Freedom From Our Guilt

The business leader had been caught and arrested. He was guilty of misusing millions of dollars in customer funds. As details emerged, the man attempted to take his own life, but his efforts failed. The note he had written revealed poignant insights into the life he had been living.

He was not the model citizen he had pretended to be, but had been misusing funds for nearly 20 years. In his note, he confessed, “I am ready to die. I guess this is the only way out of a business I hate so much.”

In particular, he was bothered to have deceived his son. He never wanted him “to know the kind of guy I really was…your mistake was that you trusted your father.”

These words reveal just how deeply we can be weighed down by sin. It was this same burden that weighed down Adam and Eve after they had sinned, causing them to hide from God’s presence. Guilt can haunt our minds and hearts. Even Christians can have a hard time overcoming guilt.

Paul wrote that, without Jesus, we all are sinners who are guilty in God’s sight. But Jesus was raised from the dead to “secure our justification.” He provided “our acquittal.” He made “our account balance, absolving us from all guilt before God.” As the Bible tells us, “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 KJV).

Are you carrying any burdens? Any guilt? Confess your sins to God. Then accept His forgiveness and Jesus’ finished work. He died and rose again so that you could be free!