And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world-he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.  And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying,  “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them night and day before our God.”  Revelation 12:9-10  ESV

I like to watch true crime shows.  I like to analyze the evidence as it is presented and of course in doing so, I form an opinion on whether the suspect actually committed the crime or not.  Now there are some cases when I will admit that I feel that this person is innocent.  Of course the cliffhanger in these shows is when the jury reads the verdict.  Now of course, if the verdict is not guilty then the defendant, the defense attorneys and the defendant’s family are all overjoyed.  If it is guilty, these same people are filled with sorrow.

As we go through our daily lives, we sometimes are falsely accused of things and while it may not end up in the court system, we still want vindication.  As Christians, even when we are guilty of our sin, once we accept Christ we are justified.  My pastor explains it like this, justified means just as if I’d never sinned.  When we accept Christ we are new creatures (2 Corinthians 5:17). The Bible tells us in Psalm 103:12 that God’s love for those who fear him is so great that He removes our sins as far from us as the east is from the west.

So when we are found not guilty, why do we still feel guilty?  Well, our scripture passage today clearly tells us that the devil is the master of deception.  It also tells us that he is our accuser.  You see, deception is a favorite tool of the devil.  He first deceived Eve in the garden of Eden (Genesis 3).  The devil uses deception to make us feel guilty.  God’s word clearly tells us that once we repent of our sin that God removes it from us.  We know that Jesus’ blood washes us white as snow.  Isaiah 6:7 says it beautifully;  And he touched my mouth and said:  “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”  When we repent of our sins, God removes those sins far from us.

Now as Christians, we are not perfect.  We try our best not to sin, but sometimes we slip up. When this happens, we are convicted of our sin.  That means that God gives us that gentle nudge that says, “Hey you messed up”.  This is our opportunity to confess our sin, apologize to God, ask his forgiveness and also his help in not making that same mistake again.  Once all this is done, it’s game over.  Forget about it.  2 Corinthians 7:10 tells us that Godly grief produces repentance that leads to salvation without regret and worldly grief produces death.

Our problems come in when the devil brings up our old sins or even new sins of which we have repented and been forgiven.  The Bible tells us that once God forgives us of our sins and blots our sins out that he forgets them (Isaiah 43:25).  So why do we keep remembering them?  Well the devil wants to replay our sins in our heads over and over like a broken record.  If he does this then he may be able to accomplish several things.  For starters, replaying our sin burdens our hearts with guilt.  When we are burdened with guilt, we are distracted from doing what God wants us to do.  We feel defeated.  We may even give up and say, “what’s the use, I may as well give in to my sin, I will never be able to defeat it”.  The devil wants us to believe that we will never be good enough.  But remember, he is the master of deception.  He lies.

So what do you do when you are plagued by guilt?  Well first of all, immediately stop yourself and realize that this is not coming from God.  Romans 8:1 tells us that there is no guilt and condemnation for those of us who are in Christ Jesus.  Repent, accept Christ’  forgiveness and forget about it.  Secondly, realize that the devil is using the tool of deception to throw you off course.  Follow the instructions in James 4:7, submit yourself to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you.  If you find yourself plagued with guilt, then find yourself a verse to rebuke the devil.  When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, every time he responded to the devil, he began with, “it is written” (Matthew 4:1-11).  God’s word is our only defensive weapon mentioned in Ephesians 6, it is called the Sword of the Spirit.  Use this sword against the devil.  Find a verse that you find uplifting and redeeming.  If you are looking for a verse on guilt, go to openbible.info.  They have a great topical Bible.  So you can just type in a topic such as guilt and it will give you many verses on the subject.

God loves us, He wants us to have peace and joy in our lives, not guilt and condemnation.  So if you are feeling guilty, it’s not coming from God.  Consider the source and tell him to get away from you.  You are a blood bought child of God and you don’t have to put up with it!  I’ve read the end of the book and guess what, we win!  So let the gavel bang and the judge shout, not guilty!

Have a great day!