I’m going to share with you four powerful reasons why you need to stop trying to forgive yourself so you can truly start walking in freedom!
You may be wondering what makes me an expert on this topic? Well, experience!
There was a time in my life when I was younger that I wasn’t fully walking with the Lord. I had given my life to Christ when I was a kid and always knew that God forgives us for our sin. However, when I decided to walk with the Lord again, even after asking for forgiveness and repenting, I still felt guilt and shame. So, I tried to be as good as I could. I tried to be as holy as I could. But I still wondered, “Did God really forgive me?”
Years later, after coming back to the Lord, one night at Bible study some friends started praying over me and I had an incredible encounter with the Holy Spirit. In that moment, God set me free from the things that were holding me down and keeping me from walking in freedom. Including the lie that I might not be forgiven. During that same time period I was doing an online Bible Study (Healing Hearts) and a couple of days after that experience with the Holy Spirit, the Bible study taught about how self forgiveness isn’t even a thing. So now I want to share with five reasons I’ve learned why Christians should stop trying to forgive themselves:
First, the Bible doesn’t tell us to. Nowhere in the Bible does it say to forgive ourselves. In fact, the Bible tells us that we are saved through grace and that is not by our own doing.
“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.” – Ephesians 3:8
There is nothing we can do in our own power to forgive ourselves. Forgiveness can only be granted by God.
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. – 1 John 1:9
The world has normalized the concept of self-forgiveness but the world’s standard does not fulfill the requirement of true forgiveness. That’s why so many people are struggling with guilt and shame from their past sin.
Second, it’s prideful. Think about it. If you’re trying to forgive yourself you’re basically believing that what Jesus did on the cross wasn’t good enough and that you can forgive yourself better than God can. However, Colossians 2:14 tells us that “He canceled the record of charges that were against us and nailed them to the cross” So, why would you want to take those “charges” back and try to clear them yourself? That makes no sense. If a jury of your peers were to find you “not guilty” of a charge against you would you ask for a retrial to try and prove your innocence? Of course not. So why keep putting yourself on trial for your sins when are now found “not guilty.”
The third reason you need to stop trying to forgive yourself is that God forgives and forgets. Okay, so he technically doesn’t forget but He doesn’t hold them against us and instead actually acts like they never happened. – It’s called grace and we are in no position to not embrace it. In Jeremiah God says He will remember our sin no more (Jeremiah 31:34). In Hebrews 8:12 he says that he will blot out our transgressions. And Micah tells us that God will cast our sins into the depths of the sea. (Micah 7:19) Lastly, in Psalms we read “that as far as the east is from the west, he has removed our transgressions from us.” (Psalm 103:12) So, if He doesn’t think about our sin anymore, why should we?
Finally, the fourth reason you need to stop trying to forgive yourself is because self-forgiveness is a trap from Satan. He wants us to stay trapped in guilt and shame because he knows that when we accept the freedom God has given us we will start walking in the truth and the calling that God has for our lives. He doesn’t want that because it means that we will bring more people to God’s kingdom and not his. But the good news is that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus because who the Son sets free, is free indeed!
God loves us so much that He sent his Son to take the punishment for our sins so we can be forgiven. That’s a powerful love that we do not want to take for granted!
If you know you’re forgiven but are struggling to feel like you are, read this to find out what to do.