The sense of guilt is said to be the most important problem in the development of civilization. Nothing else is so destructive and so crippling, either to individuals or to society.
According to the dictionary, guilt is an emotional feeling associated with the realization that we have broken an important social, moral, ethical, or religious regulation. Guilt is a social problem and is studied by sociologists; guilt is a psychological problem and interests psychologists; guilt is related to physical illnesses and is an important subject for medical specialists; and guilt is a religious problem that concerns theologians, minister, and teachers. In other words, guilt is a human problem, the greatest that is faced.
Guilt is a difficult subject to write about, because almost anything could be said to stir the conscience of those who are indifferent and insensitive, could certainly overwhelm those who already feel condemned, and could cause them to sink deeper in despair. But it’s a problem we all face, and must deal with.
In beginning a study of guilt, the first thing we need to do is to distinguish between several types of guilt.
First, there is “appropriate” or normal guilt. This is a guilty feeling over some definite action that clearly contradicts a person’s conscience. It may or may not actually break a law; it primarily arises from an individual’s conscience As an example of moral guilt, after David’s sin with Bathsheba, and having her husband, Uriah the Hittite, moved to the front lines of the army where he was killed, David’s guilt began to destroy his life He was still king, and had all of his wealth and privileges, but in Psalm 32 he tells how his conscience was tearing him apart. He said, “My body wasted away, my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.” Three times in Psalm 51 David referred to his broken spirit. This is normal guilt, and follows a definite breaking of an individual’s standards, whether or not a law is involved.
Secondly, Psychologists usually distinguish another type of guilt, which they call “inappropriate” or “neurotic” guilt. This is a guilt that comes from the thoughts rather than from specific acts. The whole conflict is internal, but it has the same physical or mental effect as the actual occurrence of something wrong would have. Psychiatrists usually treat this as a result of an overstrict conscience and they try to help their patients reduce the power of their conscience to punish and control them. This is considered to be a matter of “guilt feelings” rather than any actual guilt.
As Christians, our first thought is that this may be a harmful approach, since it often ignores actual guilt on which the “fault feelings” may be based. However, there is such a thing as “inappropriate” guilt for Christians to consider, even though this is not what the social scientists mean by their definitions. When a Christian has been forgiven by God and continues to feel guilty, this is certainly unnecessary and inappropriate. Brother Boll used to talk about being “slaves to our conscience,” in other words being always condemned by our conscience. Some people have gone forward in church over and over for minor faults, and many times for the same problem; but they never really feel free from this slavery to their conscience. They never feel forgiven and accepted. This is certainly inappropriate, as we shall see later.
This is the feeling we have when we examine ourselves and reflect on the difference between what we hoped to do and what we have actually done, between what we hoped to be and what we actually are. This is a deep sense of discouragement, but does not usually lead to any illness, and may even have a constructive effect and lead to an increased creativity in thoughts and relationships. T. S. Eliot, the British bank executive who wrote poetry at night, once said,
It’s not the feeling of anything I’ve ever done,
Which I might get away from, or of anything in me
I could get rid of–but of emptiness, of failure
Towards someone, or something, outside of myself
And I feel I must–atone—is that the word?
Again, social scientists usually fail to accept this. Paul said in Romans 3:23 “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”; and in 5:12, “death passed unto all men, for that all sinned”; and in 14:12, “So then each one of us shall give account of himself to God.”
All men are actually guilty before God, regardless of whether or not they feel guilty. Their feelings don’t alter the reality of their personal standing under the condemnation of a Holy and Just God.
So, the big question in the study of guilt is not whether we are guilty or not-guilty, nor even the cause of our guilt, but “What can we do about our guilt?
One way of handling guilt is to blame others for our faults and failures. For example, Hitler, while looking over the ruins of a town his armies had destroyed, said, “How wicked these people must have been to have made me do this.” After the sin in the Garden of Eden, Adam answered God and said, “The woman whom thou gavest me, she gave me of the tree and I did eat.” Very often we do the same thing. We blame our parents, or our husband or wife or our present circumstances for our failures, instead of recognizing our own guilt and responsibility in the matter.
