A pastor challenges believers who think they must suffer to pay for their sins. He calls this self-righteousness and says it blocks your relationship with God. Jesus already paid the price, so stop punishing yourself and return to loving him.
And you say, yes, yes, yes, I know the Lord forgave me, but I, I still have to bear this guilt. I still have to bear this shame, and I'm bearing it over me because I deserve to suffer for what I did. That's self-righteousness. You think you have to suffer when Jesus already did. That's self-righteousness. It's a means by which you are trying to redeem yourself. And some of you are stuck and bound in that mindset, and because of that, you're having trouble returning to your first love, returning to that prayer life, returning to that worship, returning to who you once were and what you once embraced.
