Return to Sender

And you, who were dead in trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh (your sensuality, your sinful carnal nature), [God] brought to life together with [Christ], having [freely] forgiven us all our transgressions, having cancelled and blotted out and wiped away the handwriting of the note (bond) with its legal decrees and demands which was in force and stood against us (hostile to us). This [note with its regulations, decrees, and demands] He set aside and cleared completely out of our way by nailing it to [His] cross (Colossians 2:13-15, Amplified Bible).

Ransom is a simple mathematical calculation, a one-to-one ratio, a balanced equals sign. Our legal debt has been paid by Jesus, our substitute, leaving a balance of zero. Anyone can rationally understand this. Most of us have heard it preached that we are cleansed by the blood of the Lamb and that our sins have been cleared completely out of our way.

However, even though the note of our debt has been totally cancelled, the devil still likes to send us nasty little envelopes full of accusations.  We need a personal, fresh, daily, divine revelation of God’s grace toward us to combat this nonsense. In other words, we need to be assured of our identity in Christ so that, even if the devil mails a condemnation surprise, we will refuse to sign for the package.

We all have sins we feel condemned about. They may have happened yesterday or ten years ago, but somehow we’ve absorbed the idea that we are not worthy of God’s love because of we’ve messed up. They may be concrete actions (stealing, sexual sin, lying), perceived spiritual failure (I don’t measure up because I don’t read my Bible or pray “enough”), or just attitudes (judgmentalism, quick temper, impatience).

Many times, these are lies that have been spoken over us, either directly or indirectly, from our childhoods. Words have great power. We heard at church, “If you don’t [insert spiritual discipline], you’re not a good enough Christian.” Or some teacher told us that we talked too much, we were too messy, we had a bad temper, etc. Sometimes the wounds are even deeper—a friend questioned our sexuality in junior high, someone spread lies about us in high school, or a parent told us we wouldn’t amount to anything. These false accusations of our childhoods have blossomed into destructive beliefs that we’ve internalized.

A lot of times, we haven’t even committed the sins we’re ashamed of—just the fact that we have been tempted or even just accused brings us shame. Somehow, through the sneaky lies of the devil, these sins and attitudes have become part of our identity.

We start to expect accusation from others, and we self-condemn regularly. We all have some sensitive area of our life that can cause us to fall into an identity crisis. For most of us, it’s become habit to pick up the mail that the devil is sending.

If it seems like I’m harping on the subject of self-condemnation lately, it’s because I am. I have been realizing just how insidious the attitude of condemnation can be. It is often woven directly into the fabric of who we are so that we don’t even recognize it. Usually, all of these thoughts are subconscious. For each of us, there is a place or set of places in our hearts that identify with the person we once were, who was crucified on the cross. The result is that we try to raise that person from the dead—start thinking, acting, and feeling like the person we were before we were saved by grace.  

Can I help you out? Even if you completely committed every sin in the book, the sin itself is still a lie. When you are saved by grace, not only are you no longer defined by sin, you never were defined by it in the first place. It’s as if the sins never happened. It’s not that God has taken a broken pot and repaired it. He creates a new, beautiful vessel and completely obliterates the old pot, as if it never existed.

You have no holes, chips, or imperfections. It’s become as though you never had them in the first place. They are gone.

Even when we make mistakes (which we inevitably will, because we are human beings with feelings), we need to realize that God cannot and will not condemn

us, because we have been completely redeemed by the blood of Jesus. The debt balance is still zero.

On the cross, Jesus took the things that rightfully belong to the devil—sin, shame, accusation, and condemnation—and brought them straight back down to hell, where they came from. Legally, they don’t belong to us anymore. If we think they do, it’s a lie. Even when we sin, that’s a lie—an action that reflects a person whom we are not, a result of believing the lie that we are sinners. (Wrap your mind around that for a second.)

When we take up mentalities of self-condemnation, fear of accusation, and shame, we are actually stealing stuff that really belongs to the devil.

Of course, he’s more than happy for us to take it back. I mean, who wants to hang on to that stuff? So he packages it up, ties it with a bow, and delivers it to us in the hope that we will be convinced that it is ours.

But when he does, you just remind yourself of the completed work of the cross. Tell yourself that God sees you whole, pure, and sinless. Then stamp a big “RETURN TO SENDER” on the envelope and stick it back in the mail.