Creflo dollar on sin consciousness of believers

How to Be Free From Sin Consciousness (Part 4)

Author: Creflo Dollar

Summary

Many Christians live a miserable life of guilt and condemnation. They do not accept God’s eternal forgiveness through Christ. They cannot even forgive themselves for their sins, and therefore they have sin consciousness (constantly reminding themselves of their wrongs). Furthermore, they believe their good deeds can make them right with God. To forgive ourselves and receive God’s forgiveness, we have to first believe that Jesus Christ has already made us right with God. Then we will be free to live a life of grace instead of living with sin consciousness.   

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1. When we make Jesus Christ the Lord of our lives, He will purify us from a guilty (evil) conscience if we allow Him to (Hebrews 10:22, AMP).
   1. An evil conscience is basically sin consciousness (or a mindset that is focused on one’s own faultiness or tendency to do the wrong thing).
      1. Dead works are the works we do depending entirely on human ability instead of trusting Jesus’ ability (Hebrews 9:13, 14).
      2.  In other words, dead works are an attempt to earn grace or right standing with God.
      3. The precious blood of Jesus cleanses the mind of sin consciousness and the “dead works” mentality.
      4. To receive the free gift of righteousness, we must believe we have been made righteous through Jesus Christ, not our works.
   2. Our faith is hindered when we have sin consciousness.
   3. A person has a seared conscience when he is progressively focused on his sins (1 Timothy 4:1, 2).
      1. When we depend on our own ability, we fail and become guilt-ridden.
      2. A grace-based life is not an inactive life, but a life led by the Holy Spirit.
      3. Living the life of grace requires belief effort, not self effort. Belief requires action on our part.
   4. Grace doesn’t empower us to sin; grace helps us to overcome sin. For every decision to sin there is a natural consequence.

2. If we cause someone to do something out of guilt, we cause them to perish (or to suffer with a guilty conscience) (1 Corinthians 8:10-11, AMP).
   1. Guilt causes a person to become angry, bitter, obsessed with their past mistakes, and subject to blame others for their actions.
      1. The Law was given to show people their sinfulness and expose their guilt, which is why we cannot live under the Law (Galatians 3:19, AMP).
      2. Guilt leads to condemnation. People who feel condemned all their lives believe they are worthless. Ultimately, Satan jumps on the bandwagon and helps them feel even more condemned and guilty; he is the accuser of the brethren.
      3. This can cause a person to become either suicidal or rebellious (subject to become involved in wayward foolishness). Foolishness can also be deadly.

3. To be free to live a life of grace, we have to believe we are forgiven and forgive ourselves.
   1. We have to forgive ourselves even if we think we don’t deserve forgiveness.
   2. If we do not forgive ourselves, we won’t forgive others.
   3. When we feel we don’t deserve forgiveness, our actions are driven by our guilt.
      1. In other words, we do “right” things to try to make ourselves worthy of forgiveness.
      2. However, those right things will never resolve our guilty conscience. Jesus is the only cure for a guilty conscience.

4. Without the Law, sin is dead (Romans 7:6-8, AMP).  
   1. Trying to live under the Law keeps sin alive within us.
      1. Jesus has set us free from the Law. As born-again Christians, we live under the covenant of grace.
      2. Therefore, sin has no dominion over us.