In the Shadow of Sin: How to Respond to Your Failure

You just yielded to sin in your life. You feel guilt and shame. You feel far from God. What should you do next?

Are You Right with God?

The first and most important question is whether you have been given God’s gift of righteousness. There are two groups of people in the world: those who have received this gift and those who have not.

If you have been born again (realized your status as a sinful enemy of God and then placed your hope in Jesus Christ alone for salvation), then God’s word says that you have received his gift of righteousness. You have been justified. You have been declared legally innocent at God’s tribunal, regardless of whatever sin you have committed.

Don’t rush past this first and most important question. If you have not been born again, consider your standing before God. He offers his gift of righteousness to anyone who trusts in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior (Romans 10:9). However, until you believe in Christ, you are under God’s sentence of condemnation.

Navigating Feelings

Now, let’s assume that you are born again, but you just committed sin. We can begin with the good news. If you are truly born again, then even this sin does not change your position in God’s sight; you are still justified (legally innocent). God does not look on you as guilty and deserving of judgment. Instead, he still sees you as ‘in Christ,’ and he still loves you.

Beware of yielding to feelings of guilt and shame and rejection. These feelings are legitimate consequences of sin, but they should not define your Christian life. These feelings should motivate you toward righteousness and away from sin.

Paul says in 2 Corinthians 7:10, “For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.”

As Paul points out, it is natural to feel grief after you’ve sinned. (Take note: feeling grief or conviction after you sin is NOT a mark of being a Christian; both believers and unbelievers feel this). What you do with this grief, however, is a major indicator of your spiritual status.

Unbelievers normally respond to their grief in one of two ways. First, they suppress the grief or conviction, often downplaying it. Perhaps they try to explain it away as a societally-induced response, or they numb it with diversions. Next, they wallow in their grief, focusing on their feelings and feeling discouraged. This discouragement leads to despair, and in some cases even literal death (think of Judas Iscariot’s response to his betrayal of Christ).

Christians are tempted to do the same thing, to either suppress their grief or to wallow in it. Sometimes, because Christians feel that they are far from God, they even give in to more sinful behavior. They may think they already blew it once, so what’s the point?

However, remember that we are talking about feelings. While Christians may feel far from God, they are still ‘in Christ’ and children of God, despite their sin and current feelings. While they may feel guilty (under condemnation), they are objectively innocent and declared righteous in God’s sight. While the sin that they committed is real, it is not the defining feature of their lives. This means that there is no reason to wallow in these feelings.

Learning from Grief

This is not to say that we should ignore the feelings of grief and failure. They are God-given gifts, to help us grow in Christ-likeness. Grief should affect us, pointing out that our sin is not just a ‘little mistake’ but a genuine, serious offense against God. It is serious, and God graciously lets us feel that it is serious (unless he has so removed his grace that we don’t even feel the seriousness of the sin).

Paul says that this godly grief ‘produces a repentance’ (2 Corinthians 7:10). This is the response your feelings should cause after you sin – repentance. Repentance is far more than just saying sorry. It is a change of mindset about sin. Repentance often involves several elements:

(1) You are moved by the seriousness of what you have done. You take whatever time is necessary to understand this.

(2) You confess your sin to God and, in some cases, to others. Psalm 51 is the model of this sort of repentant confession to God. This step also involves repenting to others, seeking forgiveness, and providing restitution where necessary.

(3) You take whatever steps are necessary to deal with this sin. Jesus spoke of the importance of removing any triggers to sin (Mark 9:43-47). As you think about this failure, what can you do differently in the future to avoid this sin? What lessons can you learn to avoid it?

The process of repentance is not always quick or simple. In some cases, it may be difficult and complicated.

Living by Faith

Having responded to your sin with repentance, it is time to move forward by faith. Christian, do not let this sin define who you are! One of the most dangerous responses to sin is to assume that you can no longer live obediently to God for the time being.

Instead, respond to your sin by faith. Your sin is paid for at the cross, it does not define who you are, your relationship with God is not based on your performance, and you are being ‘renewed day by day’ as a ‘new creation’ of God.

Go out and live in active obedience to whatever God has called you to. Read Scripture. Pray. Share the gospel with others. Do not become guilty of more sin by refusing to obey God because you feel disqualified by your previous sin.

Living by faith is not more complicated than this. The gospel frees you from living under the burden of guilt, so that you can deal with your sin through repentance and then live joyfully in obedience.

Two Questions for Further Consideration

One: Does my sin mean that I am not a genuine believer?

Not necessarily. Christians sin. We are in the strange position of being positionally innocent before God, but practically we still sin (though this is not our core identity). This is what Martin Luther meant by “simul justus et peccator” – we are “at the same time righteous and a sinner.”

However, if you have a pattern of ongoing sin in which you are not seeing victory, that should cause you to question your salvation. Continual, unrepented sin may be a sign that you are not a Christian (1 John 3:8). This is different from occasional sin.

Two: Does my sin disqualify me from ministry?

Not necessarily. As stated earlier, after you repent of sin, you should go out and live in active obedience to whatever God has called you to. But this asks the question, ‘What has God called you to?’ If you are dealing with certain sins, then there are certain ministries that God is not calling you to as a result. For example: Overseers must not be dealing with drunkenness or violence (Titus 1:7), they must be characterized by faithfulness to their spouse (Titus 1:6). However, there are certain ministries (evangelism, hospitality, etc.) that all Christians are called to, and your sin never disqualifies you from faithfulness in these areas.