Matt Tully

What would you say to the Christian listening right now who says, I believe that. I believe what you’re saying about Christ’s work on my behalf and how I am cleansed. Intellectually I get that, but I just struggle with my feelings. I do wake up every morning and my mind just automatically goes to this thing in the past that I feel like defines me and it haunts me. Is that just something that they’re going to have to struggle with for the rest of their life?

Sam Storms

I think all of us do, to varying degrees. Let’s remember that we have a diabolical enemy who, according to Ephesians 6, is raining down these fiery darts on us—constantly accusing us, constantly reminding us of our failures yesterday and how unqualified we are and how much of an embarrassment to Jesus we are. I think the solution that the Scriptures give us is first of all, we’ve got to pray. Cry out to the Spirit of God: Spirit of God, help me! Open my eyes to the truth of what I see in Scripture. Meditate on God’s word—memorize it—so that when those convicting, piercing pangs of conscience hit us, we can quote Scripture back to them and we can declare that he who confesses his sin, the blood of Christ cleanses him from all unrighteousness. You have to fight the lie of the enemy with the truth of Scripture. You have to speak back to the enemy. And even if it’s not Satan doing it—I want to blame everything on the devil and he deserves a lot of it—it may just be the weakness of our conscience.

Here’s the thing: I remember Packer—I think in Knowing God—and he talked about how people have differing levels of sensitivity in their conscience. There are some people who have a very strong and robust conscience and they can quickly embrace the reality of God’s love and forgiveness in Christ and they don’t wallow in the mud and the murk of self-condemnation and contempt. There are other Christians who have a hyper-sensitive conscience, and they are the ones who, when the slightest misstep occurs in their life, find themselves suddenly living under this cloud of condemnation and rejection and contempt. So, it depends on the nature of your own conscience and the level of your own maturity in Christ. But I think the solution for all of us is that we have to take the truth of God’s word and speak it and believe it and trust it and cry out to the Spirit of God to open our eyes to the reality of what God has done with our sin in Christ—that’s the ultimate solution.

There’s no button you can push in your soul and make all the feelings of guilt and condemnation go away. The answer is the truth of God’s revealed word, God saying to us, Listen, my child, here is what I’ve done with your sin. That issue in your life—maybe it’s something that happened ten years ago and you’ve been living with the regret and the pain of that action all these years and it’s kept you from worshiping me passionately. It’s kept you from coming to the throne of grace in prayer. Listen to me: I cast it behind my back. I turn my face away from it. I put it in the depths of the sea. I blotted it out. I’ve cleansed it. I’ve laid it on my Son in your place. Listen to what I have done. When we do that, the promise of God is that the Holy Spirit will make that a living, life-changing reality in our souls.

Matt Tully

You’re a pastor and you’ve taught as a professor, and yet have there been times in your life where you feel like you have struggled to believe these things about your own sin and how God has dealt with it?

Sam Storms

Daily. I hate to say that. Daily. I tend to be on the spectrum of conscience, as Packer would lay it out, on the overly sensitive side. I don’t remember this, but my parents said that when I was growing up, they had to be very careful when saying no to me because once they did, I would never do that thing again. Not that I was an obedient child—

Matt Tully

Some parents are like, How did that work out?

Sam Storms

I was a messed up little sinner as much as anybody else. I think the nature of sinful, fallen humanity—

Matt Tully

So, you say that over sensitivity can actually be a function of our sinfulness.

Sam Storms

Yes. Here’s the good news. I know this sounds strange and almost contradictory, but we have this idea that the more we grow up in Christ the less painful our sin will be to our souls. I think it’s just the opposite. When we’re first born again, we still sin a lot, but we don’t feel the pain of it very much. As we grow up in Christ, we sin less, but we feel it’s pain more. The reason is because maturity is becoming more like Jesus. It’s growing closer and closer to the Son of God in relational intimacy. Even though now, by God’s grace, I sin less than I did twenty years ago, when I do sin, it hurts more than it did twenty years ago because I know Jesus better now. I want to please him more intensely now. When I say daily, I think that’s a good sign. I think that’s an indication, hopefully by God’s grace, that I’m actually growing up in Jesus and being more and more conformed into his image. So, as we are more conformed to the image of Christ, the sin we commit, even though it’s fewer and far between, it’s going to feel more painful. I think that’s a good sign. It’s a good indication we’re actually making progress in the Christian life.

Matt Tully

How does that fit with the idea that as we grow in Christ our appreciation for the gospel, our trust for the gospel and what God has done for us to take care of our sin should be greater and stronger? Shouldn’t we also then feel more consoled and more confident in his grace?

Sam Storms

Yes. It’s a both/and. I not only feel a deeper, more intense anguish when I sin, but I also feel a greater joy and exhilaration and delight when I reflect on the fact that God has forgiven me of that sin, he’s wiped the slate clean, and he will not bring it up and throw it back in my face. It’s a both/and. Both of those things have to function. Unfortunately, here’s the problem: some Christians embrace one to the exclusion of the other. Some live under the lingering condemnation of a sensitive conscience, not aware of what God has done for them in Christ, whereas others are so embracing of the reality of grace that they feel like it releases them to sin all the more and they don’t have to worry about the consequences. Again, both of those extremes—either legalism or antinomianism—are the two extremes that we need to avoid.