An article in the news told how early one spring morning, Chris White found garbage strewn across the front of his farm. As he turned over one soggy box, he found a shipping receipt. So White decided to give the culprit’s garbage back. He packed the trash into his truck and drove to the address on the receipt. The man who answered the door denied everything . . . until White presented the shipping receipt. What could the accused do in the face of that evidence? He sheepishly admitted his crime and unloaded his garbage from White’s truck.

Our guilt over sin has a way of heaping up. It stinks. We try to dispose of it in all the wrong ways—by heaping blame on others, by excusing ourselves, by drowning it in alcohol or numbing it with drugs or an overly busy schedule. But as long as that guilt bears a receipt with our names, it will always come back to haunt us. 

Enter Jesus. He didn’t shrink from our stinking garbage of sin. He loaded it on his own back and took it to the cross. He died under its burden; he paid our fine. “As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:12). 

Our resurrected Lord won’t ever come knocking at our doors to give back our guilt. Satan has no evidence to wave in our faces. Why not? Because Christ blacked out our names on those sins and entered his own. 

Our garbage is gone. Only gratitude remains.