Dial In with Jonny Ardavanis - John MacArthur - Why do we still feel guilty if God has forgiven our sins?

Episode Date: September 17, 2021

Dial In with Jonny Ardavanis: Big Questions, Biblical Answers, is a series that seeks to provide biblical answers to some of the most prominent and fundamental questions regarding God, the Gospel, and the BibleIn this episode Pastor John MacArthur from Grace Community Church answers the question: “Why do we still feel guilty if God has forgiven our sins?”Watch VideosVisit the Website Follow on InstagramFollow on Twitter

Hey guys, my name is Johnny Artavanis and this is Dial In. In this series, the hope is to provide biblical answers to big questions. And in this episode, I sit down with Pastor John MacArthur and ask him, why do we feel guilty if God has forgiven our sins? Let's dial in. Pastor John, many people understand theologically that God can forgive us of our sins. They'll say, man, I know God has removed my sin as far as the east is from the west. I know he's plunged my sin into the sea of his infinite mercy. Yet they feel so guilty for things in their past. Help them out biblically.

Why do we feel guilty if God has forgiven our sins? The truth of the matter is if you're forgiven and you're genuinely converted, you feel worse about your sins than a non-believer does. Because now you have a new nature. Now the Lord has done a work in your life of converting you. You're not just justified, that is declared righteousness and covered forensically with the righteousness of Christ,

but the Spirit of God has taken up residence in your heart, your sensitivity to sin is more heightened than it's ever been in your entire life. Non-believers feel guilt and fear and anxiety. They don't feel the full weight of the reality of sin. They might attribute those feelings to various things, but when the Spirit of God takes up residence, I mean, look at the Apostle Paul. What does he say? I'm the chief of sinners. And you would say, whoa, you're an apostle. You're the guy teaching us all this theology.

What do you mean you're the chief of sinners? Let me give you a simple principle. As you grow in Christ as a believer, you will sin less and feel worse. Why? Because as you sin less, you love righteousness more. And the more you love righteousness and the more you become like Christ, the more you hate sin. You know, young people have asked me that through the years. Will I ever get victory over sin? Sure. You'll sin less, but I got news for you. You'll feel worse.

The true heart of a godly person is always broken over sin, always broken over sin. But therein lies the believer's joy because at the same time we're broken over our sin, we're aware of grace. And so we live in this kind of joyous brokenness, realizing the sin is still there and hating it more now than we did in the past, but also embracing grace more. So there's that reality, like Paul says, you know, I have a wretched man connected to me, but the triumph is in Christ. We all live that way as believers. If you don't feel the weight of your sin and you don't long for holiness, you might not be a Christian.

Pastor John, what if someone responded to you and said, well, I know that God has forgiven me, and I do feel broken over my sin, but there was one thing in my life that was 10 years ago that I still feel so torn about, and almost like they feel like what God wants them to do is continue in morally shaming themselves. What's the difference difference or where's the balance in moving forward with confidence that god has given us his grace and therefore we can

have joy um but that also married to an element of our own brokenness over our sin yeah and the answer to that's pretty simple um you don't ever wallow in your past sins if you're going to feel broken feel broken about something now don't drag up something in your past sins. If you're going to feel broken, feel broken about something now. Don't drag up something in the past, forgetting the things that are behind. That's already covered. Jesus died for that. That's a failure to accept the full forgiveness and grace that has been given to you in Christ. So if you're going to cripple your Christian life, you can do it pretty easily by

continually going back and dragging up past sins and beating yourself up for those. They're done with. They're done with. You just need to deal with the brokenness that comes over the current sins. All those in the past are covered by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. He doesn't remember them. Why should you? Yeah, there's almost, and I think in some people's mind, an incorrect assumption that what God wants from us is to continue to feel guilty. But God wants us, if we have been truly forgiven, to move forward with confidence, you would say, in the joy that he has given us his grace.

That's what I'm saying. You live in the joy of forgiveness and the brokenness of present sin. You don't live in the past sins. So what is worship? Worship is the ability to constantly thank God for what he has done. That's worship. Whether it's reading the Psalms and what God did in redemptive history recorded in scripture, whether it's what God did through church history, whether it's what God did in your family to bring you to Christ, whether it's what God did in the past in your life through forgiveness and how he's led in your life, worship is rehearsing everything that God has done. It's meditating on providence.

And so when you go back in your life, all you're going back to is grace upon grace upon grace upon grace upon grace. And that's what worship is. And that's where the joy comes from. And then that joy will be interrupted by present sin. But there's no sense in going back for things that God doesn't remember. Why should you remember them? No, I love that. No, thank you. I think that will be so helpful to so many people. So thank you, Pastor John.