It is the hardest thing in all the world, but the most liberating thing, for a sinful man to look square at the facts of his sin and defy the shame of it all by asserting the cross of Christ for those very sins. This is the work of the gospel. This is self-ministry. Everyman must learn how to apply the gospel of grace to his conscience when he has sinned. You cannot get free of your sins on your own; the only way to get free is to see them, in all their damnable inexcusability, covered and pardoned and forgiven and forever removed by the blood of Christ.
From Ray Ortlund