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How Do I Forget My Sinful Past? · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  The question today is from an anonymous woman. A young woman who listens to
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  the podcast regularly. She struggles with the painful memories of her sinful past life.
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  Their pastor, John, have been a follower of Christ for a while
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  now, she writes, but my conscience still haunts me for all the really
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  bad and dumb things I did when I was younger. Does that mean I
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  am not saved? I prayed for forgiveness many times, talk to pastors and
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  even Christian therapists, but I don't feel forgiven because the guilt is always there.
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  No matter how much I pray and see God, I feel far from
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  God and not sure what else to do. Oh how I would like to
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  be used by God to give some measure of relief and freedom and boldness to
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  our friend. So let me start by saying, there's one thing you said
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  that I don't believe is true. You said I don't feel forgiven. That's
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  true. He said, I don't feel forgiven because the guilt is always there.
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  That's not true. I'm just gonna say that's not true. The guilt
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  is not always there. The feelings of guilt are always there. The guilt
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  is not there. And if you think that's quibbling over words that may be
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  your biggest problem. It's not quibbling, it's not quibbling. It's absolutely essential
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  to distinguish the presence of real guilt and the presence of feeling guilty. No,
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  I'm not going to say that if you realize this distinction your problem will
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  go away. It's not that simple, I know that. Let's try a
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  thought experiment. Suppose you committed many horrible crimes, stealing, adultery, killing,
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  murder, lying to cover it all up. Then you were caught and
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  went to trial and everybody knew you were guilty, everybody there was no doubt
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  about it. You deserved to die. And when you came to trial,
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  the judge said, not guilty, and you can go free. Here's my
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  question, what would that do for your feelings of guilt? And my answer
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  is nothing, nothing at all. You would still be guilty, you would
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  know it, everybody would know it, and you would be miserable for the
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  rest of your life and may well commit suicide. But wait, like,
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  wait a minute, somebody's gonna say, isn't that what Christianity offers Piper?
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  The judge says, not guilty, go free. Isn't that the very heart
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  of Christianity. And my answer is it's not the same. And the reason
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  it's not the same is that in our little thought experiment there's no substitute.
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  In fact, in ordinary human jurisprudence, there can be no substitute. A
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  mother cannot step in and go to jail for her criminal son, the murderer,
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  as much as she may want to, We won't allow it. But
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  in the way God devised to handle our guilt, our sin, a substitute
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  does in fact work work. The defaming of God's honor through our sin really
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  is repaired when Christ bears our guilt for God's glory, and the Holy Spirit
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  that is unleashed through the blood of Christ into the lives of sinners really does
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  create new people who now live for the glory of God. So, dear
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  friend, your condition is not like a human judge arbitrarily letting a guilty person
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  off the hook. So I like that God did more and your guilt is
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  really gone. Listen to these sick statements from the Bible that God pronounces over
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  you, and say, as I read each one, a BLA believe that
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  I believe that because these are just straight Bible. Here we go. He
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  canceled your record of debt, nailing it to the cross Colossians to thirteen number
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  two. He sent his son to be the propitiation, the wrath removing agent
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  for your sins. First John four ten. He bore your sins in his
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  body on the tree Verse Peter two twenty five. He was pierced for your
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  transgressions Isaiah fifty three four. The Lord has laid on him your iniquity Isaiah
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  fifty three six. He became a curse for you Galatians three thirteen. Your
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  real guilt, that is the just liability that you had to be punished for
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  your sins. That's guilt. Your real guilt is gone. It is no
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  more. Nowhere in the universe does it exist. It's gone, never to
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  return. There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ, because
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  there's no guilt for those who are in Christ. And you know, you
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  may be just sitting there rolling your eyes. You know, I haven't said
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  a word yet about the feelings of guilt, because that's another issue. They're
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  not the same. And you need deeply, deeply to dwell on the reality
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  of guilt's removal. So now what to do with guilt feelings. Well,
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  I'm going to suggest what maybe nobody has suggested to you, and you can
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  test by the scriptures whether this is wise. I'm not going to suggest that
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  you focus on getting rid of guilt feelings per se. Can you hear that?
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  That may be surprising. I'm not going to suggest that you focus on
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  getting rid of those guilt feelings per se. I'm going to suggest that you
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  purge or purify or deliver your guilt feelings of every impulse that shouldn't be there.
