How I Overcame The Unforgiven Label And Embraced Forgiven As My Identity
The Unforgiven label is easy to identity with and hard to overcome when you have a sin-filled past like mine.
My problem was two-fold. First, I understood God was angry with those who sinned, and in my mind, I was at the top of the list. Second, a past filled with defiant sin doesn’t just go away.
My solution was a deeper understanding of all that Jesus offers. Before we get into the solution, let’s identify how wearing the Unforgiven Label affects us.
The Unforgiven label:
1. keeps us chained to our past.
2. is one of the most limiting factors in a relationship with Jesus.
3. keeps us identifying with who we once were rather than who we are in Christ.
4. limits our growth in our faith.
5. limits our ability to serve Jesus with our whole heart.
6. keeps us in tune to the continual whispers of the accuser saying, “Remember what you did.”
The first five years after I said yes to Jesus, I wore the Unforgiven label. I went to church, but guilt and shame bombarded me every moment. Four years after my salvation, we changed churches. The pastor of my new church continually preached two key factors that made all the difference for me.
The Two Key Factors:
1) Grace
2) Relationship with Jesus
I want to share some understanding of biblical truths that made all the difference for me. Let’s start with grace because grace is where our relationship with Jesus begins.
Biblical Truths About Grace
My pastor defined grace as getting something you don’t deserve. Grace is a gift, a free gift. Another way to understand grace is the free and unmerited favor of God. A basic and foundational understanding of grace is that no one ever deserves grace. No one!
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
Romans 3:23-24
For by grace you have been saved through faith,
and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,
Ephesians 2:8
To base our relationship with Jesus on rules or religion nullifies the beauty and significance of His gift. Rules and religion are the glue that keeps the Unforgiven label stuck to us. Grace dissolves that glue.
Ephesians 1:7 encapsulates the same message of grace and forgiveness.
In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins,
according to the riches of His grace.
Ephesians 1:7
Romans 5:15 reminds us that we received a free gift, but our gift cost Him everything. Grace while undeserved is still given abundantly. There is enough to go around for everyone!
But the free gift is not like the offense.
For if by the one man's offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many.
Romans 5:15
For those of you who have an abundance of sin or a past life that keeps you wearing the unforgiven label, there is much more grace for you.
2 Corinthians 9:8
And God is able to make all grace abound toward you,
that you, always having all sufficiency in all things,
may have an abundance for every good work.
Here is what I learned about grace.
GRACE:
· Wipes the slate clean.
· Allows us a fresh start.
· Erases the “Un” in “Unforgiven” and allows us to wear the “Forgiven” label.
· Has no set limits or standards.
· Just keeps giving. Grace is a well that never runs dry.
· Drowns out the whispers of the accuser.
Let’s shift gears and turn our attention to relationship with Jesus and think about relationship with Jesus with the unforgiven label in mind.
Matthew 7:21 is the passage where Jesus says that not everyone who says to Him, “Lord, Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven. Jesus gives the reason in Matthew 7:23 saying, “I never knew you.” He bases our entering heaven on our relationship with him. Wearing the unforgiven label based on a multitude of sin cannot keep you from Jesus.
Once we have accepted the free gift of grace we are then expected to walk in relationship with Jesus and through that relationship with Jesus we have a place in the kingdom of heaven. I am addressing this because if you are still wearing the unforgiven label and you are like I once was, I thought my past sin was what could keep me out of heaven.
Grace covers our sin and relationship opens the door of heaven.
Biblical Truths About Relationship With Jesus:
1. If we received Christ as Savior, we are children in God’s family.
John 1:12
But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God,
to those who believe in His name:
2. It was God’s pleasure to adopt us as His children.
Ephesians 1:5
having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself,
according to the good pleasure of His will,
3. God calls us His children based on his own love for us.
1 John 3:1
Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us,
that we should be called children of God!
In Christ, God gifted us with an undeserved label based on the beautiful and effective free gift of grace and His love for His children. He blotted out the “un” of unforgiven and gave us a “Forgiven” label to wear.
Here is what I learned about being in relationship with Jesus:
1. We follow Jesus not rules.
2. Filter the “rules” through our relationship with Jesus.
3. God set safe boundaries for us based on His great love and desire for our good.
4. Grace is the essence of that relationship.
My dear sister, if you are in Christ and still wearing the Unforgiven label, you were not meant to. You have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus. He labels you as Forgiven. Don’t waste another moment wearing a label not meant for you. Take Jesus at His word and believe that you are forgiven.