Another common way of handling guilt is the attempt to punish ourselves for what we have done. Many people, even Christians, either consciously or unconsciously, try to punish themselves in order to make up for something they have done. This often leads to self-condemnation and self-hate. Some people are never able to accept themselves or to forgive themselves, and deep inside they hate themselves. It seems that the only satisfaction they have is in those moments when their sense of justice is being satisfied by some form of punishment.
A third way of handling guilt is by resignation. At times, probably most of us feel like shrugging it off with a “so what!” and give up trying to change. “That’s just the way I am so I might as well accept it and make the best of it. Besides no one else is perfect either.”
Still another common way to attempt to overcome our guilt is to do enough good things so that the bad things might be balanced out. The trouble with this is that a person can never do enough good to make up for the bad, and he can never undo the effects of what he has done. A good friend in the Philippines, a very devout Roman Catholic, and a very successful business man, once said to me, “I am tempted to believe in re-incarnation. A person simply doesn’t live long enough in one life time to make up for all the wrong he has done
Then a fifth way of handling guilt is one which may also be a part of the other methods, that is the attempt to hide it from others. Jesus said of the Pharisees in Matthew 23:5 “Their whole lives are planned with an eye to effect.” And this is true today, even for Christians; we try to impress others with a spirituality and maturity and humility that we do not actually possess. We feel that God and others expect us to act in a certain way, so we do all we possibly can to keep them from thinking we are not all that we should be. And sometimes we have kept this up so long that we have even fooled ourselves. It’s very hard to be open and honest, even with God. We find it hard to believe that even God will accept us, just as we are, without seeming to be something different from what we are.
The True Salvation
Well, surely, there must be another way, a positive way, to handle guilt. This is what Paul was seeking in Romans 7:24, “Wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me out of the body of this death?” And this is what Paul found, “There is therefore now no condemn nation to them that are in Christ Jesus” (8:1).
The process given in the Bible for dealing with guilt begins with the realization of our personal guilt and responsibility, and die fact that there is no way that we can deliver ourselves from this burden. This recognition of our guilt is the first step toward receiving the freedom and forgiveness that Paul found. T. S. Eliot, in another poem, said, “You think I suffer from a morbid conscience, from brooding over faults I might well have forgotten. You think I’m sickening; I’m just recovering!” In other words, when our conscience begins to bother us, that’s a good sign; it’s the first step toward recovery.
Then, the next steps beyond acknowledging our guilt and responsibility, are to con fess our faults and turn from them in true repentance. Proverbs 28:13 says, “Whoso confesseth them and forsaketh them shall obtain mercy.” 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” And James 5:16, “Confess therefore your sins one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed.” And of course, for those who have never turned to Him the first time, Peter says, Acts 2:38, “Repent ye and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins; and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
So instead of putting the blame for our condition on somebody else; or trying to punish ourselves; or giving up in resignation; or trying to balance it out with good deeds; or trying to hide it from God and others; we must be honest and sincere in facing our guilt, in confessing it to God and maybe to a few significant people involved in our lives, and then with the power and guidance of the Holy Spirit turning away from the cause of our guilt in true repentance.
God then assures us of His forgiveness and acceptance. All barriers are removed. There is no need for any further feelings of guilt. And the really good thing about it is that God’s forgiveness is not dependent upon whether we feel forgiven, but upon His promise. We may be aware still of our sins and failures; we know what we have done, and it is sometimes difficult to forgive ourselves; but there is now no condemnation, we are forgiven and accepted by God because Jesus paid for our sins and because we have acknowledged our dependance upon Him. God’s forgiveness is complete and final, and He will never hold these things against us anymore. Psalm 103:12 tells us, “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us.” And Isaiah 43:25, “I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake; and I will not remember thy sins.” In Ecclesiastes 9:7 we are told “Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, for God hath accepted what you have done.” And in Mark 5:19, “Go home to your own folk and tell them what the Lord in his mercy has done for you.”
This is the most wonderful news in the world, for the most serious problem.
-Billy Ray Lewter –Word & Work, February 1993