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  And yes, you're right, that implies that something will be left over
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  of guilt feelings when I've purged them from everything that shouldn't be there, Something's
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  going to be left over. That's good, it's good, it's needed forever.
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  Now, you may have never heard that from anybody. I don't know,
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  but I'm saying guilt feelings are not entirely bad, and you may be
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  saying good chrief. You have no idea what they do me? Well,
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  I do have some idea. But here's my suggestion. You should ask God
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  to purge your guilt feelings of maybe I think I have five realities that can
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  be taken out taken out of your guilt feelings and see what's left. Number
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  one, pray like this, Father, take out of my guilt feelings.
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  Every impulse that makes me feel hopeless, because I know hope is commanded and
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  you have given us precious and very great promises to feed our hope on like
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  I will work everything together for your good. So take out of my guilt
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  feelings, everything that makes me feel hopeless. Number two, Take out of
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  my guilt feelings, Father, every impulse that makes me feel useless and without
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  purpose, because I I know you promised that none of our work is in
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  vain in the Lord. Number three, take out of my guilt feelings.
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  Father, every impulse that makes me feel fearful and timid, because I know
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  you said fear not for I am with you, be not dismayed, for
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  I'm your God. Fourth, take out of my guilt feelings all anxiety about
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  being found out because God already knows everything about my sin and how ugly ugly
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  it was, and he doesn't flinch at loving me. And I know that
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  only his kind of people will get into Heaven. That's where I'll spend eternity
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  with people who don't flinch at loving me. Number five, take out of
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  my guilt feelings, Father, the impulse that I need to feel worthy of
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  grace, since you have taught me there's no such thing as being worthy of
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  grace. There's no such thing. Deserve grace is not grace. H help
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  me realize that feeling unworthy of grace is the only proper way to receive grace.
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  So purge my guilt feelings of this craziness of thinking I need to be
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  worthy of grace. Now what's left? What's left of your guilt feelings,
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  our guilt feelings, just our guilt feelings. Think of it this way.
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  According to Revelation five nine, there will be a song in heaven about the
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  slaughter of the Lamb of God. I use the word slaughter because that's what
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  gives them my means. When it says slain, it means slaughter. You
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  slaughter sheep when you're gonna eat them or do something else with them. He
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  was slaughtered. We're gonna sing about that, it says so, And they
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  sang a new song, saying, worthy are you to take the scroll and
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  to open seals? For you were slaughtered, and by your blood you ransom
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  people for God from every tribe and tongue in people in nation, we to
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  sing that in heaven forever, which means we're going to remember our sin.
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  We're going to remember our guilt and what it cost, namely the death of
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  the Lamb of God. We will not sing that song and scratch our heads
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  saying I don't have any idea what that's about. I don't have any idea
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  what that blood was about. I don't know why he had to die.
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  But we just keep singing a song. We will know why he died.
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  He died because of our guilt, and we will know that forever. But
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  everything debilitating, everything hopeless, everything that destroys the sense of purpose and courage,
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  everything fearful, everything that diminishes our glorying in grace, will be taken
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  out of our feelings of guilt, and all that will be left will be
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  a miraculous new heart of humble, happy, thankful praise to the glory of
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  the grace of God, which means, don't despair that you have guilt feelings.
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  They are necessary. Instead, spend your life purifying them of everything that
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  keeps you from happy, thankful worship and obedience. Yeah forgiven centers singing praise
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  to the slain and risen Lamb fitting way for us to go into Easter a
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  weekend. Thank you best for John for this gospel meditation. Next week we
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  do what only Easter can allow us to do, and that is to look
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  honestly and hopefully at death. Death is real and death is a gift to
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  us in Christ, as Paul calls it. So what does he mean in
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  one Crinthians three twenty two that we own death? But first we return to
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  the story of a man who died in the pulpit. That's on Monday.
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  Don't miss this story. But to prep for this next week dwelling on death,
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  we need a new dose of resurrection hope, which is what this weekend
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  is all about. Praying that you will have a wonderful weekend celebrating the slaughtered
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  and resurrected flam of God. I'm Tony Grinkey and we'll see you on Monday.