Is it hard to believe that God doesn’t want you to be conscious of sin? Isn’t sin consciousness what we’ve been taught our whole lives? But think about what happens when we focus on our sin and our flesh. We feel unworthy in God’s presence. We hesitate in awkwardness and struggle to spend ten minutes talking to Him. Usually it’s all one-sided – we just mutter a few things and don’t listen for a response, anxious to move on with our day.
“For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace.” (Romans 8:6, NASB)1
It’s so clear that God is not interested in us being self-occupied, introspective, and focused on the sins of the flesh. He wants our minds on Jesus and on others! But it seems like the very goal of Christianity is often the opposite. The thinking is that the more conscious we are of sin and our unworthiness before God, the more pleasing we are to Him. In fact, we’re told we need to search our hearts and ask God to reveal any sinful ways in us before we can worship Him or take the Lord’s Supper or pray for someone. However, the answer is not to focus on sin, but to turn to Jesus!
In the past I used to lead people in searching for sins. I had good intentions because I believed that sin drove away the presence of God and caused Him to withdraw His fellowship with us. In training leaders I felt a responsibility to encourage them to go through a cleansing process regularly, and especially before they ministered to others. The problem with all of this is that it hinders God’s grace from being received. The barrier of sin HAS BEEN removed by the cross! We have been cleansed. Jesus’ blood either worked or it didn’t!
Sin consciousness gives people the perception that the debt still exists. We think that we’ll be forgiven if we daily confess all of our sins and repent and beg for forgiveness as if the debt hasn’t already been paid. These “sacrifices” do nothing to cleanse the conscience. Like the Old Covenant sacrifices they present the idea that we’re on credit with God, and we still owe Him. This is serious! If you owe someone, you won’t be comfortable around them. This is the reason the enemy wants the veil of condemnation to remain over the eyes of the church. If we believed that we don’t owe God anything, we would relax in His presence, enjoy Him, and hear His voice clearly.
If we feel an indebtedness towards God, we will try to compensate even though in our heart of hearts we know that there is nothing we can possibly do to truly relieve the debt. I can remember thinking that Jesus had done so much for me, and I was so undeserving that I should be His slave for life. It wasn’t too much to ask, was it? I used to sit on the front row in church services with my hands held high, tears streaming down my cheeks, singing my heart out, “There’s sooooo much more I could give…” I was consumed with my sense of indebtedness to God. I was so focused on works that I was getting only four or five hours of sleep at night, using the balance of the day trying to repay Jesus and attempting to find more to give Him because I so longed to please Him.
“No matter how many sacrifices were offered year after year, they never added up to a complete solution. If they had, the worshipers would have gone merrily on their way, no longer dragged down by their sins. But instead of removing awareness of sin, when those animal sacrifices were repeated over and over they actually heightened awareness and guilt.” (Hebrews 10:2-3, The Message)2
God is pleased with you. Don’t try so hard.
(from pages 301-302 of Unveiling Jesus)
Want more from Tricia Gunn? Check out excerpts from the Unveiling Jesus 20-part series!
Unveiling Jesus, by Tricia Gunn, is a verse by verse study of the pure gospel of grace. It’s an amazing journey of love, identity, and freedom in Christ.
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1Scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Bible®,Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973,1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org)
2Scripture quotations from THE MESSAGE. Copyright © by Eugene H. Peterson 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
