Forgiven?

Message / Question Wow, quite a few questions about "the big sins" here. There are consequences, but if no one knows, there's none? So the "guilty conscience", should you ever "dob" yourself in? Why do some pastors teach you should dob yourself in, and others say, forget the past? So tell, or not to tell, about sins that others don't know about?

Response

It may be reasonable to argue that true repentance would involve owning up to past sins. Certainly, when we receive Christ, we stand righteous and forgiven before the court of heaven, however human consciousness of past sin may certainly affect our life on earth and we may need to “own up” and face natural consequences in order to satisfy our human conscience. There’s no easy answer to the “dob yourself in” question – however it has to be understood that, even though we are forgiven by God, if we have done things in the past that were never resolved, they may “catch up” with us and we may have to face their natural consequence (e.g. if we committed a crime before we were a Christian, the law may still impose its consequence if we are “caught”, regardless of whether we are now forgiven by God)