Colossians 2:11 “Through our union with him we have experienced circumcision of heart. All of the guilt and power of sin has been cut away and is now extinct because of what Christ, the anointed one, has accomplished for us.” Today's episode reminds us that the only power sin can have in our lives is the power that we give it. Jesus died on the cross to free us from the power and guilt of sin and yet we have to accept this sacrifice and let go of the guilt and shame of our sins. We need to make a choice. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
All The Guilt And Power Of Sin Has Been Cut Away
Colossians 2:11 “Through our union with him we have experienced circumcision of heart. All of the guilt and power of sin has been cut away and is now extinct because of what Christ, the anointed one, has accomplished for us.”
I really like this verse and thought it was a great reminder for a Monday morning! Who wouldn’t want to start their week off with the reminder that all of the guilt and power of sin has been cut away and is now extinct because of what Christ, the anointed one, has accomplished for us? That is amazing. Christ is so good. He came down and died a horrible death just so that we could be free from sin and shame.
What keeps coming to my mind is, then, why do we all have so much sin and shame in our lives? This verse doesn’t say that there will no longer be any sin in this world. We are human, we are flawed, and we will continue to sin. However, this verse says that the guilt and power of sin have been cut away. The verse starts by saying that through our union with him, we have experienced circumcision of the heart. This means that our hearts have been changed. They are no longer like they once were. Before Jesus died on the cross, we had shame and guilt for our sins. Before He died on the cross, we were separated from the Lord because of our sins. After He died on the cross, we were reunited with the Lord.
The verse goes on to say that all the guilt and power of sin has been cut away and is now extinct because of what Christ did for us. You may be looking at your own heart and seeing that you still have some guilt from past sins and may be wondering why. Why do I still have guilt when Jesus cut it away with His sacrifice? Why do I feel guilt and shame over my sins when Jesus took that guilt and shame to the cross and then to the grave with Him? The reason for this is that we need to let go of it. We need to release this guilt and believe that Jesus truly died for our sins and that His death was enough to cover our sins.
God gave us free will. He did not want to create creatures that had to love Him. If we didn’t have a choice whether or not to love Him, then it wouldn’t truly be love. He wanted us to choose freely to love Him. Some of us think that is where free will stops. We think we have the choice to love God or not, and he governs all of our behavior outside of that. This is not the case. God takes our free will seriously. This means He does not come into a situation that He is not invited into. If you want to handle everything yourself, He will let you. Not because He likes to see you suffer because He doesn’t. I am sure it breaks His heart when He has to watch us suffer when He knows it would be so easy for Him to help us. The reason He lets us do things on our own is because He doesn’t want to overstep. He doesn’t want to enter a situation He hasn’t been invited into.
Giving us free will and watching how we use it must be so hard for the Lord. I think back to when my kids were little, and they were in that stage where they wanted to do everything on their own. Watching them is painful sometimes because you know it would be so much easier to do it for them, and yet you know they want to do it by themselves. Especially when they are learning how to walk. You know they are going to fall down several times before they get the hang of it, and yet you let them because you know it is the only way they will learn to walk on their own. However, we are usually right there by their side so if they do reach out their hand we are there to grab it and help them.
This is similar to the Lord. He watches us, walks right next to us, and yet He waits patiently for us to reach out our hands and ask for help. I think this must be especially hard for Him when it comes to our guilt and shame over sin. I can imagine it breaks His heart when we allow sin to have power over us. God sent His only son to earth to die a painful death for us, and yet instead of embracing this freedom, we act as though His sacrifice wasn’t for us. We don’t believe the Lord when He says that sin has no power over us anymore.
What it really should say is that sin has no power over you anymore unless you let it. If you let guilt and shame live in your heart, then it will gain power over you. The enemy is going to try to get us to believe the lie that we should feel guilt and shame for our sins. He is going to try to get us to believe that we are unredeemable and that our sins are too bad. The enemy won’t deny that Christ died on the cross for the sins of humans, but He will try to convince us that our sins are too bad. Yes, He died for some people’s sins, but not for ours. He tries to convince us that we can never be forgiven. And unfortunately, we often buy into these lies.
I learned a saying in Encounter that I love because it is so powerful and it is so true. When you believe the lie, you empower the liar. When you believe the lies of the enemy, you give Him power over your life. When you believe that your sins weren’t counted in the ones that Jesus took to the cross, then you allow guilt and shame to creep in. You allow sin to have power over your life. This is not what God wants; this is what the enemy wants. Do you know how to fight against the lies of the enemy? You fight lies with the truth.
The truth is Jesus’s sacrifice was big enough for my sins and your sins. The truth is that God loves us whether we deserve it or not. The truth is that God wants us to be close to Him, and before Jesus came and set us free, there was always a barrier between us. The truth is right here in this verse. “Through our union with him we have experienced circumcision of heart. All of the guilt and power of sin has been cut away and is now extinct because of what Christ, the anointed one, has accomplished for us.”
If Jesus took all of the power and guilt of sin with Him to the cross, why do we still cling to it? Why do we still let it have power over our lives? Sin will always be a part of our lives, and yet, through Christ, our sins can become less and less. Through Christ, we can release all the guilt associated with our sins. We can just come to the Lord, repent for what we have done, and allow Him to forgive us. This part is the hard part, but the Bible tells us that our sins are forgiven, so we need to believe that and release them to the Lord. Whenever we start to feel sin have power in our lives, or we start to allow the guilt to creep in, we can repeat this verse and watch the enemy flee. “All the guilt and power of the sin has been cut away!”
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, you are amazing! Thank you so much for cutting away all of the guilt and power of our sin. Thank you for sending Jesus to take our sins to the cross. Thank you for being such a loving Father that you allow us to make our own decisions. Lord, we invite you into all aspects of our lives. We want your help. We want you to intervene. We know that your ways are higher than our ways, and we need you, Lord! We ask you to help us to release all the guilt we feel from our sins. We ask you to help us break free of any power we have given sin over our lives. We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’s holy name. Amen.
Thank you for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. If you want to come to the retreat, you are running out of time to sign up. Just a few more days, and then I have to close registration. I hope you will join us; it is going to be an amazing time! I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you just as you are, and so do I! Have a blessed day!
Today’s Word from the Lord was received in April 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “My friends, I call you my friends, for you are my friends. Even as I train you to become my soldiers in battle.”