Christian Confession Series

The one thing all people have in common is guilt. Ever since Adam

and Eve hid from God, because they were afraid, out of a sense of

guilt, man has had to bear the burden, and suffer the effects of guilt, and

these effects are enormous. Modern psychiatry is discovering that

guilt is enemy number one of good mental health. It is the destructive

force behind dozens of different kinds of mental illness. It is the basic

cause for the anxiety and fear that makes millions live in dread and

depression. It is the cause for the ineffectiveness of many Christian

lives. It disarms the believer of the whole armor of God. It cuts at the

root of the tree of life. It poisons the springs of living water, and it

sends a corrupting worm into the fruit of the Spirit.

Everyone who has done something he does not want known has guilt.

This of course means that just as all are sinners, so all are guilty. The

more we learn about the guilt of man, the more we realize it is a major

factor in all of human life. One doctor treating one hundred cases of

arthritis and colitis found that a hidden sense of guilt played a role in

68% of these patients. Flanders Dunbar in the book Psychiatry In The

Medical Specialties reports that, "It has been found that at least 65%

of patients are suffering from illness syndromes initiated or seriously

complicated by psychological factors." Conclusions like this are being

reached in one study after another, and the result is that men are

beginning to see that man's ultimate problem is sin. It is sin and its

effects that are the greatest plague in the world. And guilt is sins

major effect.

Rowe expresses the minds of millions when he writes, "Guilt is the

source of sorrow! 'Tis the fiend, the avenging fiend, that follows us

behind, with whips and stings." There is no escape from the facts.

Modern psychiatry has confirmed what the Bible says: "All have

sinned and come short of the glory of God." All are caught in the web

of guilt. But thank God the facts do not stop there. John knew almost

2000 years ago that this was man's major problem, but he did not just

analyze it and diagnose it, but he gave a prescription authorized by the

Great Physician Himself. John had to have an answer for the problem

of guilt in order to ever bring his readers to his established goal of

fullness of joy, and fellowship with the God of light. Guilt is just the

opposite of this, and no amount of truth could ever lead to that goal

that did not first show a man how to be relieved of guilt. That is why

John begins with the matter of sin and forgiveness, for all Christian

maturity begins with clear understanding of this basic issue. John

shows us three basic steps from guilt to God.

I. CONSCIOUSNESS OF SIN-V 8.

John says that if we try and live on the hypocritical level of

non-admission to guilt and sin, then we are self-deceived. The truth is

not in us, and in such a state we cannot be forgiven. Such a person, and

they are not rare, suppresses his guilt and tries to give the impression

that there is nothing wrong in their lives. Meanwhile, though they have

succeeded in hiding their guilt from their consciousness, it is invading

their whole being like a poison, and will reveal itself in either a

psychological or physical problem, or both.

Many unbelievers do not respond to Christ just because they refuse

to admit they are guilty. They are hiding their guilt, and they are

saying we do not need a Savior, for we are not so bad. The natural

man is fighting for survival, and does not let himself be conscious that

he is a mass of guilt in need of cleansing, for to do so he knows must

lead to repentance and death for the old man. The same is true for the

Christian who lets the old man revive and live again in his body. He

hides his guilt because to admit it is so painful, and his old man does

not want to die. This is why guilt so often leads to mental illness. It is

an escape. It allows the sinner to say he is sick rather than guilty. This

sounds foolish, but this is just how hard man struggles against

admitting he is a guilty sinner.

This may sound like a harsh and cruel judgment on mental patients

,but the facts being discovered by competent men are reversing the idea

that there is nothing to be ashamed of in mental illness. It could well

be that such illness is, as Dr. David Bellgum calls it, "An involuntary