“We have a strange illusion that mere time cancels sin… But mere time does nothing either to the fact or to the guilt of a sin.”

What C.S. Lewis said is to be noted. When our confidence in approaching God have been smeared by the sin that we just committed, we often try to absolve ourselves by waiting and working. Waiting for the feeling of guilt to subside. Working to patch ourselves up and to clear our conscience. After a day or two and after serving in the church and reading four chapters of the Bible, we feel like we can go back to God again. We think time has atoned for our sins or that the Judge has already forgotten our crime.

Our guilt seems to diminish the very doctrine that we so love to profess; that it is only Christ who saves. And our guilt, out of our desperation to justify ourselves, seems powerful enough to make us embrace the ideas that we say we despise; that we can be forgiven through something other than Christ. This is bizarre, isn’t it?

But sin and guilt is only cleared out through the finished work of Christ. Him, atoning for our sins on the cross. Time only delays repentance and hardens our hearts. It may work as a smokescreen to make us forget the feeling of remorse, but it does not change the reality of our transgression. Being guilty of sin is a legal standing on God’s court, and the sinner will be guilty whether he feels like it or not. So our quest to erase the feeling of guilt will not change anything even if we succeed. God will still deal with our sins in His terms of justice.

Just as we have been justified only through the Christ, so is our courage to approach God only restored by being reminded of what He has done. Embracing the Gospel as a reality, as our only hope. That only through Him, who bore the wrath that we richly deserve, are we cleared of our guilt. And when we have a good stare at the ugliness of sin and the beauty of Christ’s atoning work, then we can approach God in all His holiness with a sanctified repentance that resolves to wage war with the flesh, and a sanctified confidence that banks its assurance on the Risen Lamb.