Have you ever taken your foot off of the gas pedal when you saw a highway patrol car on the side of the road ahead? You might even have hit the brakes, even though you were actually under the speed limit. Why? Might it be because you often break the speed limit and you fear that you might be speeding now?
What about when you’ve been gossiping with someone and the very person you were discussing unexpectedly walked into the room? You suddenly got very quiet and perhaps mumbled something about the weather. Why that reaction?
Is it guilt?
There are times when feeling guilty is a good thing. If we are violating our consciences or being knowingly disobedient, we should be troubled. If we never feel guilt, we may be running the risk of being sociopaths.
Of course, no one enjoys guilt; yet everyone who has a normal, healthy conscience experiences it. It shouldn’t surprise us, though, that popular philosophies clamor that all guilt is bad. But no matter how stressful or uncomfortable guilt can be, feeling guilty isn’t always a bad thing.
We tend to think it would be nice to live without pain. But the nerves that give us pain protect us from harm. Hansen’s disease—which used to be called leprosy—attacks a person’s nervous system and can eventually kill all feeling in the extremities. When people with this disease touch a hot stove, they don’t feel the heat or the pain, so they burn their fingers. Eventually, with enough such incidents, they may lose their fingers.
Hansen’s disease even disrupts the blinking reflex—the need to close our eyes for an instant when they feel dry. So those with this disease are subject to dry eyes and thus are susceptible to eye infections and blindness. So pain is actually a blessing.
It’s the same with guilt. While it doesn’t feel good, it helps us to maintain a moral lifestyle.
absolved from guilt
Only after people sense their guilt do they realize their need for forgiveness.
Have you ever felt condemned by your own heart? Sometimes it hits you like a bolt of lightning. Other times it might build slowly, as if you know you’re doing something wrong but are trying to ignore it. Eventually, it begins to boil over, and, suddenly, you have an awful revelation when you see yourself through other people’s eyes. Or even worse—through God’s eyes.
Perhaps, paradoxically, Christians frequently experience moments of guilt. But that’s because the more Christians get to know the holy and perfect God, the more clearly we see the blemishes in our lives—the flaws that we may never have noticed before. So when we live in view of the holiness of Jesus, we’re likely to feel a sense of guilt and shame.
We feel guilty and condemned, and cry out, “I have sinned.”
The Holy Spirit convicts the world of its sin (John 16:8). We know that He is working in our lives when guilt feelings follow our bad behaviors. Remorse for sin is often a wonderful sign from God that He is developing new spiritual lives within us. But we don’t have to live with remorse, because we are no longer guilty, thanks to Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. We can be at peace with God.
The good news is that anyone who sincerely repents and asks for forgiveness can experience grace and peace: “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up” (James 4:10).
phantom guilt
Amputees often experience a sensation called “phantom pain.” For example, an amputee might have lost his entire left leg in some accident, but he may feel that the toes on his left foot hurt or his left knee itches, even though that body part is gone.
Doctors are helpless—unable to treat the part of the body that is screaming for attention because it no longer exists.
In the same way, there are many people who have confessed their sins to God, asked for forgiveness, and repented, yet they still feel the phantom pain of guilt. Perversely, they believe that God has forgiven them, but they haven’t forgiven themselves.
It has been said that the devil once appeared to Martin Luther, the father of the Protestant Reformation, carrying a scroll that contained an extensive inventory of Luther’s sins. The devil said “Do you really think that God can forgive all of this? You’re a doomed man.”
Luther saw the list and thought, There’s no hope for me. But then he noticed that the devil’s hand was covering some words at the top of the scroll, so he asked, “What is your hand covering?”
The devil answered, “Nothing,” and pointed to the chronicle of Luther’s sins again.
But Luther demanded, “In the name of Jesus, remove your hand!” And when the devil took his hand away, Luther could see the words All under the blood. Then, defeated and angry, the devil retreated.
Satan will often seek to discourage us by dredging up our pasts and every shameful thing we’ve said and done. He’ll exhume the sins that were buried with Jesus at His death and present them to us in the most hopeless context, trying once again to bind these heavy burdens on our backs. When he does this to you, rebuke him in Jesus’ name the way Luther did, and repeat the promises in God’s Word.
living without guilt
An old man was carrying a large sack of potatoes to the market in town. A kind farmer stopped and offered him a ride in his wagon. When the weathered man had struggled into the back of the cart, the farmer noticed that he was still holding the sack of potatoes on his shoulder.
“Friend,” the farmer said, “set down your load and rest your back.”
But the weary fellow responded, “Mister, you were kind enough to give me a ride. I wouldn’t ask you to carry my sack of potatoes too.”
Of course, we know the worn-out traveler was silly not to put down his load and rest, yet there are millions of people who accept Jesus’ forgiving mercy but feel they must continue to carry their burdens of guilt and shame. Far too many of God’s children are struggling through life, dragging around this worse-than-useless burden.
The author of Hebrews wrote, “Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith” (Hebrews 12:1, 2).
To successfully run this race, we are commanded to lay aside not only our sins but also the weight of guilt that impedes us.
The Bible tells us that “if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). That cleansing removes the guilt of sin. Let’s believe God’s promise and avoid the pain of phantom guilt.
You, too, Can Be Rid of Guilt
King David felt profoundly guilty. He had committed adultery with the wife of a soldier named Uriah, and then he arranged for Uriah to be killed in battle so Uriah wouldn’t find out the truth. For the better part of a year, David tried to hide his guilt, even from himself. Finally, God sent the prophet Nathan, who confronted David with his sin (2 Samuel 11; 12).
And David truly repented. He confessed to God, “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight” (Psalm 51:4). And he asked God to forgive him: “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions” (verse 1).
Now David could feel innocent again.
On the other hand, the Bible tells the story of Job, a man who was “blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil” (Job 1:1). Job could say, “I will maintain my innocence and never let go of it; my conscience will not reproach me as long as I live” (Job 27:6).
Why could Job say this? Because whenever he became aware of any sin, he dealt with it quickly, keeping his account with God up to date, so that his conscience was always clear. And in spite of his terrible sin, David could claim the same thing after he confessed to God. He said, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart—these, O God, You will not despise” (Psalm 51:17, NKJV).
What a wonderful thing that we, too, can feel like Job and David, so that our hearts no longer condemn us. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).
dealing with guilt
Talk to God about it. If you’re sure that what you did was wrong, ask Him to forgive you and help you to stop doing it in the future.
Sometimes we feel guilty about things that are not wrong, such as when a person defends himself against a false accusation and then feels guilty for the anger that prompted him to rise to his defense. Ask God to help you discern the truth about your feelings. Also talk with a trusted friend about the issue.
When you have confessed a genuine wrong, you can be confident that you stand forgiven and innocent in God’s eyes.
Remember the Bible text that says, “Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us” (Romans 8:34).
