*WHO I AM IN JESUS*: TRUSTING THAT YOU ARE FORGIVEN

What if the reason you still feel stained is not because grace failed, but because you have been trying to feel forgiven instead of trusting that you already are.

I want to speak to you if you believe Jesus forgives sins, but deep down you struggle to believe yours are actually gone. You know the language of grace. You can explain it. You have heard it preached. But when it comes to your own story, something in you hesitates. You replay moments God has already released. You carry weight that grace already lifted. And it has made you tired in places no one else can see.

Grace is not God feeling sorry for you. Grace is God stepping in decisively and doing what you could never do for yourself. Grace is not fragile. Grace is not unsure. Grace does not change its mind when it learns more about your past. It already knew everything.

God says in Isaiah 43:25, “I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.” Sit with that for a moment. God does not blot out sin reluctantly. He does it for His own sake. Because it pleases Him to restore. Because it reflects His nature to heal. Because grace is not a reaction to your sorrow. It is an expression of His heart.

Some of you have been living like grace cleaned most of the room but left a few corners untouched. You believe you are forgiven, but only on good days. You believe you are accepted, but only when you are strong. But Colossians 2:13 tells us that God forgave us all our trespasses. Not the manageable ones. Not the respectable ones. All of them. Grace does not divide your past into categories. It removes it entirely.

You keep trying to scrub yourself clean with regret, but grace was never activated by shame. Titus 3:5 reminds us that God saved us not because of righteous things we had done, but because of His grace, through a washing that brings new life and renewal. Grace did not wait for you to get better. It met you where you were and made you new from the inside out.

There is a tenderness in God toward you that you may not have allowed yourself to believe yet. Micah 7:19 says that He delights to show grace and casts sins into the depths of the sea. Not to retrieve them later. Not to remind you when you stumble. To remove them from reach. Grace does not archive your failures. It buries them.

Some of you have been afraid that if you stop feeling guilty, you will become careless. But grace does not produce indifference. It produces rest. And rest produces trust. And trust changes everything. Romans 5:20 tells us that where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. Grace was never overwhelmed by your worst moment. It rose higher than it.

If you are struggling to believe this, it does not mean you are rebellious. It means you are wounded. And God is gentle with wounded hearts. Hebrews 4:16 invites you to draw near with confidence, not fear, not hesitation, not self-doubt. Grace is not something you peek at from a distance. It is something you live inside of.

You do not honor God by staying ashamed. You honor Him by agreeing with what He has already done. The hardest step of faith is not believing Jesus can forgive you. It is believing He already has, completely and permanently.

Your sins are not being slowly faded. They have been removed. Your past is not being managed. It has been washed. Grace has spoken its final word over you.

Let yourself rest there.

Brian Romero