Trust your advocate, not your accuser (2)

Paul wrote, “Who can accuse the people God has chosen? No one, because God is the One who makes them right. Who can say God’s people are guilty? No one, because Christ Jesus died, but he was also raised from the dead, and now he is on God’s right side, appealing to God for us” (vv. 33-34 NCV). The accusations of Satan splutter and fall like a deflated balloon. Then why, pray tell, do we still hear them? Why do we, as Christians, still feel guilt? Not all guilt is bad. God uses appropriate doses of guilt to awaken us to sin. We know guilt is God-given when it causes “indignation…alarm…longing…concern…readiness to see justice done” (2 Corinthians 7:11 NIV). God’s guilt brings enough regret to change us. Satan’s guilt, on the other hand, brings enough regret to enslave us. Don’t let him lock his shackles on you! Remember: “Your life is hid with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3). When God looks at you, He sees Jesus first. In the Chinese language, the word for righteousness is a combination of two characters: the figure of a lamb and a person. The lamb is on top, covering the person. Whenever God looks down at you, this is what He sees: the perfect Lamb of God covering you. Only once in scripture is it recorded that Jesus wrote something. And He wrote it on the ground, saying to an accused sinner He had just forgiven, “You are free from condemnation. Go, and sin no more” (see John 8:10-11). So the word for you today is this: trust your advocate, and not your accuser!