About Jesus, Peter writes:

For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow His steps:
Who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth:

1 Peter 2:21-22

The phrase “neither was guile found in His mouth” literally means Jesus’ enemies searched thoroughly to find guile (a word which means “to have underhanded and wicked secrets or motives”) and found none. They didn’t just examine whatever information came their way, they went looking for something…anything…they could use against Jesus, but found none. In the end they were forced to lie about Him, which is the point Peter makes in this chapter (that if we–like Jesus–live pure lives then our enemies will have to lie about us too, exposing their true character).

The point is, if Jesus had any skeletons in His closet, or if He was not living in any way up to the standard He seemed to present of Himself in public, His enemies would have discovered it and they would have used it against Him.

They found nothing.

My mentor Bob Turner used to say (and I imagine He still does): “If you were accused of being a Christian would there be enough evidence to convict?”

What he means is “if someone went looking for evidence to prove you were a follower of God, would you have given enough evidence to that fact in your life?” Hopefully so, but think of the opposite: How many skeletons are hiding in your closet? You may be holy in public but how long would it take to discover something if people went searching to expose your unfaithfulness? How much digging would have to be done?

Obviously, Jesus was perfect and had never made a mistake; His enemies were never going to find anything. For us, we’re not perfect; Christians have been forgiven, but that just means we have some bad things in our past. Those things will always be in our past, and while we rejoice that God does not count them against us anymore, our enemies can always try to dredge them up to hurt us.

That said, there should be no sins on our record that remain unforgiven. There should be no skeletons that we have buried in our closests with the intent to bring them out when no one’s around. Hidden sins will eventually be found out (Numbers 32:23) and our enemies will surely be looking.

It’s a new year, let’s resolve to remove all the skeletons and start fresh and new, forgiven of all sins by Jesus’ grace.