Wednesday, January 2, 2013
Ninth Christmas Day
Psalm 130:3-4 If you, O LORD, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness; therefore you are feared.
GUILT NO LONGER CAN DISTRESS ME
As the year turns, one is able to find many magazine articles, books, and television specials reviewing the highs and lows of the past twelve months. It is natural for us to think back a bit as we start into our new calendars.
What do you find when you look back on the year just ended? If you're like me, you enjoy remembering the good parts, but the bad parts can really be troubling. The things that like to stick in mind most seem to be the failures and mistakes. In reviewing a year past, I tend to dwell especially on the things I did that were wrong as well as the things I did not do that would have been right. I worry about how to fix those mistakes-- or if they can even be fixed. So it happens that I seem to end every year feeling more guilty than ever.
Contemporary psychology would say to me, "Just don't worry about it," but that doesn't help. Sin is real and guilt over it is real. It needs a real solution. That solution is the Child in Bethlehem. He is the only one who can take our guilt away. He did that by suffering for our sins on the cross. His perfect sacrifice for our evil means that God's justice has been satisfied and that our sin, though it was truly committed, will not be held against us. No record of wrongs is kept, for all is laid on the Lamb of God!
Now we don't have to be afraid to look back at the year past, and we can step forward with confidence into the year ahead, for we have real New Year's peace.
Hither come, ye heavy-hearted,
Who for sin, Deep within,
Long and sore have smarted;
For the poisoned wounds you're feeling
Help is near, One is here
Mighty for their healing.
Guilt no longer can distress me;
Son of God, Thou my load
Bearest to release me.
Stain in me Thou findest never;
I am clean, All my sin
Is removed forever.
I am pure, in Thee believing,
From Thy store Evermore
Righteous robes receiving.
In my heart I will enfold Thee,
Treasure rare, Let me there,
Loving, ever hold Thee.
(The Lutheran Hymnal, 77:10, 13-14)
