Since the response was so long;) and he put so much effort and thought into his words, I thought it deserved it's own post. Thanks for expressing your opinion, Sean. Sean is a member of Fremont Church of Christ.
Laura,
I typically do not weigh in on such subjects, but for whatever reason I did not want you to be the “cheese that stands alone.” I may say some things that you don’t necessarily agree with, but in my studies of grace I have concluded many things. Are you ready? I’m about to get long winded.
Several years ago there was an article in the San Diego newspaper about two men who were on trial for armed robbery. An eyewitness took the stand, and the prosecutor got up to begin the questioning. First he asked the eyewitness, “So you were at the scene of the robbery?” The witness said, “Yes.” “And you saw a vehicle leave at a high rate of speed.” The witness said, “Yes.” The prosecutor said, “And did you observe the occupants?” “Yes,” the witness said, “two men.” And then the prosecutor, in a booming prosecutor’s voice said, “And are those two men in this courtroom today?” At this point the defendants sealed their fate – because they both raised their hands.
The truth of the matter is that, so are we if we’re honest. We too are guilty because of sin. We would probably get along far better if we too would just raise our hands and say, “We’re guilty.”
Because we have verses like James chapter 2:10, “10 For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.”
That doesn’t sound fair now does it? That happened in the Garden of Eden didn’t it? They only had to sin once to be cast out of the Garden, because God is holy and God cannot sustain sin in his presence. It only takes one sin to make us guilty. So in a sense, all of us can say, “I did it… I’m guilty,” and we need to address that because guilt is a problem for us.
What is guilt? We know what it feels like. We all can say that we have felt it.
Guilt is like the warning light on the dashboard of your car. It is a warning light that something is wrong and needs to be fixed. And this one is important… but what do you do? Do you fix it so that the light goes off, or do you put a piece of tape over the light and act like it just doesn’t exist? Maybe you pull the fuse or you disconnect it.
All you did is cover up the problem, but there is still something wrong with the car. That’s the way guilt is.
God put that guilt there and that is one of the things that separates us from animals. We have a conscience and it pricks us and we typically know when we have done something wrong. God has put a warning light in all of us so that we will do something about it.
But I think that there are two extreme views when it comes to guilt.
There are some people who we will call spiritual sociopaths. They’re religious people… but they don’t have guilt. Jesus dealt with it in the New Testament. He called them the Pharisees. They were trusting in their religion and saying, “We don’t need the Messiah,” and they rejected him. They really didn’t feel guilt, but they should have.
Although we know a few of the Pharisees did. One famous one is Saul of Tarsus. He felt guilt but overall as a group, they opposed and rejected Jesus.
Matthew 23:27-28, “27 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. 28 Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.”
That’s one extreme. You don’t feel guilt even though you should.
What a way to be described. “You’re like a tomb… pretty on the outside, but on the inside you’re just full of dead men’s bones. You’re unclean inside, even though you appear to be religious.”
Another extreme are spiritual cripples. This is someone who has been forgiven by God, but cannot forgive themselves. Sometimes churches are that way.
When we come together we shouldn’t be saying, “We’re the only ones going to go to heaven and most of us here aren’t going to make it either.” When visitors come to our churches and hear that and feel that the message is that we’re a bunch of spiritual cripples and there just isn’t any joy, no enthusiasm… who would want it? Who would want to stay and listen to what else we have to say? Not me!
God does not want us to not have any joy of salvation. We need to be somewhere in between that. There should be guilt when we sin and at the same time we need to trust in God’s grace. Through that we will have joy, assurance, and pleasure in our journey knowing that we’re making it. God’s purpose lies between those two extremes.
There are a lot of people who are deceived by their sins. They don’t know how badly they need Jesus Christ. They’re deceived and they don’t feel any personal guilt. Do you know where they are on Sunday?
They’re somewhere engaging in some ungodly activity or maybe they’re just home watching television when really they should be at worship. They should be here worshipping Jesus because that is their ticket to heaven, but they are deceived and they don’t feel any guilt. God wants them to cross from one side to the other becoming aware of their sin and realizing that they really need Jesus and they feel personal guilt.
That makes sense to me. God wants us to be aware that we are sinners realizing that we need a Messiah and we need a savior. We need the anointed one to cleanse us.
But I see good news in all of this. Paul said, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation……...” (Rom 1:16) The Gospel can save us. We can have our sins washed away and not feel legal guilt.
