In the Bible, the primary use of the word "guilt" is a legal term that defines humanity's standing before God.
Adam's relationship with the Lord dramatically changed after he sinned in the Garden of Eden. For the first time in eternity, the created became afraid of the Creator. Before his sin, Adam had walked intimately with God.
After Adam sinned, the Lord cried out to him, "Where are you?" Adam answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid" (Gen 3:9-12).
Not only was Adam afraid, but he hid from God as he became aware and ashamed of his nakedness. Adam's guilt directly resulted from damaging his relationship with the Lord by his sin.
Adam's sinful nature was passed down to all of humankind. As a result, every man, woman, and child on this planet has been found guilty before God because they were born sinners. Sin is the violation of God's law. When a person sins, their behavior directly opposes Him because He is holy and, by their nature, they are sinful. This guilt needs to be washed clean.
Guilt is essentially self-condemnation, based upon the Creator's disapproval of the sins committed by the created.
There is supposed to be a guilty feeling when one of God's laws is broken. The holy God gave humanity a conscience to help them know when they have sinned and make them aware of their guilt before Him.
However, if a person continues falling deeper and deeper into sin, their heart can become hard and insensitive to the wooing of the Holy Spirit. They may not feel guilty due to their behavior, but the guilty verdict rendered by God remains the same.
A door-to-door survey was taken that asked two questions of every person in each neighborhood in which they went.
The first question was, "Do you think that you are good enough to go to heaven?" The second question asked was, "Do you think your neighbor is good enough to go to heaven?"
Almost without exception at each home, the person who answered the door said they knew they were going to heaven, but they weren't so sure about their neighbor!
The Bible is clear in its teaching that being a good person or doing good deeds won't get a person to heaven!
"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast." (Eph 2:8-9)
Humanity's guilt before God remains whether it is felt or not. To have the guilty verdict removed, God requires that every person on the planet come to the place of repentance and receive Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior.
The cleansing of this guilt comes from the shed blood of Jesus. His death provided the way for humankind to never experience this type of guilt again.
Freedom from the Law of Sin and Death
However, there is a significant difference between the guilt one feels when one has wronged another and guilt before God.
When someone wrongs another, they need to "confess" their "sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed" (James 5:16).
The law of sin and death means every human being stands guilty before God. They are set free from this law by becoming a Born-Again Christian and no longer stand condemned before God because of their transgressions.
When there is a feeling of convicting guilt for having done wrong, the Christian can be assured that they still "belong to the truth," and can have their heart "at rest in his presence" whenever their heart condemns them.
"For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything." (1 John 3:19-20)
Christians are supposed to feel the guilt of conviction when they hurt someone or do something wrong or contrary to God's law because it becomes the primary force in directing them to repent and change their behavior.
When a Christian sins, their relationship with the heavenly Father is damaged. However, the guilt experienced through the conviction of the Holy Spirit is not the same guilt as one who has rejected Jesus and been found guilty before God.
Too many believers feel that they may have crossed over the line and fallen out of their position of safety before God because of the sin they committed.
I have seen many Christians go down to the altar to get saved over and over again because they think that their sin has eternally separated them from God.
Position Vs. Condition
When a Christian sins, their position before God stays the same, but their condition at that moment is changed. If a husband or wife hurts the other and does not apologize or repent of their mistake, their condition or relationship is harmed, even though they are still just as married as when they were in newly-wedded bliss. In our current legal system, the only way the behavior could change their position is if they both mutually agree to get a divorce.
In Jesus' time, only the husband could file for divorce. The Bible says the Born-Again Christian is the Bride of Christ (Rev 21:2). Jesus is the "husband." The Scriptures promise that Jesus will never leave nor forsake the Christian (Heb 13:5). Jesus is promising never to divorce His bride! This great truth can be radically life-changing!
When a person sins, Jesus is constantly interceding on their behalf before God the Father. Their relationship with Jesus is based upon what He has already done for them, not what they have done for Him.
Sometimes when feelings of guilt arise because of something done, instead of dealing with it and acknowledging personal responsibility, there may be an attempt to try and hide it, just like Adam, and hunt for a fig leaf! Along with trying to cover it up, there may even be an attempt to blame it on something or someone else just as Adam did:
"The man said, 'The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate'" (Gen 3:12).
Adam attempted to shift blame from himself to Eve, but he was blaming God for what happened—because God put the woman there!
At one time, I worked in the restaurant business. We had a great team of employees and consistently ranked number one nationally in our product quality and service. But there were many mistakes made.
When I checked to find who caused the problem to ensure it wouldn't happen again, no one would "fess up" to being the cause. One week I placed a new employee on the schedule with the name Idun Noe because every time I asked who was at fault, the employees would all say, "I dunnoe!"
Let's face it, human beings don't want to admit personal guilt and responsibility for a problem. If personal responsibility isn't acknowledged and repented of when sin is committed, the feeling of guilt won't go away. Instead, it stays locked inside, binding every move and stunting healthy emotional, physical, and spiritual growth.
Through repentance, the chains of binding guilt are broken. When forgiveness is offered to the wrongdoers, they will also be loosed from those same chains of guilt. It is as important to ask for forgiveness as it is to forgive.
Guilt can help evaluate behavior and attitude. It can be used as a catalyst to help stop doing the things and thinking that are not pleasing to God. On the other hand, guilt can become a detriment if it turns into shame or lack of self-respect because of the strong statement it makes about the individual. This type of guilt is actually self-condemnation. One may have done something foolish, but instead of forgiving themselves, they begin self-hatred because of the humiliation they feel.
Ashamed of Shame
Shame has no place in the spiritual growth of any Christian. Feeling bad about oneself has nothing to do with holiness or humility. It causes people to see themselves as unlovable, unworthy, and useless.
Many people learn shame early in life within their family due to neglect, humiliation, rejection, ridicule, or harsh criticism. Families often set up standards for each family member that are used to judge behavior, thoughts, and feelings. If they don't meet those standards, they are often devalued and shamed because they don't measure up. This can lead a person to feel undesirable and deficient.
Once shame has been experienced within the family, it can often be reinforced when a person comes under judgment, is wrongly accused, or is ridiculed, ignored, rejected, humiliated, or left out within the workplace, with friends, at school, or even in church.
The pain this causes can go so deep that it can become rooted within the spirit, distorting personal identity and creating low self-esteem. The person will often withdraw from others and even themselves as they become ashamed of their shame.
People who experience shame at these deep levels often conclude that they are misfits and they don't belong anywhere, so they isolate themselves from others.
When they begin to develop a relationship with another, the fear of being rejected can be so great that they will say or do something to alienate themselves from those who are reaching out to them. The only way a person can fully recover from shame is to understand how God loves and feels about them.
Remorseful Regret
Remorse and regret are different from guilt because they can help show the errors made and hopefully help prevent them from being repeated.
All that can be done is to repent and make every attempt to right the wrong committed. Dwelling on the thoughts of "if only I had" or "if only I hadn't" will only cause a continuous guilt binding.
The worrying and fretting over those things that were done wrong or that went wrong can only be stopped by focusing on the love of Jesus and His gift of forgiving grace.
It is because of what Jesus did that "there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life" has set Christians free "from the law of sin and death" (Rom 8:1-2).
