The Problem with Self-Punishment

“Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.” Hebrews 9:27-28

                                   

Many people all over the world, from various religions, hurt themselves physically to try to please their gods. But when is the self-punishment enough? There’s never any assurance of salvation.

Many people hurt themselves for various reasons—by cutting, or in other ways. There are many reasons people do this, but a common reason is self-punishment. We know that sin cannot go unpunished. It cannot simply be excused. Blood must be shed. Even Hebrews 9:22 says, “And without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” The problem comes in when we think it’s our own blood that needs to be shed. If we hurt or punish ourselves every time we sin, does that really take away our sin? No, we’ll probably sin again pretty soon! And how will we know when we’ve suffered enough, hurt ourselves enough? It can never be enough!

In the Old Testament, God instructed the Jews to sacrifice animals to “pay” for their sins. But these animals could not take the people’s sin away permanently. The people kept sinning, so they kept having to offer sacrifices every year. But God sent his perfect Son, Jesus into the world to die in our place, for our sins. He bled and died, and after three days, he rose to life. His blood was enough to cover all our sins, past, present and future. He forgives us for everything we have done wrong. Because He died once, we have no need to punish ourselves again and again and again. Jesus takes away our sin completely, forever, and self-punishment cannot. We need to simply accept Jesus’ death in our place and his forgiveness, and thank him for it.

So maybe you’re thinking, “Okay, but I don’t self-injure. How does this relate to me?” Well, when you sin, do you accept Jesus’ forgiveness, or do you continue to beat yourself up with guilt and shame? Do you place your identity in the mistakes you’ve made? Do you think you’re a failure and get discouraged about how many times you’ve messed up in the same way? We are not saved from our sins by the good works we do, but by what Jesus did for us. Jesus did the work by taking our punishment on himself. It is our choice whether we will accept his gift to us.