Growing up, my family was a part of a very strict religion. The rules and restrictions that were in place shaped my faith and my picture of who God was. Fear, shame, and guilt were what I thought a relationship with my heavenly Father was supposed to be like.
The guidelines to abide by and things to abstain from were many, but there is one in particular that I can vividly remember falling short of. We weren’t allowed to eat pork because it was considered “unclean” meat, and I was always mindful to make sure I didn’t eat any meat that had come from a pig; however, one time I was at a camp away from my parents and during one of the meals I unknowingly ate ham. When I realized it, I was panicked. Devastated. Terrified. I felt dirty. In my eyes, this was certainly the worst sin I had committed at that point in my young life, and I felt shame and guilt like I had never known.
These rules came from a well-intentioned place, and many of them were reasonable and moral, but what living by a system focused rules and not a relationship did was distract us from where our attention should be and imprisoned us in a place of shame and guilt. God wasn’t a Father who loved me—He was a distant tyrant who was always disappointed in me, and the idea of a Savior who had paid the ransom to set me free, was nowhere in the picture.
On Sunday, Pastor Tim said that the Law has its place to reveal that we are sinners who have all come under condemnation. But, because of Jesus, that’s not where we stay. He spoke about a new system of laws that govern us, the Law of the Holy Spirit, which means that through a relationship with Jesus Christ as our savior, we are guided day by day to do what is pleasing to God.
The guidelines to abide by and things to abstain from were many, but there is one in particular that I can vividly remember falling short of. We weren’t allowed to eat pork because it was considered “unclean” meat, and I was always mindful to make sure I didn’t eat any meat that had come from a pig; however, one time I was at a camp away from my parents and during one of the meals I unknowingly ate ham. When I realized it, I was panicked. Devastated. Terrified. I felt dirty. In my eyes, this was certainly the worst sin I had committed at that point in my young life, and I felt shame and guilt like I had never known.
These rules came from a well-intentioned place, and many of them were reasonable and moral, but what living by a system focused rules and not a relationship did was distract us from where our attention should be and imprisoned us in a place of shame and guilt. God wasn’t a Father who loved me—He was a distant tyrant who was always disappointed in me, and the idea of a Savior who had paid the ransom to set me free, was nowhere in the picture.
On Sunday, Pastor Tim said that the Law has its place to reveal that we are sinners who have all come under condemnation. But, because of Jesus, that’s not where we stay. He spoke about a new system of laws that govern us, the Law of the Holy Spirit, which means that through a relationship with Jesus Christ as our savior, we are guided day by day to do what is pleasing to God.
As it says in Romans 8:1-5:
Therefore, no condemnation now exists for those in Christ Jesus, because the Spirit’s law of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. What the law could not do since it was limited by the flesh, God did. He condemned sin in the flesh by sending His own Son in flesh like ours under sin’s domain, and as a sin offering, in order that the law’s requirement would be accomplished in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
Jesus lived sinlessly under the Old Testament Law and took on our debt caused by sin, introducing a new system of law—a law of freedom.
New laws that govern us are ones such as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
But now we have been released from the law since we have died to what held us, so that we may serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old letter of the law.
– Romans 7:6
As Tim said, “The qualities the Holy Spirit wants to produce in us—the new laws that govern us—are ones such as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”
When I was older, my family moved to West Virginia, and started attending a new church where I heard the truth about Jesus Christ. I couldn’t believe the mercy, grace and the freedom that Jesus brings. Our Father loves us so much that He didn’t leave us in shame and guilt, unable to become clean—He sent His son to give us freedom.
Is there something that you feel guilty about or shameful of? I encourage you to give it to God, He doesn't want you to live in shame and guilt. Accept the forgiveness He offers and move forward in freedom.
—
When I was older, my family moved to West Virginia, and started attending a new church where I heard the truth about Jesus Christ. I couldn’t believe the mercy, grace and the freedom that Jesus brings. Our Father loves us so much that He didn’t leave us in shame and guilt, unable to become clean—He sent His son to give us freedom.
Is there something that you feel guilty about or shameful of? I encourage you to give it to God, He doesn't want you to live in shame and guilt. Accept the forgiveness He offers and move forward in freedom.
—
Author: Brandy Gibson, Creative Director
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