The Bryce Crawford Podcast - Conviction VS. Condemnation (EP 81)

Episode Date: January 27, 2025

In this video, Bryce talks about the differences between conviction and condemnation and how to distinguish the two.

What's going on, guys. Welcome back to another episode of the Bryce Crawford podcast. I'm Bryce, and today, listen, normally we're having a lot of guests on. We're going to start having more guests on, but you know what? Thought it would be good to start the year off with a classic podcast. Because you guys love it when we dive in the Word of God, talk about things. By the title of this video, we're going to be talking about something that is really near and dear to my heart. And that's the difference between conviction and condemnation. I believe that we have to understand the difference between the two because it's important. And a lot of us end up. living in shame when there's actually a lot of freedom for us. So I'm really excited about today. Guys, also thank you guys for the encouragement on the Luke series. I'm so glad you guys are super blessed by it. It's going to be amazing. But listen, we're just going to dive right in and talk about conviction and condemnation and talk about what the Bible says, what freedom is there, what does this look like. So let's dive right in. I think the first thing we can always do, which this is always positive advice that I have for everyone. Everything can always be pointed back to the cross. And so I think it's

a beauty of it before like, you know, you get into what the definitions of conviction and condemnation are, all of these things. We have to understand the purpose of the cross. What is the purpose of the cross? The purpose of the cross is to pay the debt in which we condemn ourselves for. The purpose of the cross is to wipe our slate clean in which our sin puts us in an unpayable debt with God. And the only way for us to pay for it is with the death of our own life. But because Jesus has compassion on us, he takes on the punishment that we deserve for our sin in which it unites us with him in eternity. That's a beautiful thing.

But in order to receive that, you have to receive it. And I think that's awesome. And something that my roommate encouraged me with, he's like, man, we don't pray for forgiveness. We pray from it. We pray from forgiveness because on the cross, death was defeated and we were forgiven. So we say, God, thank you for forgiving me now blank. And I think it's beautiful. But let's talk about conviction and condemnation.

Here's the difference between conviction and condemnation. Conviction is from the Holy Spirit. It leads to repentance. It offers forgiveness. In conviction, the movement of conviction in your heart actually allows you to run to Jesus for grace. Whereas condemnation, it's from the devil. It leads to self-hatred. It offers guilt.

And you run from God in shame. I mean, look in the garden in the Garden of Eden. You have Adam and Eve who blatantly disobey God and their response of disobediences. Let me hide from him. Now, if you go to 2 Corinthians, I'm flipping there right now. 2 Corinthians 710 says, for godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. Worldly grief looks like this.

Worldly grief looks like this. God is coming, so I'm going to run away. Godly grief looks like God is coming, so I'm going to run to him. And that's a beautiful thing about conviction. Because when we are convicted by something, he says, God is coming. I need to run him. We run to Jesus for grace.

And condemnation says, oh gosh, God is coming. I need to run and hide. It leads to self-hatred and offers to guilt. And it was crazy about self-condemination is that oftentimes self-condemation leads to actual more sin and regret. We say to ourselves, oh, I can't tell anyone. I've got to hide. Someone's going to look at me differently.

Or this isn't that. Or God doesn't love me. or things like that, this isn't that. But no, it leads to actual more sin and regret in our lives. When we don't come to the Lord for confession and we don't come to the Lord and say, God, I need help, this is an area in my life I'm struggling with, then we're actually giving the devil license to use our own sin against us. And it allows us to come up with excuses to sin more in that area.

And not only that, but when the devil uses our sin against us, it actually convinces us that what we're doing is okay. It's okay to hide it. and when we're walking around, we're convinced that everybody else knows what we've done, even though they have no idea. And so when we hide in the dark, we're giving the devil the license to use our sin against us. Here's the reality. Satan knows our name, but he's called us by our sin.

