Chapter 4: Gospel Enemy #2: Persistent Guilt

Chapter 4: Gospel Enemy #2: Persistent Guilt
2007 was a year of great awakening and change for our family. Over the Fourth of July weekend, my family attended Sovereign Grace Ministries’ Revive 2007 conference hosted by Gene Emerson, and God met us there in a grand way! Connie and I heard from Him to “move from success to significance; equip the next generation; prepare; that new beginnings were in store for us; and to let God govern.” Wow, what a life changer that weekend was.
2007 also produced one of my all time favorite movies “Amazing Grace” based on the life of William Wilberforce and his fight in the late 1700s and early 1800s to abolish the slave trade in the British Empire. The film celebrates the 200th anniversary of this accomplishment and reveals how “wealth's power to entice and allure with greed can harden the hearts of men allowing them to commit great evil.” The movie also reveals that with “perseverance, commitment and faith, and accompanied by God's amazing grace, people of passionate convictions can indeed change the world.” On top of that the movie shows John Newton, the prolific hymn writer and author of “Amazing Grace”, mentoring Wilberforce even as he (Newton), a true man of God characterizes his life as a “self-proclaimed wretch who once was lost but then was found”, laying down at Christ’s feet his persistent guilt, being saved by God’s amazing grace, and recognizing the truth that "I'm a great sinner and Christ is a great Savior."
Reading Chapter 4 of our book was again one of those moments that seems like God was speaking directly to me. We deserve none of what God offers…we continue to sin, and amazingly God continues to love us. “We’ve been forgiven much, freed from much, and blessed much”…so we can love Jesus Christ much! The 10 questions on pages 56 and 57 are worth your time and reflection. As those all too familiar guilt pangs continue to stab at you, let me encourage you to think of them as doing you a great service by reminding us there is a great Deliverer who seeks a relationship with us. Just like this chapter reveals, our sin is real – we are guilty like our conscience tells us - and praise the Lord with shouts of joy that we have a Savior who has already delivered believers from the consequences of our sin!
Ephesians 2:4-9: “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ - by grace you have been saved - and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is a gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (ESV)