Odd

I often have a difficult time in putting a name to some of the benefits of being a believer. I mean, it’s not like our troubles go away. We still get sick. We still get cancer. We still eventually die from something. We still have bills to pay. The chances are pretty good that I’ll forget this a year from now, but this evening I have been reminded of one of the greatest privileges of having come to Christ.

“Just think how much more the blood of Christ will purify our consciences from sinful deeds so that we can worship the living God.” Hebrews 9:14

When I recall the days of my life before Jesus, there was a strange paradox at work. On one hand, if you were to ask me whether or not I considered myself to be a good person, I would answer in all honesty that I thought I was indeed a good person. The paradox was this – Even though I considered myself to be better than the bulk of mankind, there were so many things that weighed down my conscience. They were things, thoughts, and actions that I was ashamed of.

I now live out a different paradox in Christ. Now that I have acknowledged that I’m a sinner, and received the pardon offered to me by the blood of Christ, my conscience has been cleared. How weird is that? Doesn’t that sound backwards?

Why would a person who thinks they are a good person have a defiled conscience, while the one who calls his sin as sin lives a life of liberation? Is that the way it always is? If you remember your life before Christ, has your experience been similar? If you currently walk without Christ, are there things in your past that crop up to plague you from time to time?

It isn’t that I'm without regrets. I have a few. What has changed is this – the shame is gone. It has been revealed, it has been labeled as vile and nailed to the only place that has the power to cleanse it; the cross of Christ.