He always calls us by our sin. That's condemnation in your head. Satan knows your name, but calls you by your sin. But Jesus, he knows your sin and calls you by your name. Because whenever we sin, it's actually, like whenever we sin and God brings conviction in our lives, it's actually God's way of showing us that we've behaved in a way that isn't consistent with our identity as a child of God. And so conviction is actually a beautiful thing because it leads to more joy, peace, and freedom,

whereas condemnation leads to sin and regret. And the Bible actually tells us that if we confess our sins of one another, that God is faithful and just to forgive us, what is the purpose of confession? Confession is for you. it takes the weight off of your chest it keeps the sin in the light it keeps you pure righteous holy joyous and free that's what confession is for and let me tell you something when you confess to god you're saying god i acknowledge what i did is wrong i own my decision and this is what i was saying at the beginning of the podcast when you pray from forgiveness say god thank you for forgiving me now what

now what do you do now this is what my roommate was encouraging me with he's like whenever whenever you sin and you get convicted. He says, you pray from a place of forgiveness. You say, God, thank you for forgiving me. Now, God, show me active, practical ways that I can cut blank sin out of my life. And I think it's such a beautiful thing. Because the confession is coming into agreement with God, his character, his law, who he is, the original design for my life, confession. And here's the thing. And this is what I love, like I've noticed about confession being a beautiful thing, is that my brothers that I have in my life. If I sin and I confess to my brothers that they come around me with a lot of grace and a lot of truth. And I think that's a beautiful thing. If you're confessing to someone that weaponizes your

own sin against you, they're not a brother and they don't know the loving grace of Jesus Christ. Because if you're confessing to someone in their response is to use it against you and manipulate you and to weaponize it against you, then they themselves haven't received the free gift and grace of God for themselves. And so it's a good thing to root ourselves. This is why Paul talks about bad company corrupting good morals. And we have to be careful who has a voice in our life. Because the people that have a voice in our life, their words mean a lot to us. And if they're the people that understand the love and grace and truth of Jesus Christ, then they will actually be able to display that to you, encourage you, show you grace, help you grow and hold you accountable in the

sin areas of your life. And that's what I love about my brothers and sisters. Here's a scripture I want to read from Micah 7. Verse 19, he will again have compassion on us. He will tread are iniquities underfoot. You will cast all of our sins into the depths of the sea. Micah Seven, it says that God takes our sin and drops it in the sea of forgetfulness

as if it has never happened. I used to work on a boat dock. And when I worked on this boat dock, this lady was getting on the boat and she dropped her wedding ring with her massive diamond into the ocean. And she goes, Bryce, I need you to jump in and get it. Jump and go get my ring and just fell in the ocean. And I said, Lady, I can't do that. It's already gone.

The second the ring hit the water, it was gone. Why? Because as soon as it drops down, the current is swashing it around from the original place it hit, the sand covers it up, it's buried in the sand and all these things, and it's immediately gone. The second it touches the water, it's gone. And when I take that picture of that wedding ring and that incident that happened when I was working, and I compare it to what Jesus does with my sin, it's so encouraging. It's not that Jesus has shoving the sin under the rug, it's that he's paid for it. It's already canceled. It's gone.

And so when we operate it of a place of forgetting, forgiveness is saying, God, I know what you've done for my sin. God, I recognize that I acted outside of my character as your child. God, I'm asking, God, thank you. I'm asking for practical advice of what to do. And God, thank you for forgiving me because I'm your son and you love me. That's who you are. Because what Satan's going to do is that the Bible says that we've been baptized into death with Jesus Christ and raised in a new life. And Satan will try to allow your old self to creep up on you. Satan will try to allow our old self to creep up on you guys. Moses is growling at me. And what he's going to try to do is he's going to try to convince you that that's who you are that's not who you are

you're free clean and forgiven in him that's who you are free clean and forgiven in jesus christ the last scripture i want to read is one that my roommate brought up to me and it was so encouraging and i think it's so applicable to conviction and condemnation this is a psalmist david if you guys don't know who king david is king david is a man after god's own heart someone that the bible and god knew as a man after his own heart, and he was the same man that slept with another woman and killed her husband. And this is what David has to say about confession and sin. And I'm going to read this over to you, the same that my roommate once did with me, for those of you who feel condemnation. Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom

the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away, through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me. My strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. I acknowledged my sin to you and I did not cover my iniquity. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Therefore, let everyone who is godly offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found. Surely in the rush of great waters, they shall not reach in.

