Healing through forgiveness

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28 January 2007 See also Healing blog

A surprising part of the ministry of healing involves the confession of sin. For many people this is not only surprising but also threatening – even unbiblical. But confession and forgiveness is given a central place in healing by James (5.14-16). Confessing sins to one another is one of the means of healing. Such confession aids healing by removing barriers between people, as well as removing the guilt that people carry around with them. To own up to sin and know God's forgiveness is very liberating in its own right. Many of our inner burdens are associated with unresolved guilt and its effects.

Another way to think about this is to acknowledge that not all sickness and healing is simple. In fact some people find that when they become Christians their life seems to get worse. This is sometimes because they are now in a place in which God can begin to heal serious harm that they have experienced (or done) in the past. Part of this involves forgiveness for holding on to resentment or anger, or for continuing to act in ways which are no longer helpful or godly. It sometimes involves facing up to the habitual denial of relationship problems.

To know that we are pardoned, justified and accepted by God is the entry to living under his kingdom care. It is there, in the holy presence of the God who loves us that we find the ongoing transformation of our lives. Once having come under the rule of Jesus, we find that the gospel gradually frees and heals us. His Lordship continually encroaches into more and more of our life, setting us free, leading us to see ourselves in the true light, and freeing us to be willing to allow him to heal our hurts.

But one of the difficulties in confessing sin is to be sure that what we feel guilty about is really sin. It is the Holy Spirit who convicts us of sin on the basis of what God has revealed in the scriptures. Unfortunately we sometimes feel guilty because of what other people expect of us. Some of this false guilt has been taught to us in our childhood. Some of it comes from various forms of Christian legalism (more about that next time).

However one of the most difficult people we have to deal with is ourselves. Confessing sins and seeking God’s pardon is one thing. Forgiving ourselves is another. The trouble is that our sense of guilt is also linked to a sense of shame. Our guilt may contradict our desired self-image (as good or righteous), and one of the common methods of fixing it is to do more and more “good” things to build up our desired self-image so as to overcome the shameful aspect. A worse approach is to project on to others our demand that we be good, so that instead of focussing on our own sin or failure we focus on theirs – and become their critics and judges.

But the way to go about forgiving ourselves? … next time. And false innocence.

Dale

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