Now… even though you become a Christian and have been forgiven by God, you can still be burdened down by your past mistakes. It causes you to not be joyful or confident of your salvation.
Rather than accepting the forgiveness of Jesus and all that he has washed away, some start thinking, “I remember what I did and I remember how lousy of a person I was. I remember my sin.” Even those these people have been cleansed of their sins, they are still caged by guilt.
Does God want that? No!
Christians without joy are basically useless to the work of God. He wants us to be healed. God forgives us and heals us but many of us have a difficult time feeling like we’re healed. He does not want us to feel personal guilt if our sins have been washed away.
Why? Because we are under “no legal guilt” if he has taken away our sins; however… can people still sin? And if we do then we need to feel some personal guilt because if we do, it will cause us to get ourselves right, repent and ask for forgiveness and remain in relationship with God.
We can still fall away. We can stop our interaction with the church and be out of step with God, but if we are not doing what we are supposed to do we are playing with fire.
How do we know the difference between true guilt and false guilt? Let me give you some tests.
Who forgives easier, God or people? I think that we can all attest that God forgives much easier than we do and I’m pretty happy about that. False guilt can come because we will not forgive one another. So we need to ask ourselves, “Is this guilt that I am feeling coming from God or is it coming from people?” And if a person has repented, we’re not supposed to hold the issue over their head.
In 1 Corinthians chapter 5, Paul tells a story about a Christian man who is living with his father’s wife. And that means exactly what it sounds like.
2 Corinthians 2:6-8 Paul writes, “6 This punishment which was inflicted by the majority is sufficient for such a man, 7 so that, on the contrary, you ought rather to forgive and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one be swallowed up with too much sorrow. 8 Therefore I urge you to reaffirm your love to him.”
He repented, and what is Paul telling the church to do? “Embrace that brother! He has repented of that sin and now you need to run to him and embrace him.” So is guilt from people or is it from God?
Another test – Is it vague or is it specific? Is it just a feeling or is it concrete? Do you really know why you’re feeling guilty? Do you have something specific for feeling guilty, or is it just a vague feeling? If it is a vague feeling, I think that it might be from the devil.
Does Satan want us to be joyful? Does he want us to be confident in Jesus? He wants the church to be anemic. He doesn’t want us to be joyful, he wants us to be pathetic because if we are anemic and pathetic, we are not working for the Lord. We’ll be so low, we can hang our legs off a tissue and the devil knows that and he wants to try to keep us pathetic. He doesn’t want us joyful, he doesn’t want us energetic, he doesn’t want us vibrant. He wants us guilt ridden.
So we need to ask ourselves, “Do I have something specific to feel guilty about?” If you do feel guilt about something specific then it is what it is.
Psalms 69:5, “5 O God, You know my foolishness; And my sins are not hidden from You.” Does that sound specific? Yes it does.
“God, you know what sin I’m dealing with and there is no need in me trying to hide it from you.” That’s a good sin to feel guilty about, right!
I know it’s specific, because I have done it, it’s true, I’m not denying it and I’m not trying to hide it and we come right out and say, “God, I know that you know and I’m just agreeing with you.”
Is it a secret sin? Secret sin and inner peace cannot co-exist unless you’re a spiritual sociopath.
Psalms 32:3-4, “3 When I kept silent, my bones grew old Through my groaning all the day long. 4 For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; My vitality was turned into the drought of summer.”
Does that sound like a man who is broken with guilt? Absolutely! He says, “God’s hand is heavy upon me.” There is something that David is hiding. I don’t know if this is with Bathsheba because it doesn’t identify that, but David has done something and he is keeping that a secret and he says, “Your hand was heavy upon me; My vitality was turned into the drought of summer.” His conscience was burdened by it. Day and night he was burdened by it. He was not at peace.
The story is told that Noel Coward, the well known playwright, as a prank, once sent an identical anonymous letter to 10 notable men in London. The note said, "We know what you have done. If you don’t want to be exposed, leave town." Within 6 months, all 10 men that received the letter, moved!
Now, that was a terrible prank, but it shows the awesome power of guilt. He really didn’t know what they had done. Guilt is a horrible burden to bear. How should we handle guilt in our lives?
I’m going to tell you how “not” to handle it. Let’s go all the way back to Adam and Eve. They sin in the Garden and what do they do?
Genesis 3:10, “10 So he said, "I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.” Do you see guilt there? Yes – he is guilty because he is a sinner now.