You are a hiding place for me. You preserve me from trouble. You surround me with shouts of deliverance. David says something very beautiful here at the very beginning. He says your sin is already forgiven. And then he says, not only is blessed is the one whose sin is forgiven, but then he says, Blessed is a man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity. And then David actually can relate to us, which you might feel this way.

David says in Psalm 32, 3, for when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. Like I said earlier, when we keep our sin in the dark, we give the devil license to use it against us. We walk around. We think that everyone knows what we've done in the dark. We feel shame and guilt. We want to hide. And we say, oh, I'm going to hide. I'm going to hide. I can't tell anyone. I can't tell anyone. But he says, when I keep silent, it crushes me. Your sin is crushing you. You're not meant for that weight. That's why Jesus came. He died on the cross and bore all the sins of the world, past, present and future. Even if you were the only person to exist in the world that was sinful, Jesus would still die for you. Because that would be a death that you couldn't

pay except for your own life. But Jesus laid his life down. So, so you were the only person. So you were you could live in him. It's a beautiful picture. He says for day and night your hand was heavy upon me. My strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. He said when I kept my sin inside of me, that it was just beating me up and it was so heavy and I just couldn't do anything about it. My strength was gone and things like that. And he says, but I acknowledge my sins to you and I did not cover my iniquity. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. And he gives a call to all Christians. Therefore, let everyone who is God, they offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found.

And then he says, you are a hiding place for me. You preserve me from my trouble. This is a beautiful picture. The Bible also tells us that if we sin, know that there's an advocate to the Father named Jesus Christ who's praying on our behalf. Man, if we knew that Jesus was praying for us at all times, would we make the same decisions that we make? Probably not.

But the beautiful thing about that is, is if you sin, no. that not only can you surround ourselves with the godly community that will lift you up in grace and truth challenge you hold you accountable but jesus christ himself is praying for us it's a beautiful picture i want to end with this this is your encouragement my friend not to live in shame not to condemn yourself the wages of sin is death but the free gift of god is eternal life and the beautiful thing about conviction is it's a joyous thing. Conviction is joyful. It challenges our actions and purifies us to be more like Jesus. It's such a beautiful picture. It's deeper than just, it's deeper than hiding. Let us not hide anymore. God calls us out of this lifestyle. And more and more each day as we grow in

the Lord, as you begin to grow closer to Jesus, the more you realize you need him. The more you realize you need his strength. The more you realize you are thankful for his forgiveness, the more you realize you're grateful for conviction because it challenges you and allows you to grow. The more you realize that you just need soul reliance on him. I'm going to pray for us before we close and just ask that God heals your heart, challenges you, shows you practical ways if you're struggling with sin areas in your life. Not only that, but that you just bathe in his love and forgiveness because it's freely given. We just have to receive it. Oh, Jesus, I thank you so much for this day. God, I thank you that you love us. God, thank you for conviction. Thank you that you give us the Holy Spirit to teach us,

challenge us, offer us grace, forgiveness, truth, love, and tune our heart. God, I just rebuked self-condemation, self-hatred. God, thank you that you remind us that we're made in your image, that you've made us fearfully and wonderfully, that you love us. God, I just pray right now that every human being if they're experiencing any self-condemnation, God, that you would just change that from condemnation to conviction, that you will shower them in love and peace and truth, that they would recognize that guilt is not from you because guilt makes us run from you, but that conviction is from you and it makes us run to you and turn to you and allow you to tune our hearts. So God, thank you for conviction. Thank you for love. Thank you for love you. Thank you for love you. Thank you for love

the cross. Thank you that you've already forgiven us. Thank you that we operate out of peace and forgiveness. God, we love you. Thank you and praise you. It's in your name we pray. Amen. Guys, thank you so much for watching and listen to the episode. If you like it, subscribe to us, follow us on all platforms, breast cover podcasts on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Spotify. Guys, I love you guys, and see you guys next Monday for the next episode.