I’ve been a leader in our church’s Celebrate Recovery ministry for over a decade. A complaint I hear often is “I’ve surrendered all to Christ so why do I still sin? Remorse is killing me. Am I not saved?” I tell them their guilty conscience is proof positive they belong to Jesus, our gracious Lord who’s forgiven their every sin.
In other words, if they didn’t feel shame over their sinful ways (due to erroneously believing Christ’s sacrifice rendered sinning no big deal) they’d have reason to doubt their salvation. But, if their faith is real, the indwelling Holy Spirit never lets them off the hook when they fail to live up to our Savior’s standards. Their regret confirms their redemption and their acceptance by God. A.W. Tozer taught, “Thirsty hearts whose longings have been awakened by the touch of God within them need no reasoned proof. Their restless hearts furnish all the proof they need.”
Yet our hearts are restless because Adam & Eve’s sin erected a thick, heavy veil between us and God’s holy presence. When Jesus died on the cross that impenetrable curtain in the temple split from top to bottom, figuratively granting all who believe in Him access to our Heavenly Father. No rituals required. Only faith. Nevertheless, we still have fleshly desires to battle.
Tozer wrote, “God wills we should push on into His presence and live our whole life there. This is to be known to us in conscious experience. It’s more than a doctrine to be held; it’s a life to be enjoyed every moment of every day. At the heart of the Christian message is God Himself waiting for His redeemed children to push in to conscious awareness of His presence.”
Believers are free to bask in God’s light. But most don’t. Why? Because we’re so very unspiritual. Jesus said, “God is spirit, and the people who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth“ (John 4:24). Therefore, there’s nothing automatic about it. Like David, it must be our #1 goal in life to constantly yearn for God.
“As a deer longs for streams of water, so I long for you, O God! I thirst for God, for the living God. I say, ‘When will I be able to go and appear in God’s presence?’ …Why are you depressed, O my soul? Why are you upset? Wait for God! I will again give thanks to my God for His saving intervention“ (Psalm 42:1-2,5). Bear in mind David lived prior to the arrival of the promised Messiah, Jesus Christ, who opened the way for the elect to enjoy a personal relationship with the Father. The physical veil is gone.
So, what’s our problem? Tozer explained, “It’s none other than the presence of a veil in our hearts. A veil not taken away as the first veil was, but which remains there still, shutting out the light and hiding the face of God from us. It’s the veil of our fleshly fallen nature living on, unjudged within us, uncrucified and unrepudiated. It’s the close-woven veil of the self-life of which we’ve never truly acknowledged, of which we’ve been secretly ashamed, and which we’ve never brought to the judgment of the cross.”
As Voddie Baucham often says, “Can I get an amen or an ouch?“
For myself, it’s the latter. Previously I wrote about how our obsession with our “stuff” prevents us from treasuring as we should our merciful Father in Heaven, our glorious Savior and our infallible counselor, the Holy Spirit. I’m as wretched as they come. I’m too easily distracted by worldly things and selfish pursuits. Thank God, He forgives me of my weaknesses. Still, I have no excuse.
Tozer didn’t mince words, writing, “When we talk of the rending of the veil, we’re speaking in a figure, and the thought of it is poetical, almost pleasant; but in actuality there’s nothing pleasant about it. In human experience that veil is made of living spiritual tissue; it’s composed of the sentient, quivering stuff of which our whole beings consist, and to touch it is to touch us where we feel pain. To tear it away is to injure us, to hurt us and make us bleed.”
He continues, “To say otherwise is to make the cross no cross and death no death at all. It’s never fun to die. To rip through the dear and tender stuff of which life is made can never be anything but deeply painful. Yet that’s what the cross did to Jesus and it’s what the cross would do to every man to set him free. But let us beware of tinkering with our inner life, hoping we can rend the veil ourselves. God must do everything for us. Our part is to yield and trust.”
The reality everyone must accept is that we’re sinners. However, that status doesn’t disqualify us from gaining eternal life. J.I. Packer commented, “The sins of God’s children don’t destroy their justification or nullify their adoption, but they mar the children’s fellowship with their Father. “Be holy, for I am holy“ (1 Peter 1:16), is our Father’s word to us, and it’s no part of justifying faith to lose sight of the fact that God, the King, wants His royal children to live lives worthy of their paternity and position.”
We must endeavor to allow and welcome the change the Holy Spirit is working in us. R.C. Sproul wrote, “True transformation comes by gaining a new understanding of God, ourselves, and the world. What we’re after ultimately is to be conformed to the image of Christ. We’re to be like Jesus, though not in the sense that we can ever gain deity. We’re not god-men. But our humanity is to mirror and reflect the perfect humanity of Jesus. A tall order! It requires a serious level of sacrifice. That’s the call to excellence we’ve received.”
It’s normal for a Christian to have a restless heart. Heaven’s our home and we’re not there. Not yet, anyway.
Even Christians Get the Blues 