Let Go of Guilt
Acts 3:13-15,19-20—The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus. You handed him over to be killed, and you disowned him before Pilate, though he had decided to let him go. You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you. You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this…Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, and that he may send the Christ, who has been appointed for you—even Jesus.
It can be very hard for us to let go of things sometimes. Maybe it’s an heirloom that is broken beyond repair. Maybe it’s a sentimental memento that just needs to be tossed. But those things are rather insignificant when you think of the things that are the hardest for us to let go of. It’s hard for us to let go of our anger when someone has hurt us. It’s just as hard to let go of the hurt we feel when we have hurt someone else. It’s so hard because the devil is always there, poking and prodding at the wound because he doesn’t want it to heal. He only wants it to fester.
Now imagine the people of Israel Peter was addressing that day on the temple mount! Just think for a moment if those words were spoken to you! Terror! I think we’d stand there wide-eyed with our blood running from our faces! They disowned God’s Son! They wanted nothing to do with him. Even after Pilate was going to let Jesus go, their hate was so great that they were on the verge of creating a riot to get him crucified! Here was the Holy One, the Righteous One spoken of by the prophets and their fathers and they asked for a murderer instead. They thought Pilate was doing them a favor releasing Barabbas, a convicted murderer instead of releasing Jesus! They gave life to the one who took it, and took it away from the one who gives all life, the Author of Life! What greater guilt than that could there be?
While we all have our own unique burdens of guilt, at the same time those burdens are exactly the same. They are the same because they each bring the same sentence—death.
But there is another way in which our burden of guilt is exactly the same. Even though we deserve to have our guilt weigh us down straight to hell, God doesn’t want that for us at all! Through Peter we hear God cry out to us, LET GO OF GUILT! He cries this out to us because he has placed all our guilt on Christ our Savior! He calls us to repentance and to see that Christ has not just wiped out our sin, he has completely destroyed it!
God pleads with us, “Return to me!” And why? “Because I have redeemed you! Stop running away from my love! Everything you need, I have. Why let your guilt consume you? Why let it weigh you down? I gave you my Son. I put all your guilt on him already. Let him carry your guilt because he is the only one who can carry it. Turn from your sin and behold all the blessings I long to give to you!”
Friends, LET GO OF GUILT, and receive that which you’ve been longing for—RELIEF! So often we’re so afraid to acknowledge our guilt, even to those who know about it. But how true it is that as soon as we confess our guilt a wave of relief floods our hearts because we don’t have to carry that guilt anymore! When we confess our guilt we give Jesus our sin and let him carry it and he gives us his forgiveness!
Again, LET GO OF GUILT. And if you ever think your guilt is too great, consider the Israelites’ sin. They killed the Author of Life, and yet God still forgave them in Christ. Friends, let go of your guilt and live in the refreshing relief of forgiveness and peace because your Savior is alive!