give you the righteousness Jesus offers so you can stand guiltless before God—if you only believe him (Romans 3:23-24).
The whole story of the Bible tells us that by nature God is a rescuer. He’s patient to deal justice. He describes himself as “slow to anger” (Exodus 34:6 ESV).
Now, God warns us that his kindness is not dismissive. One day God will act in anger, rejection, and punishment towards those who refuse to repent. He says it like this, “If man does not repent, God will whet his sword; he has bent and readied his bow…” (Psalm 7:12 ESV).
For those who truly hate their sin and grieve how it offends God, God promises to respond to them with mercy.
But for those who truly hate their sin and grieve how it offends God, God promises to respond to them with mercy. Remember, God has already initiated showing mercy to sinners. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” (John 3:16-17 ESV). God sent Jesus on a rescue mission to help us—to save sinners from his wrath!
We recoil from God in guilt because we are convinced that sin makes God turn away. When our eyes open to the ugliness of our own sin, or when we come to our senses and see the evil our hands have done, we think such knowledge makes God turn away from us. Not so. We forget that God has already drawn near to us in Jesus Christ.
How to Respond to God’s Grace
In the Old Testament, we find that what God most wants from us is not a clean-up, a better try, a gift to repay our debt, or some compensation. So what does he want?
God wants a broken heart (Psalm 51:17). He draws near to the crushed (Psalm 34:18). In Jesus’ words in the New Testament, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven… blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied” (Matthew 5:3; 10 ESV). God is most ready to bless those who acknowledge their need for his mercy.
Friend, if you plan to continue in your sin, but feel guilty and wonder if you can get by with God winking at you in the end—don’t bet on it. God warns you that such presumption certainly will end in punishment (Hebrews 6:4-8). Grace isn’t a license to keep sinning (Romans 6:1-4). It’s the exit sign, and the only means of your chains coming off.
But if you have despaired of any chance at a new life, if you have despaired of the possibility to change, if you have despaired that your evil could ever be forgiven, yet you want nothing more than to be rid of your sin and reconciled to God—God’s arms are open wide to you (Romans 7:24-25).
Don’t delay. Tell him all you’ve done and ask him to give you all that Jesus Christ has done. He will do just that—as he promised.
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9 ESV)