A Sure Cure for Guilt
Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord.” And you forgave the guilt of my sin.
Psalm 32:5
The stationery was cheap. The handwriting was shaky. The ink was black. The tone was desperate. The note was addressed to the United States Govt, Washington D.C.
It read. “I am sending $10 for the blankets I stole while in World War II. My mind could not rest. I want to be ready to meet God.” It was signed, “an ex-G.I.”
Interestingly, that elderly veteran is not alone when it comes to grappling with guilt. His letter is one of literally thousands that have been sent to the Treasury Department since 1811 when President James Madison’s administration received $5.00 from someone who admitted to having defrauded the government.
Such guilt money has been dribbling into what’s come to be known as the “Conscience Fund” ever since. More than $6.5 million has been received so far. Since 1982 the fund has averaged in excess of $200,000 a year, topped by a record $381,000 in 1986.
Donations given to the Conscience Fund vary in size and reason.
A Colorado woman sent in two 8-cent stamps to make up for using one stamp twice (apparently it had not been canceled by the Postal Service).
An Oregon man submitted $1.00 with the following note: “When I was a boy, I put pennies on the railroad track and a train flattened them.”
A former IRS employee mailed in $10.00 for the four pens she had taken from the office.
Most gifts to the Conscience Fund are from anonymous donors. Others are forwarded by clergy – pastors, priests, or rabbis – who have received deathbed confessions.
To be sure, the sincerity of some donors' repentance can be suspect, as demonstrated by a letter that read…
Dear Sirs:
I have not been able to sleep at night because I cheated on last year's income tax. Enclosed you will find a cashier's check for $1,000. P.S. If I still can't sleep, I'll send you the balance.
That example notwithstanding, the ongoing popularity of the Conscience Fund shows us something about human nature and failure.
If only…
One writer puts it this way:
“Our mistakes come to us as pebbles; small stones that serve as souvenirs of our stumbles. We carry them in our hands, and yet soon our hands are full. We put them into our pockets but soon our pockets bulge. We place them in a bag over our shoulder, but eventually, the bag of our failures is so heavy that we drag it wherever we go.”
Believe me, I’ve seen it all too often. Back when I was a pastor, failures regularly got dragged into my office. People opened up their sacks and out tumbled a stone of…
Immorality
An “affair” they’d called it – the word seemed so enticing and sounded so exciting. However, no one had ever warned him that life in the fast lane contained such potholes of regret – his marriage, his children, and his testimony all casualties of his short-sighted adventurism.Abortion
“It’s only tissue,” the Planned Parenthood worker said to her. “You’re too young to be a mother,” her friends said to her. “I’ll pay for it,” her boyfriend said to her. “How can God ever forgive me for killing a baby?” she said to me.Divorce
Broken vows and shattered promises seemed a small price to pay for a fresh start. But now they’re not only estranged from their spouse, they’re also estranged from their Heavenly Father and they wonder if they will ever know reconciliation with Him.
On and on it went: cheating, lying, deception. The lament was consistent. “If only I hadn’t done that. If only I‘d acted differently. If only I’d have said, ‘No.’ If only I would have taken the long view. If only I had listened to counsel. If only!”
Shouldering our guilt
Perhaps that’s part of what the Apostle Paul meant when he wrote: “The wages of sin is death…” (Romans 6:23)
Please note that he didn’t say, “The wages of sin is a bad hair day.” Or, “The wages of sin is a blue Monday.”
No. “The wages of sin is death…” Sin always kills something – at times outside of you…always inside of you.
“The wages of sin is death…” Sin always kills something – at times outside of you… always inside of you.
So what do you do with this? You take it to the One who was and still is able to shoulder the guilt of every person’s sin.
Again from the pen of the Paul: “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. “(2 Corinthians 5:21)
Mark it well. God didn’t cast a blind eye to our guilt. He didn’t shrug His shoulders at our sin. He couldn’t – not and remain just.
But He could accept the death of His Son as payment. A willing sacrifice offered by a perfect substitute for a sin-stained humanity.
God didn’t cast a blind eye to our guilt. He didn’t shrug His shoulders at our sin. He couldn’t – not and remain just. But He could accept the death of His Son as payment.
So what is left for us to do? The psalmist’s action gives us clear instruction: “Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord.’”
To acknowledge our sin isn’t merely to say, “God, I need to tell you what I did.” (He already knows!) Rather, it’s confessing, “What I did was wrong, and I want to turn from it.”
When we own up to our sin, not hiding it, but coming clean with God, then we, like the psalmist, can say with that same mixture of awe and relief, “you forgave the guilt of my sin.”
Think of it. Totally forgiven! Completely cleansed. What grace! Such a gift!
All because there was one who was willing to do more than offer a contribution to the heavenly conscience fund. He was willing to assume all the debts that were in it.
PRAYER
Lord Jesus, I am utterly humbled by Your amazing offer of forgiveness. May it free me once and for all from my guilt and shame. May it also trigger gratitude and worship…and a commitment to “go and sin no more.”
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