How to Remember Your Sins Redemptively

August 14, 2017

I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief.  1 Timothy 1:13 (NIV)

Satan will be happy for you to forget your sins. You won’t love Christ much, and you won’t grow much either. But when you remember your sins, he will try to use that to bring you into defeat.

When you think about your sins, Satan says to you, “You’re a failure!” He brings you into self-condemnation. But Christ didn’t die to free you from God’s condemnation, so you could live under your own condemnation! “There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus!” (Rom. 8:1). You need to know how to remember your sins redemptively.

1. Remember God’s mercy
   “But I was shown mercy…” (1:13). The tears likely rolled as Paul wrote this—as he thought about what he had done, and what Christ had saved him from. Let the memory of your sins be a means of magnifying God’s mercy. Paul says, “If God’s mercy can save me, you can be confident in his ability to change the most broken lives and redeem the most resistant people.”
2. Remember God’s patience
   “I was shown mercy so that in me… Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life” (1:16).

Maybe you have been praying for a friend or loved one (who is far from Christ) for years. Paul says, “Remember the unlimited patience of Christ. I kept pushing him away, but he never gave up.” Or maybe you have resisted Christ for years. It is not too late for you to come to him now. You can believe in him and receive eternal life today.

Are you remembering your sins redemptively?