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I was pretty much raised as a Baptist for most of my life. As a child, I remember hearing the preacher use words like sanctification, justification, propitiation, and righteousness in his sermons and thinking, “Those are really big words. I wonder what they mean?”
I got the “just as if I had never sinned” explanation. But it wasn’t until I began to teach on the Breastplate of Righteousness as part of the Armor of God and studied exactly what it represented that “just as if I’d never sinned” was no longer just a trite phrase, but a statement that declares the power of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the forgiveness of sin.
We are righteous because God, through Jesus, has given us the gift of innocence. We are not just not guilty. He declares we are innocent. Let me explain the difference.
Picture a courtroom scene. You have the judge, you have the defendant with his or her lawyer, and you have the accuser or prosecutor. Although the defendant may claim innocence, the best outcome in a court of law is either guilty or not guilty. And if that person is guilty but has paid big money for a very good lawyer, they may walk away with a not-guilty verdict. Yet when he or she walks away, they inwardly still carry the guilt and shame knowing they committed the sin.
Now picture this: Jesus on the cross and then the empty tomb. Jesus, our advocate, paid the price for our sins to declare us innocent. The power of the death and resurrection of Jesus did what the law could not do.
Acts 13:38-39 says, “Let it be known to you, brethren, that through this man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins and by him everyone who believes is justified from all the things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses.”
The ritualistic, symbolic sacrifices practiced in the Old Testament had to be repeated periodically. Their effectiveness was temporary.
“But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.” — Hebrews 9:11-12
He didn’t have to offer Himself often, but once and for all, He obtained eternal redemption for those who believe.
“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit…” —1 Peter 3:18
When we believe in the power of the death and resurrection of Jesus, He declares us to be free from guilt and sin because of His sinless death! We are righteous, not because we are not guilty of sin, but because God, through Jesus, has given us the gift of innocence.
Isaiah 43:25 — “I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake; And I will not remember your sins.”
Acts 3:19 - “Repent, and be converted that your sins be blotted out.”
Psalm 103:12 — “As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.”
Psalm 32:5 – I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and You forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah
Why is this distinction between not guilty and innocent important? Have you ever asked God to forgive you for something, only for the devil to keep reminding you of what you did?
If Jesus' death and resurrection only made you not guilty, the enemy can remind you of your past, causing shame and condemnation. The devil likes to remind us of past sins we've asked God to forgive. This gives him an open door to use shame and guilt to condemn us, even though Jesus has forgiven us, and God sees us as innocent.
When God declares that because of Jesus’s death and resurrection, we are innocent, that means it is just as if we never did it, and that takes away the power the devil has to condemn and shame us.
When you realize how powerful the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is, the next time the devil comes and tries to make you remember your past sins, you can say, “No! Jesus paid for that and made me innocent, free from guilt and shame.”
Now, if that doesn’t explain why the Gospel is good news, I don’t know what will!
Not only this Easter, but every day, declare the power of the death and resurrection of Jesus in your life, rejoicing that “there is therefore now no condemnation” because you have an Advocate Who intercedes for you before our Father! And because of His death & resurrection, He can declare you innocent because He took on your sin, guilt, and shame, and now you can come boldly before the throne of grace.
Hebrews 4:16 — “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
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