Course Professor: Attorney/Pastor Brian DeCook

Session 6: Forgiving Yourself

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Introduction

Welcome to the last session of the Forgiveness Mini Course. In this last session, I want to look at the topic of forgiving yourself, and by forgiving yourself, I mean overcoming and winning the battle against guilt and condemnation. Now, I'm not talking about puffing up our self-esteem in an attempt to overcome guilt and condemnation through positive thinking or self-affirmation. Guilt and condemnation are powerful spiritual and psychological forces that the enemy uses to keep us in bondage to sin and keep us in bondage to the past. How we think about and perceive ourselves as followers and ambassadors of Jesus Christ is an important aspect of overcoming the guilt and condemnation that's caused by sin. In this session, we want to consider the life of the apostle Paul in overcoming guilt and condemnation. I'm using him as our example because he's the one disciple and follower of Jesus Christ about whom we have the most information about his life in the New Testament.

Saul of Tarsus and the Weight of the Past

Before he became the Apostle Paul, of course, he was known as Saul from Tarsus. If we wanted to make a list of people who we might expect to experience guilt and condemnation because of their past, the Apostle Paul would be a strong candidate for that list, he was a rising star in the Jewish faith. He persecuted the early church. He put people in prison, and he consented in putting believers to death. Listen to these excerpts from two passages from the Book of Acts, where the Apostle Paul gives his testimony. The first is where he gives his defense in Jerusalem when he is arrested, and the second is his defense before King Agrippa.

Paul’s Testimony in the Book of Acts

In Acts chapter 22, verses 3 through 5 and 19 and 20, we read the Apostle Paul saying, "I am indeed a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, taught according to the strictness of our father's law, and was zealous toward God as you all are today. I persecuted this way to the death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women, as also the high priest bears me witness, and all the council of the elders, from whom I also received letters to the brethren, and went to Damascus to bring in chains, even those who were there to Jerusalem to be punished. So I said, Lord, they know that in every synagogue I imprisoned and beat those who believe on you, and when the blood of your martyr Stephen was shed, I also was standing by, consenting to his death and guarding the clothes of those who were killing him,

and before King Agrippa, in Acts 26:9 through 11, the Apostle Paul said, "Indeed, I myself thought I must do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. This I also did in Jerusalem, and many of the saints I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests. And when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them, and I punished them often in every synagogue, and compelled them to blaspheme. And being exceedingly enraged against them, I persecuted them even to foreign cities.

Paul Was Not a Prisoner to His Past

After wreaking havoc on the early church, Saul of Tarsus encounters the Lord on the road to Damascus, and he becomes a follower of Jesus Christ. After he became a Christian and began meeting with other believers, and became a member of the group he formerly persecuted, do you think the enemy tried to attack him with guilt and condemnation? The apostle Paul never forgot about his past, but he was not a prisoner to his past. He always referenced his past in light of the new life that he received from Jesus Christ.

Counting Fleshly Righteousness as Rubbish

He describes his past in Philippians chapter three, where we read in verse, starting in verse four, "If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so. Circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, concerning the law of Pharisee, concerning zeal, persecuting the church, concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed, I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ. Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish.

The Apostle Paul could look at his background and his accomplishments, feel good about himself. However, he did not look to those accomplishments or background as a reason to feel good about himself. He viewed his fleshly accomplishments in light of the Word of God. He called them rubbish. And in Isaiah chapter 64, verse 6, we read what the Word of God says about our righteousness. It says, "But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousness is like filthy rags. We all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

The apostle Paul viewed his self-affirming righteousness, his fleshly righteousness, in accordance with God's view of it. The apostle Paul continues in Philippians three, where he counted his righteousness as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, if by any means I might attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Focused on Knowing Jesus Christ

What a passage! The apostle Paul wasn't focused on his past. He wasn't focused on his accomplishments in the flesh. He wasn't focused on his persecuting of the early church. He wasn't focused on the good or the bad parts of it. He was focused on knowing Jesus Christ and experiencing the power of his resurrection.

Humility Without Condemnation

The manner in which the apostle Paul referred to himself in his epistles also gives us insight into how a maturing saint's self-esteem is rooted in Jesus Christ, in what He has done and is doing in the believer's life, and not on the believer's merits or failures of the past. Listen to how the Apostle Paul described himself in his first letter to the Corinthian church, believed to have been written between 52 and 57 A.D. in First Corinthians 15:9 we read, "For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.

A few years later, the apostle Paul wrote his epistle to the Ephesian church, the church in Ephesus, and he described himself in that letter in this way, in verse chapter three, verse eight: "To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,

and then in his first letter to Timothy, written between 62 and 64 A.D. the Apostle Paul refers to himself this way: "This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief, least of the apostles, least of the saints, and finally chief of sinners.

As the apostle Paul displayed an increasing level of humility in referring to himself, he displayed no indication of struggle with guilt or condemnation over his past. He received Christ's forgiveness as sufficient. Indeed, he no longer considered his life as his own.

Crucified with Christ

In Galatians 2:20 and 21, we read, "I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. I do not frustrate the grace of God, for if righteousness comes by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.

Overcoming Guilt and Condemnation

So, how do we overcome guilt and condemnation from our past sin? Scripture tells us that we overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony. The blood of the Lamb is both the source of our forgiveness and the source of that new life that the apostle Paul writes about. It is the blood that cleanses us, that washes away our sins, that reconciles our relationship with the Father.

And remember the Scripture we. Referenced in our early session, that the life is in the blood, the blood of Jesus Christ that gives us life, new life, His life, living in us through the power of the Holy Spirit. Old things have passed away; all things have become new. And every time we confess sin to the Father, our relationship with Him is reconciled.

Forgetting What Is Behind

The apostle Paul said this in Philippians three verses 12 to 14. Not as though I have already attained; either were already perfect, but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do: forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Jesus Christ is the remedy for all our sin, past, present, and future. His sacrifice is sufficient. The grace of the Father is sufficient. It brings reconciliation to our relationship with the Father when we repent and confess our sin. Even when we wrestle with a besetting sin again and again when we repent and confess that sin, reconciliation occurs every time.

Remember the scripture we referenced in Luke chapter 17, where Jesus instructed his disciples that if a brother sins against us and we confront him and he repents and confesses his sin, we are to forgive him, even if he comes to us seven times in a day. How much more is the Father willing to forgive us?

In Philippians three, the Apostle Paul said there was one thing he did: forgetting the past and pressing forward into Jesus Christ, in order that He would lay hold of that for which the Father had laid hold of Him. Our past is not our problem. The blood of the Lamb is sufficient. We've repented and confessed our sins; we are forgiven and set free from the past, set free from the guilt, set free from the condemnation. Press forward into Jesus Christ and let Him transform you, and give you a testimony of transformation.

Nothing Can Separate Us from the Love of Christ

I want to close with some words from the Apostle Paul in Book of Romans, chapter eight, starting at verse 33. Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is He who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen. Who is even at the right hand of God, and also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? As it is written, For your sake we are killed all day long. We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Yet in all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.

For I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

Conclusion

If you've received forgiveness from the Father through Jesus Christ, you're free from condemnation and guilt. He whom the Son sets free is free indeed. Forgive yourself, forget the past, and press forward into Jesus Christ, into that relationship of relentless reliance, that you may lay hold of that for which He has laid hold of you. God bless you, and thank you for watching this course.