First, he just felt shame for what he did but just feeling bad for what you did is not enough is it? What else did he do? He went and hid. Can you imagine trying to hide from God after he had just created you? Adam tried to play a game of hide and seek but it doesn’t stop there. He did what every man would do… he blamed his wife.
Genesis 3:11-12, “11 And He said, "Who told you that you were naked?...” Have you ever gone to the beach or to the local pool and some small toddler is missing their clothes? Sometimes they get loose from their clothes, because so many small children prefer the buff. Others have parents who just don’t care, which in today’s society can be a problem because of all the pedophiles out there, but one thing I can guarantee you is that that child does not care about whether their clothes are on or off. Likewise, those same small children won’t notice you either if they catch you stepping out of the shower or getting ready for church. Little children are like that. As we get older we lose our innocence and it happened to Adam and Eve.
“11 And He said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?" 12 Then the man said, "The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.”
“You know… if it wasn’t for Eve… we would probably be okay here.” Hey now don’t blame me, that’s just what Adam said and I’m just repeating it! And then she blamed it on the serpent. She said, “It was the serpent.” And the serpent didn’t have a leg to stand on. Isn’t that how we deal with sin? We guilt, we try to hide it, and then we blame someone. Is that the way to handle it?
God has a much different way of handling guilt and it is one word… Grace! How does God handle sin and how does he handle guilt?
1 John 2 verse 1 and 2…
“1 My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. (That is the goal for everyone, isn’t it? There should not be even one incidence of sin… that should be the goal in life.) And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. (Jesus is our attorney, he is our mediator between us and our creator.) 2 And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.”
Propitiation means that Jesus’ blood is what satisfies the wrath of God. When Jesus died on the cross, his blood satisfied God’s wrath. That is why he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins and it’s pretty powerful if you think about it because it says that his blood takes care of the whole world.
There are about 6 billion people in this world and Jesus’ blood is adequate to cleanse all of us. If blood is powerful enough to cleanse billions of people, it should certainly be powerful enough to cleanse my sin.
Now not only do we need to deal with our sin, but we also need to confess it.
Psalms 32:5, “5 I acknowledged my sin to You, And my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the LORD," And You forgave the iniquity of my sin.”
Proverbs 28:13, “13 He who covers his sins will not prosper, But whoever confesses and (notice this) forsakes them will have mercy.” Not only does he want us to confess out sins, but God wants us to turn away from our sins. We have to change our ways.
1 John 3:4, “4 Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.”
What is sin? What is the middle letter of the word sin? I… and that’s where we get into trouble. It’s when we leave God out and we follow our own will rather than his. I become a lawless person who fails to listen to the law giver.
Another part of dealing with guilt is accepting Jesus as your mediator.
1 John 1:9, “9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
If you have been forgiven by Jesus’ blood… how much of your sin has been forgiven? ALL OF IT! Will Jesus bring it up again later? We need to approach God with the confidence that he will honor his word about that.
Hebrews 10:22, “22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.” That says that we should be able to draw near to God with confidence.
Jeremiah 31 and the last part of verse 34, ““34………. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” He is not going to bring it up anymore.
Another part of dealing with sin is that there are times when we need others to pray for us. James 5:16, “16 Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.”
People ask for prayers all the time. There’s no shame in that. If you have confessed a sin before God but you are still dealing with it on an ongoing basis I think that it would be wise to find a righteous man or woman who you respect in the Lord, and asked them to pray for you about this matter.
God not only wants to forgive us, but he wants to heal us too. Have you ever paid a bill and they stamped it with a big rubber red stamp and it said “Paid in Full?” That just looks and feels good doesn’t it?
God has given us all a letter and he has stamped it and do you know what it says? “21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Cor 5:21)
Paid in full! I wish I could say that about my mortgage, or my car, or my school loan. But we don’t have to feel guilt anymore about past sins. Our sins are removed, abolished and annihilated but we also need to forgive ourselves.
This may be the hardest part of all: I want to encourage everyone: "Don’t spend the rest of your life regretting your past. I invite you to do what David did in Psalm 32.
The grace of Christ saves us. It’s more than just a thought of the birth of Christ and feeling more this time of year than the rest of the year. I can clearly see that this is a tough time for you and I completely understand that and sympathize with that as I too reminisce on some things that are dear to me, but every Sunday is resurrection Sunday and a celebration of him in everything.
Merry Christmas,
Sean Rizor
