In this video, Bryce talks about the differences between conviction and condemnation and how to distinguish the two.
Chapter 1: What is the purpose of this podcast episode?
What's going on, guys? Welcome back to another episode of the Bryce Crawford Podcast. I'm Bryce, and today, listen, normally we're having a lot of guests on. We're gonna start having more guests on, but you know what? Thought it would be good to start the year off with a classic podcast, because you guys love it when we dive in the Word of God, talk about things.
By the title of this video, we're gonna be talking about something that is really near and dear to my heart, and that's the difference between conviction and condemnation. I believe that we have to understand the difference between the two, because it's important. And a lot of us end up living in shame when there's actually a lot of freedom for us. So I'm really excited about today, guys.
Also, thank you guys for the encouragement on the Luke series. I'm so glad you guys are super blessed by it. It's going to be amazing. But listen, we're just going to dive right in and talk about conviction and condemnation and talk about what the Bible says. What freedom is there? What does this look like? So let's dive right in.
I think the first thing we can always do, which this is always positive advice that I have for everyone, everything can always be pointed back to the cross. And so I think it's a beauty of it. Before you get into what the definitions of conviction and condemnation are, all of these things, we have to understand the purpose of the cross. What is the purpose of the cross?
The purpose of the cross is to pay the debt in which we condemn ourselves for. The purpose of the cross is to wipe our slate clean in which our sin puts us in an unpayable debt with God. And the only way for us to pay for it is with the death of our own life. But because Jesus has compassion on us, he takes on the punishment that we deserve for our sin in which it unites us with him in eternity.
That's a beautiful thing. But in order to receive that, you have to receive it. And I think that's awesome. And something that my roommate encouraged me with, he said, he was like, man, we don't pray for forgiveness. We pray from it. We pray from forgiveness because on the cross, death was defeated and we were forgiven. So we say, God, thank you for forgiving me now, blank.
And I think that's beautiful. But let's talk about conviction and condemnation. Here's the difference between conviction and condemnation. Conviction is from the Holy Spirit. It leads to repentance. It offers forgiveness. In conviction, the movement of conviction in your heart actually allows you to run to Jesus for grace. Whereas condemnation, it's from the devil. It leads to self-hatred.
It offers guilt and you run from God and shame. I mean, look in the garden, in the garden of Eden. You have Adam and Eve who blatantly disobey God and their response of disobedience is, let me hide from him. Now, if you go to second Corinthians, I'm flipping there right now. Second Corinthians 7.10 says, for godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret.
Whereas worldly grief produces death. Worldly grief looks like this. Worldly grief looks like this. God is coming, so I'm going to run away. Godly grief looks like God is coming, so I'm going to run to him. And that's a beautiful thing about conviction, because when we are convicted by something, it says, God is coming. I need to run him.
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Chapter 2: What is the difference between conviction and condemnation?
It keeps you pure, righteous, holy, joyous, and free. That's what confession is for. And let me tell you something. When you confess to God, you're saying, God, I acknowledge what I did is wrong. I own my decision. And this is what I was saying at the beginning of the podcast. When you pray from forgiveness, say, God, thank you for forgiving me. Now what? Now what do you do?
Now, this is what my roommate was encouraging me with. He's like, whenever you sin and you get convicted, he says, you pray from a place of forgiveness. You say, God, thank you for forgiving me. Now, God, show me active, practical ways that I can cut blank sin out of my life. And I think it's such a beautiful thing.
Because the confession is coming into agreement with God, his character, his law, who he is, the original design for my life confession. And here's the thing. And this is what I love. Like I've noticed about confession being a beautiful thing is that my brothers that I have in my life, If I sin and I confess to my brothers that they come around me with a lot of grace and a lot of truth.
And I think that's a beautiful thing. If you're confessing to someone that weaponizes your own sin against you, they're not a brother and they don't know the love and grace of Jesus Christ.
Because if you're confessing to someone and their response is to use it against you and manipulate you and to weaponize it against you, then they themselves haven't received the free gift and grace of God for themselves. And so it's a good thing to root ourselves This is why Paul talks about bad company corrupting good morals. And we have to be careful who has a voice in our life.
Because the people that have a voice in our life, their words mean a lot to us. And if they're the people that understand the love and grace and truth of Jesus Christ, then they will actually be able to display that to you, encourage you, show you grace, help you grow and hold you accountable in the scenarios of your life. And that's what I love about my brothers and sisters.
Here's a scripture I wanna read from Micah 7, verse 19. He will again have compassion on us. He will tread our iniquities underfoot. You will cast all of our sins into the depths of the sea. Micah 7, it says that God takes our sin and drops it in the sea of forgetfulness as if it has never happened. I used to work on a boat dock.
And when I worked on this boat dock, this lady was getting on the boat and she dropped her wedding ring with her massive diamond into the ocean. And she goes, Bryce, I need you to jump in and get it. Jump and go get my ring. It just fell in the ocean. And I said, lady, I can't do that. It's already gone. The second the ring hit the water, it was gone. Why?
Because as soon as it drops down, the current is swashing it around from the original place it hit. The sand covers it up. It's buried in the sand and all these things. And it's immediately gone. The second it touches the water, it's gone.
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Chapter 3: How does the cross relate to conviction and condemnation?
He said, when I kept my sin inside of me, that it was just beating me up and it was so heavy and I just couldn't do anything about it. My strength was gone and things like that. And he says, but I acknowledged my sins to you and I did not cover my iniquity. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. And he gives a call to all Christians.
Therefore, let everyone who is Godly offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found. And then he says, you are a hiding place for me. You preserve me from my trouble. This is a beautiful picture. The Bible also tells us that if we sin, know that there's an advocate to the Father named Jesus Christ who's praying on our behalf.
Man, if we knew that Jesus was praying for us at all times, would we make the same decisions that we make? Probably not. But the beautiful thing about it is, is if you sin, know that not only can you surround yourselves with godly community that will lift you up in grace and truth, challenge you, hold you accountable, but Jesus Christ himself is praying for us. It's a beautiful picture.
I want to end with this. This is your encouragement, my friend, not to live in shame, not to condemn yourself.
wages of sin is death but the free gift of god is eternal life and the beautiful thing about conviction is it's a joyous thing conviction is joyful it challenges our actions and purifies us to be more like jesus it's such a beautiful picture it's deeper than just it's it's deeper than hiding let us not hide anymore god calls us out of this lifestyle
And more and more each day as we grow in the Lord, as you begin to grow closer to Jesus, the more you realize you need him. The more you realize you need his strength. The more you realize you are thankful for his forgiveness. The more you realize you're grateful for conviction because it challenges you and allows you to grow. The more you realize that you just need soul reliance on him.
I'm going to pray for us before we close and just ask that God heals your heart, challenges you, shows you practical ways if you're struggling with sin areas in your life. Not only that, but that you just bathe in his love and forgiveness because it's freely given. You just have to receive it. Oh, Jesus, I thank you so much for this day. God, I thank you that you love us.
God, thank you for conviction. Thank you that you give us the Holy Spirit to teach us, challenge us, offer us grace, forgiveness, truth, love, and tune our heart. God, I just rebuke self-condemnation, self-hatred. God, thank you that you remind us that we're made in your image, that you've made us fearfully and wonderfully, that you love us.
God, I just pray right now that every human being, if they're experiencing any self-condemnation, God, that you would just change that from condemnation to conviction, that you will shower them in love and peace and truth, that they would recognize that guilt is not from you because guilt makes us run from you, but that conviction is from you and it makes us run to you and turn to you and allow you to tune our hearts.
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