Dear Believer,

As you come to worship today, it may be that the failures of the past week cling to you and you feel unworthy to be here. Maybe you have fallen to some pet sin or have found, much to your frustration, that past victories have been turned into defeats. Maybe your interest in the things of God is at such a low level you wonder if you have ever known Him. Maybe you realize that you have brought scandal to the name of Christ in the presence of His enemies. I know that I often come here feeling just that way.

Let me speak to your heart of the things God has said concerning you – things that he has instructed me to tell you:

He has told me to tell you that all the hard service of redeeming your soul in the sight of God has been done. There is no work left for you to do in order make up for the sins you have committed or to establish a righteousness with God. God will lay no laborious burden on you!

God has also instructed me to tell you that your sins are paid for. You feel unworthy to be here, and in that you are right. But your worthiness was never the issue. Rather, the Son of God, Jesus Christ, Who is worthy, bore your sins in His body on the tree. Now, if Christ bore your sins, you will never have to. More than this: if Christ bore your sins, YOU ARE NOT PRESENTLY BEARING THEM. They are gone. All that you feel is the memory of them; the sins themselves are gone.