Opposite to popular opinion, guilt can actually be a good thing. It makes us aware of the fact that a certain action or habit is causing us to be separated from God, and should drive us to repentance.
But if we don’t view guilt in a biblical way, it can drive us away from God. It can cause us to want to run and hide and try to ignore the feelings of guilt that are actually good for us. When we try to dismiss or shift the blame in order to lessen our feeling of guilt, it actually shows how prideful we are. Blame shifting (to a person, circumstance, or thing), for example, attempts to lower the feeling of guilt in us by making us shift the blame onto someone or something else. We see this in Genesis 3, when God asks Adam and Eve if they ate of the tree which he had commanded them not to eat from. Adam blames Eve. Eve blames the serpent because their new-found pride (their sin) causes them to think that they aren’t actually THAT guilty for what they have done because someone had caused them to do it. In reality, we know that their relationship with God has been severed because of their OWN actions, which is how we have come to how we are today—broken, sinful people.
Our pride tries to get us to feel that we aren’t actually at fault for the thing(s) we did. So we overcompensate—we read our Bible more, we volunteer more, we donate to charity more…but all of these things are just bandages to a more deeply rooted problem. Because of our sin, a wedge is placed between us and God. Our relationship feels cold, and almost nonexistent.
The fact is this: We are accountable for what we have said or done whether we feel like it or not. How we feel doesn’t change the fact of our guilt before God.
But we aren’t alone in this problem. Guilt is a problem that every man, woman, boy and girl face. Romans 3:23 says, “for ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (emphasis added). Each one of us is guilty in the eyes of God, not just because of Adam and Eve’s failure to obey God’s commands, but because of OUR own failure to obey his commands.
But there is hope. Hope in One Man who lived a guiltless life simply to take on the guilt and shame of us all. Romans 5:19 says, “For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.”
From Genesis 3:15 onward, the Bible tells of redemption that will be brought through the Messiah. Every prophet, priest and king in their imperfect nature pointed forward to the One who would be the perfect Prophet, Priest, and King, who would save them (and us) from their sin—this person being Jesus Christ. By trusting in him, all of our guilt and shame are washed away. Second Corinthians 5:17-19 says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.”
Once we are in Christ, the sanctification process, or the process of being made holy, begins. Christians often refer to this healthy guilt we’ve been talking about as conviction. Sanctification begins when the Holy Spirit convicts us (John 16:8) to recognize the weight of our sin and how it has separated us from God. We will still struggle with sin until we die or Jesus returns. There will still remain feelings of guilt when we sin, but instead of fearing, we must let those feelings of guilt draw us to the throne of grace, confessing our sin to God, and turning from them. The goal of this conviction is to lead us to repentance, not to condemn us, or punish us. Romans 8:1 says, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
Romans 12:2 says, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” It is not until our minds are renewed that we will be able to understand what God’s will is for our lives. It is in reading God’s Word, by the help of the Holy Spirit, that our consciences will be softened towards sin, making us hate it even more, therefore causing us to be transformed into God’s image and growing into his will for our lives—Christlikeness. If we are in Christ, we have hope for freedom from guilt, but if you do not know the Lord, then this closing section is for you.
Apart from Christ, you are guilty (as we saw earlier in Romans 3:23). You have a consistent wedge between you and God, one that you may not totally feel. Living in this state of rebellion will one day have its consequences if you do not come to trust in the saving power of Jesus Christ, and that consequence is eternal separation from God in hell. Each and every one of us are required to make a decision at one point or another in our lives, and this decision is very legitimately life or death. The Bible calls us to choose this day whom we will serve (see Joshua 24:15), because we aren’t promised tomorrow. We aren’t promised another breath. If you died tonight, where would your soul be? The feeling of guilt, or shame, or whatever you want to call it is a tool to drive you to the foot of the cross where Jesus died to take every weight of sin and guilt off of your shoulders. Submit your life to him, be set free in him. “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed (John 8:36).”
Further Study & Application
For this, you’ll need your notebook and your Bible.
- Read Psalm 32:3-4. Write out three results of unconfessed sin.
- Read James 4:2-4. What does this passage say about sin?
- Read James 4:8-10. What does God want of us according to these verses? List a number of things.
- Read Psalm 51:14-17, 2 Corinthians 7:9-10, and Matthew 5:3-4. What does true repentance mean? What does it look like?
- Read 1 John 1:9. Is there anything in your life that you feel needs to be brought before the Lord in repentance? If so, pray and ask the Lord to free you from that sin, and rest in the forgiveness He grants to those who come to Him.
- Read Matthew 5:23-24, Ephesian 4:26-27, and James 5:16. Are there any sins you need to confess to people around you? Ask the Lord to give you the humility required to ask them for forgiveness.
- Read Psalm 103:12. Do you believe that, if you are in Christ, your sins have been forgiven? Are you holding onto guilt from sin that has already been repented of and forgiven? Pray and ask the Lord to help you rest in the promise that “as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us (Psalm 103:12).”
Photo credit: Michael Marcagi
Elizabeth is recently married and is from Cleveland, Ohio. She is currently working to be certified in biblical counseling, and works in youth ministry at her church. She has been a blogger since 2017 and runs an Instagram page calledBinding the Word, where she seeks to encourage women to store up God’s Word in their hearts, to understand more of who he is, and to exemplify Christ in their daily lives.
