You are Blameless
When I was in the fifth grade, I thought I was the coolest kid in school. In my class of about thirty kids, I thought I ruled the roost. I was the class clown, and was always in trouble for talking out and being a smart mouth. (Not much has changed.)
My teacher threatened me with all sorts of punishment: taking away my recess, calling my parents, sending me to the principal. Nothing seemed to work. Then one day after I’d again done something to drive my teacher insane, he said, “Zach, that one is going on your record forever.”
Wait—what? My record? Will I ever be able to get a job? Or go to college? Or finish fifth grade?
From that day forward, the way my teacher tried to get me to behave was to threaten me with my record. He hung that over my head, trying to use fear to motivate me.
Most of us live our lives thinking God is keeping score or keeping a record. We think one day we’ll hit heaven and He’ll pull out our record of sins and begin punishing us or embarrassing us for them.
Guess what? The record has been canceled. Torn up. There is no record. Jesus became our sin and took away our sins so that we would never face judgment for them. That’s the good news of the cross. In Christ, we’ve been freed from judgment. The judgment for our sin was death. Jesus took our sin and the judgment for it by dying. And the conclusion is that we no longer have to face punishment for our sin, since the punishment was taken by Jesus on our behalf.
We can confidently know that God chooses not to hold our sins against us. Jesus won’t refer to them when He comes back. And we can wake up and fall asleep each day knowing that God will never, ever judge us for our sins. Since God is love, He’s not keeping a record of your wrongs.
I’m twenty-five, and I’ve never seen that record my teacher threatened me with. Nor did my teacher have much success improving my behavior through threats.
God doesn’t threaten us, condemn us, or shame us for our sin. Instead, He teaches, comforts, and secures us in every moment. He doesn’t motivate us to behave by fear, but by His love. He isn’t writing down your failures; instead, He’s with you in the midst of your failures, saying, “You’re free, and no one can blame you.”
Jesus walked into our classroom, took the record of every bad thing we’ve done, looked at the teacher, and tore that record up. And just because Jesus is good, He took His record, gave it to us, and said, “My perfect record is now yours.”
God is not up in heaven writing down everything you do wrong. No, Love keeps no record of wrongs. God is living in your heart, reminding you of everything He did right for you and to you.
Hearing God’s Opinion
“I’m not keeping track of what you do. Remember, I keep no record of your mistakes—not now or ever. There’s no catch. I’ve chosen to forget your sins forever. There’ll be days when you feel accused and blamed, but that’s not from Me! I’ll never motivate you by shaming you or guilting you. I’ll never make you feel bad for something you did wrong. Look to Me; look at My nail- pierced hands. I did it all for you. And it worked. You don’t have to fear punishment anymore. I love you more than you’ll ever know!”
"Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy."
Jude 24
My teacher threatened me with all sorts of punishment: taking away my recess, calling my parents, sending me to the principal. Nothing seemed to work. Then one day after I’d again done something to drive my teacher insane, he said, “Zach, that one is going on your record forever.”
Wait—what? My record? Will I ever be able to get a job? Or go to college? Or finish fifth grade?
From that day forward, the way my teacher tried to get me to behave was to threaten me with my record. He hung that over my head, trying to use fear to motivate me.
Most of us live our lives thinking God is keeping score or keeping a record. We think one day we’ll hit heaven and He’ll pull out our record of sins and begin punishing us or embarrassing us for them.
Guess what? The record has been canceled. Torn up. There is no record. Jesus became our sin and took away our sins so that we would never face judgment for them. That’s the good news of the cross. In Christ, we’ve been freed from judgment. The judgment for our sin was death. Jesus took our sin and the judgment for it by dying. And the conclusion is that we no longer have to face punishment for our sin, since the punishment was taken by Jesus on our behalf.
We can confidently know that God chooses not to hold our sins against us. Jesus won’t refer to them when He comes back. And we can wake up and fall asleep each day knowing that God will never, ever judge us for our sins. Since God is love, He’s not keeping a record of your wrongs.
I’m twenty-five, and I’ve never seen that record my teacher threatened me with. Nor did my teacher have much success improving my behavior through threats.
God doesn’t threaten us, condemn us, or shame us for our sin. Instead, He teaches, comforts, and secures us in every moment. He doesn’t motivate us to behave by fear, but by His love. He isn’t writing down your failures; instead, He’s with you in the midst of your failures, saying, “You’re free, and no one can blame you.”
Jesus walked into our classroom, took the record of every bad thing we’ve done, looked at the teacher, and tore that record up. And just because Jesus is good, He took His record, gave it to us, and said, “My perfect record is now yours.”
God is not up in heaven writing down everything you do wrong. No, Love keeps no record of wrongs. God is living in your heart, reminding you of everything He did right for you and to you.
Hearing God’s Opinion
“I’m not keeping track of what you do. Remember, I keep no record of your mistakes—not now or ever. There’s no catch. I’ve chosen to forget your sins forever. There’ll be days when you feel accused and blamed, but that’s not from Me! I’ll never motivate you by shaming you or guilting you. I’ll never make you feel bad for something you did wrong. Look to Me; look at My nail- pierced hands. I did it all for you. And it worked. You don’t have to fear punishment anymore. I love you more than you’ll ever know!”
"Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy."
Jude 24
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