Various Scriptures - Guilt and Forgiveness

Romans 3:9 

What then? Are we better than they? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin. 

Message: Objective and Subjective Guilt

What the Lord is Saying: Apologetics is the study of defending the Christian faith. One issue that comes up is experiencing guilt. Subjective guilt is how one feels. Objective guilt is based upon a standard. One can feel guilty and yet not have broken a standard, while one can have broken a standard and yet not feel guilty. 

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Romans 2:14-15

For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a Law to themselves, in that they show the working of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness, and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them. 

Message: Addressing our Guilt

What the Lord is Saying: Sociopath is someone that ignores right and wrongs and feelings of others in acting out. If a person has guilt, sometimes they will seek ways to mitigate it or mask it like through different forms of addiction or escape paths. What is more common is comparing ourselves to others we view are worse off than ourselves to defend or excuse our heinous behavior. Like, "I may have hate or dislike, but I am not a murderer." All of this focus is on subjective feelings or how we see ourselves and we downplay the objective or standards that may be set up, such as God's expectation for holiness and perfection. Romans 2:14-15 gives the idea that everyone has a conscience or moral compass in place that gives them the idea that they should be better than they are. 

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Romans 3:23

For all have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God. 

Message: Our Unpayable Debt

What the Lord is Saying: Nobody is perfect and in society standards are set up and when those standards are compromised or broken, then consequences result. For the Christian, the standard is the Glory of God and we believe all have fallen short of meeting that standard. In society, we have set up methods to pay off our debts to the law or breaking the law. Conversely, in religion, many have come up with similar ways through penance, good deeds, sacraments in order to prove oneself worthy. However, finite man pays off finite man, but with God, can finite man pay off an infinite God's standards on his/her own? 

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Jeremiah 3:3

Therefore the showers have been withheld, and there has been no spring rain, yet you had a harlot's forehead; you refused to be ashamed. 

Message: Our Consciences and Our Guilt

What the Lord is Saying: Listening to our conscience is good, but our conscience must also be trained or conform to a certain standard. For the Christian, this standard is God and His word. Only listening to one's conscience may not merit the same results as the standard is fallible and produces guilt for not achieving the standard. 

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Psalm 32

1 How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered!

2 How blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit!

3 When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long.

4 For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; My vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer. Selah.

5 I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I did not hide; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord”; and You forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah.

6 Therefore, let everyone who is godly pray to You in a time when You may be found; Surely in a flood of great waters they will not reach him.

7 You are my hiding place; You preserve me from trouble; You surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah.

8 I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go; I will counsel you with My eye upon you.

9 Do not be as the horse or as the mule which have no understanding, Whose trappings include bit and bridle to hold them in check, Otherwise they will not come near to you.

10 Many are the sorrows of the wicked, But he who trusts in the Lord, lovingkindness shall surround him.

11 Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, you righteous ones; And shout for joy, all you who are upright in heart.

Message: The Solution of Forgiveness

What the Lord is Saying: Good guilt is when our subjective feelings are being measured against the standards of God. Guilt is released through forgiveness as we turn our focus toward God, confess our mistakes and trust in the Lord's pardon. With God, sin occurs and will continue to occur, but through Christ's payment for our sin, once for all, sin no longer needs a payment or penance. When God forgives He forgives forever. 

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John 8:36

If therefore the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. 

Message: The Reality of Forgiveness

What the Lord is Saying: The feeling of guilt can be burdensome. In feeling guilt, we are moved to repentance, to turn from the act that produces the feeling. Like our subjective feelings and objective state of guilt there is also subjective feelings of forgiveness. Objectively, the promise of God is He will forgive everyone who repents and trusts in Jesus alone for salvation (John 3:16). And yet still people don't feel forgiven, sometimes not believing that God really will forgive their brand of sin. But being forgiven is not based upon a feeling of forgiveness. If you have repented, then believe that God has forgiven you. 

Summary: In washing the feet of His disciples, Jesus made it clear that those who follow Him need both the definitive cleansing from guilt they receive when they first exercise faith as well as continual forgiveness for any sins they commit thereafter (John 13:1–20). This story gives us an opportunity to reflect more on what the Bible says about the guilt of sin and the forgiveness we find only in Christ. 

I have often made the comment that "feelings are not facts." People are naturally moved by their own feelings and emotions. In our present day, these feelings seem to be winning how life is being defined in a person and are being seen as facts in a person's life. The Christian is addressing this in his/her contacts with people to help people see that we need to use the golden rod of Scripture to define the standard to which we should be measuring ourselves against. But this is a standard that is often seen as backwards and not current to the way of life presently. Instead, people continue to validate a person's subjective feelings. The Christian believes it is God who has authored in us a conscience, giving each of us the tension between right and wrong and so we are to look to Him to help us define what is right or wrong.