I overheard two of the Godliest women I know having this conversation. As background, let me share that both are widows who are passionate about fine jewelry and whose husbands loved to buy them beautiful pieces as gifts. The names have been changed to protect the innocent!

A young girl had walked by and complimented Rebecca on her stunning diamond necklace. When the girl walked away, Rebecca turned to Janeanne, whom she knew shared her ardor for beautiful pieces, and sighed. “I just love jewelry.”

“I am the same way. I have been collecting these pieces since Bob started buying them for me in the 80s,” said Janeanne.

“Every time I go into the jeweler, I tell myself, ‘I am not going to buy anything. I just want to see what he has,’ but then I wind up buying something, and enjoying it so much,” said Rebecca.

“That’s what I do, too. If I think it is too extravagant, I put it on layaway and make payments,”

said Janeanne.

“I call that ‘jewelry jail,’” laughed Rebecca.  Then she said more seriously, “I really don’t need anything. Is it wrong that I still buy things?”

“Well, our body is the temple of God. I guess I am adorning my temple,” said Janeanne.

Rebecca liked that answer and the two friends walked happily into prayer meeting together.

If you are looking to me for an answer about what is right or wrong here, you won’t find one because I really don’t know. I’m not sure about the theology, but I will tell you that you will not find two women who are more devoted to the Lord. Both have a sweet, personal relationship with the Lord marked by a great deal of time in prayer. They are two of the most generous women I have ever known with their money and their time. They serve others in the Body constantly in small private ways and in volunteer work for our church. It seems the more they give, the more the Lord blesses them. They deprive no one by their little spending escapades and their husbands blessed and encouraged them in their hobby of finding and collecting lovely pieces.

The truth is that the question Rebecca asked about whether her purchases were right or wrong cannot be answered by anyone else. It is totally between the Holy Spirit and Rebecca.

Christian women spend a lot of time pondering questions about their sin- maybe too much time when their pondering extends long after a sin has been forgiven. Yes, it is good to examine your heart for sin, especially before going into prayer or communion. Confessing an actual sin is necessary first to salvation but also to righteousness and sanctification. But some women analyze and revisit the same old sins over and over. They think of a time they sinned in the past with such regret that the sin still has a hold on them. But wait! That sin is gone! Erased! Obliterated! Micah 7:19 says:

He will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities underfoot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.

Ephesians 2:8 makes clear it is not our righteousness or lack thereof that determines our faith, but Grace alone saves us from any and every sin on our resume:

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,

Great Bible teachers such as A. Wetherell Johnson and June Hunt say that Grace means “just as if you had never sinned.”

But some theologians say that Grace goes even further. Charles Spurgeon says that even though we are guilty of sin, that our sinful selves were justified by the atoning blood of Jesus; from that point on, we took on Christ’s righteousness. When God looks at us, He sees that righteousness that covers all sin, past, present, and future.

Once we do a sin inventory daily (or however often as one sins), and we confess and repent of that sin, we need to move on. God certainly does. Hebrews 8:12 says:

“For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.”

If our Holy, Righteous God can forgive and forget, why can’t you? So the question becomes, “Do you want to continue to live as if you are under the law, or are you going to allow yourself to fully experience the freedom of God’s Grace? Will you judge yourself more harshly as if you are under the Old Covenant of laws and works based faith, or will you step into the complete forgiveness of sin you were given the day you accepted Jesus as your Savior?”

But most of us have times when we struggle to live like we believe that we are righteous and forgiven since Jesus paid for all our sins, past, present, and future. Why is it so hard? For one thing, we have Satan whispering in our ear all day long things that bring shame on us. In Revelation 12:10, He is called the Accuser of the Brethren.  Here is what Jesus said about the Devil who brings up these old but forgiven sins to you from time to time:

“there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” John 8:44

In most cases, we truly are as sinful as we think, but the point is that the powerful and effective blood of Jesus canceled that sin for us. Why do we pick it back up? Why don’t we just accept that Jesus has told us the truth and that our sin is long gone, buried, and gone? If we focus on the sin and not the forgiveness, we have taken our eyes off Jesus. We have not valued and believed His Word that He paid a terrible price to free us and that His Grace is enough to dismiss every sin from our lives. If we had to be the one to pay for these sins, we could never pay our debt—no matter how many prayers we prayed or how dramatically we tried to make up for our past deeds. We could never measure up. Don’t even try. We just have to accept Jesus’ free gift as freely as it was given. We are able to be sinless, not because we have done anything righteous but because He is righteous.

But in other cases, women struggle with false guilt. Elizabeth must have been a wonderful woman to have been chosen to raise John the Baptist, the one who would go ahead of Jesus to introduce Him to the community. Yet she felt great shame over her decades of barrenness prior to birthing her son. When she finds that she is pregnant after giving up all hope, she says, ““The Lord has done this for me,” she said. “In these days he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people.” (Luke 1:25)

To our knowledge, Elizabeth has done nothing wrong. Why does she call this her disgrace? It was God’s perfect timing for her to conceive and give birth exactly when she did. John had a purpose in Jesus’ story, and God Himself timed this pregnancy. Yet Elizabeth is like so many women who struggle with guilt and shame that has taken up residence in their souls. The Lord does not want this guilt in your life. If your guilt is real, it no longer exists if you are a Christian and have repented once for that sin. If it is false guilt, you should refuse to let the “father of lies” steal from your energy, time, and joy.

Today, confess any actual sin to the Lord. Jesus said you do not need to use many words like the Pharisees did. God’s Grace is not dependent on the quality or quantity of the words of your prayer; in fact, it is not dependent on you at all. Forgiveness and Grace are totally in God’s hands, unearned, unmerited, and freely given.

Then you have to let go. Walk forward in the newness of His Grace and absolution. Declare your freedom from the past and rejoice at the reprieve the Lord has given you! Praise the Lord and walk unburdened out of prayer with a lightness of a soul marked by righteousness. That is you! You have taken on Christ’s righteousness, and that is how you look to God the Father- righteous!

Accept that this is your new identity and live like the righteous person you are. You may even want to celebrate your freedom from past sin. Let the light of Jesus fill your inner being and allow it to shine out to everyone you meet today.

Make your choice today: Do you choose to falsely put yourself under the law or will you enjoy living today in your true condition of Grace?

Additional Readings

Ephesians 3:1-20, Acts 7:54-60, Acts 8;1-3, Acts 9:1-30, Romans 7, Romans 8:1-4