But Jesus was saying, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” And they cast lots, dividing up His garments among themselves. (Luke 23:34)
Maybe you’ve been lucky enough to have lived your life without carrying the regret and shame of things that you’ve done and mistakes that you’ve made. If I can be brutally honest, that is not my story. I frequently find myself replaying my worst moments like an athlete reviewing game footage. What I’ve learned through this experience is that some life events sting much more than others.
I think the best lies that the enemy uses are the ones that are 99% true. It’s much more difficult to argue a case when the facts are stacked against you. The objective faults that we’ve made leave less room to refute. Yet, even the partial truth is a lie.
The whole truth is that the only one who could condemn us chooses not to.
I could say with nearly full confidence that my issues with forgiveness are not against others, but against myself. The goal of forgiveness is to hand the outcome back to God. When Jesus pleads with the Father to forgive, he is asking that their records be wiped by his own blood. What Jesus is asking the Father is, “Don’t look at their sin, look at my blood.” Their records were wiped clean, and so were ours. But what our shame quietly whispers is, “I don’t think the blood is enough.”
What if the point of the blood was not just to cleanse us from shame, but to deliver us from it? To make shame completely powerless and disarmed, like a cat without claws.
Let’s approach God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water (Hebrews 10:22).
Do you think that the blood is enough?
Kassie Lowe
Young Adults Lead