Dueling The Dark Lord: Haunted By Past Sins
Part 1 of a three-part series on spiritual warfare
“Doubt of God’s favor is the Devil’s stock-in-trade. Thus, he will constantly accuse Luther of not being truly called to the ministry. The Devil will fix on a single sin of Luther’s and use it to disturb his conscience, as he does with all believers when given the opportunity. Such an attack on Luther is typical satanic strategy, whereby he confronts Christians with the law and their sins in order to shatter the conscience. Indeed, the Devil, by his very nature, must continually attack the gospel and try to overthrow it. He steals God’s Word away from the Christian by turning the gospel into the law… He also tends to attack Christians when they are on their own, and Luther himself comments that he is particularly afflicted by the Devil when in bed at night.”
Carl Trueman in his book “Luther on the Christian Life”
One particular way in which Satan tempts us to despair over our condition is by tempting us to re-live our past sins. Even though we have brought them to God for confession and forgiveness we can be tempted to think that maybe we have not done enough.
How does Satan tempt us to re-live our past sins?
Here is what he might tempt us with:
How can you possibly rest in forgiveness for this?
This is more than a mistake, this is detrimental to your whole life.
This event will haunt you forever.
There is no way you should not be ashamed anymore for this.
Are you sure it wasn’t worse than you think?
Are you sure that you can really leave this in the past?
How do you know that you’ve dealt with this properly?
Surely no one else has sinned this badly! Surely no one else is more unclean than you.
God does not think that you have dealt with this to the full extent & if you don’t do something about it then He will have to severely discipline you.
You should really be afraid of cancel culture.
What if there are other times in your life where this happened and you forgot about it?”
What might it result in?
Extreme sorrow for our inability to change what we’ve done.
Anxiety over the fact that it might continually revisit us in the future.
Despair over the fact that we can’t go back and fix it or make things right.
How will we tend to respond if we believe Satan’s lies?
Non-stop apologizing even to the point of tracking people down endlessly until every possible person has been addressed.
Constantly trying to find ways to explain what happened.
Avoiding victims at any cost since they are surely out to get you.
Berating yourself like you need further punishment.
Easily set off by triggers.
Trying to figure out anyway to reverse what happened.
Possible hallucinations & dreams that this has happened at other times or it’s worse than you thought.
What could this response result in after believing Satan’s lies?
Constantly a heaviness of spirit when it’s on your mind (like the Charlie Brown rain cloud).
Crippling feeling of inadequacy.
Drowning in self-loathing.
Trying to let time heal all but it’s not doing anything in your conscience.
Nights of weeping.
Cut off others socially.
Self-harm.
Wish you could just die.
Drug and alcohol use to numb the pain.
Entertainment binge & technology addiction.
An inability to accept forgiveness from God and others.
How do we battle?
Stop reviewing & rest in God’s omniscience and grace. Luther: “Your sin is forgiven. Rely resolutely on this… Give heed to all that your pastor and preacher tell you from the Word of God. Do not despise their counsel and comfort, for it is God Himself who speaks to you through them.”
When there has been confession and assurance of pardon, ignore the thoughts and don’t entertain them. Once again, Luther: “If you allow one thought to enter, and you pay attention to it, [the dark lord] will force ten additional thoughts into your mind until at last he overpowers you.”
When godly brothers and sisters affirm you of God’s forgiveness then LISTEN to them rather than your emotions.
Verses & Quotes to remember:
Ph. 3:13 “forgetting the past and pressing forward to what lies ahead”
Rom. 5:20 “where sin abounded, grace super abounded”
2 Sam. 12:13 “The LORD has also put away your sin.”
Lk. 7:50 “Your faith has saved you, go in peace.”
1 Jn. 1:9 “If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Martyn Lloyd-Jones: “We must never look at any sin in our past life in any way except that which leads us to praise God and to magnify His grace in Christ Jesus.”
Thomas Adams: “Sins are so remitted, as if they had never been committed.”
Randy Alcorn: “Are we trying to atone for our sins? We can’t. Only Jesus can, and He already did. Don’t try to repeat the atonement – just accept it! Embrace God’s forgiveness.”
Jerry Bridges: “We tend to drag up our old sins, that we tend to live under a vague sense of guilt…we are not nearly as vigorous in appropriating God’s forgiveness as He is in extending it. Consequently, instead of living in the sunshine of God’s forgiveness through Christ, we tend to live under an overcast sky of guilt most of the time.”