Process of Removing the Guilt || Guilt v. Shame #2

Have you ever wondered about the deep-rooted themes of guilt and shame that permeate our sermons, Bible studies, and other forms of communication? How did the ancient Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek audiences interpret these concepts? And how do our modern interpretations compare? These thought-provoking questions have inspired the creation of our series, ‘Guilt v. Shame.’

Over the course of this series, we will immerse ourselves in the biblical concept of guilt in the first three parts, and then shift our focus to shame in the remaining four. To ensure a comprehensive understanding, we will draw extensively from scriptures in both the Old and New Testaments. This approach will allow us to explore these concepts through the rich narratives of the Bible, guiding you towards a deeper biblical understanding of guilt and shame and their significance in your Christian journey.

As we embark on the first three parts of this series, let’s delve into guilt. According to my concordance, guilt is ‘the state of feeling of one who has committed an offense.’ It’s that sinking feeling you get when you know you’ve done something offensive, wrong, or incorrect, like when you unintentionally hurt a loved one’s feelings and see the pain in their eyes.

Psalm 38:2-4

2             Your arrows have struck deep, and your blows are crushing me.

3             Because of your anger, my whole body is sick; my health is broken because of my sins.

4             My guilt overwhelms me – it is a burden too heavy to bear.

David saw his suffering as a judgment from God for his sinful actions and decisions. He believed his afflictions were God’s punishment for his sins. God doesn’t always send something physical as our consequences. Sometimes, our consequences result from our actions; sometimes, they result from situational fate; sometimes, they are genuinely from God. Our sins can have physical or mental side effects that can bring a lot of suffering.

I am not saying, “God causes suffering to happen to his people.” That is not what I am saying. Each decision we make has a result, either positive or negative. The negative results have consequences that can impact us and those around us. When we were children and did something that went against our parents’ and guardians’ rules and boundaries, they punished us. Those punishments came in a variety of ways: losing video games, losing our phones, not being able to hang out with friends, not going to parties, and even severe forms of beatings, spankings, and abuse. I’m not condoning the severe punishments, but they still corresponded with our decisions. If God is our heavenly father, and we went against him and committed sinful actions. Wouldn’t we have our punishments? If we repent, then maybe not, or it’s just the earthly consequences. If we don’t repent, we have physical consequences, and we have mental and spiritual consequences. Let’s go back to what David says in Psalm 38.

David said that his whole body was sick because of God’s anger. He’s feeling the anguish mentally, which is causing his whole body to shut down. I’m sure most of us are familiar with stress colds. We get so stressed out that our body starts to react to it physically, and our immune system reacts to the stress that we’ve put on our body. David seems to be going through all this, which stems from his guilt.

In these challenging situations, repentance is a beacon of hope and a transformative force. When we turn to God in repentance, He forgives us. He delivers us from the eternal consequences, though He does not promise to undo all of sin’s earthly consequences. Remember, when we repent, we may still face the earthly consequences of our sins, but our mental and spiritual selves are set free. This freedom from sin should guide our physical selves toward learning from our mistakes and becoming a better version of ourselves.

Psalm 51:2

2             Wash me clean from my guilt. Purify me from my sin.

Guilt doesn’t need to be part of our system. God cleans the guilt out of our system. The substance used to do so was the blood of Christ. The blood of Christ purifies us to be as white as snow, and the purity from this allows us to build a stronger foundation in our Christian journey. The old system couldn’t do that for us.

Hebrews 9:13-14

13           Under the old system, the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer could cleanse people’s bodies from ceremonial impurity.

14           Just think how much more the blood of Christ will purify our consciences from sinful deeds so that we can worship the living God. For by the power of the eternal Spirit, Christ offered himself to God as a perfect sacrifice for our sins.

When they sacrificed animals, God made them ceremonially acceptable according to the Old Testament law. Consider how much more the sacrifice Jesus made transformed us. Think about how much our lives and our hearts are changed and made clean from sin on the inside of us. His sacrifice far exceeds any of the animal sacrifices. No sins or shortcomings on our part overpower his complete and total forgiveness. Our sinful nature is more than just wrong choices; they can be our attempt to reach God. I’ve mentioned this before, so I’ll keep this short and sweet. Our culture focuses on the self and the personal achievements of life, leading to the art of comparison. Our world defines success through goals in finances, health, fitness, and treatment of others. The Bible shows us a different picture of success. It comes in three parts:

• Accepting Jesus’ sacrifice for our sins
• Abandoning the futility of sinful deeds
• Allowing the blood of Christ to purify our consciences.

Follow these three things consistently. These things will allow the light of Christ to shine within us.

1 John 1:7

7             But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship.

I’ve been talking about the concept of Jesus’ blood a lot lately, and it may feel uncomfortable, weird, and gross. Still, it’s crucial imagery to keep in mind. How does it cleanse us from all sin? We go back to the Old Testament times when the Israelites transferred their sins to the animals, which they would later sacrifice. The animal died in the place they should have as a payment for their sin, which allows them to continue living in God’s favor. The blood of the animal stood for the life of the individual. God was willing to forgive them because of their faith and because they obeyed the commandments about the sacrificial routines.

Those sacrifices were foreshadowing the day when the death of Jesus would happen. The day Jesus, through the blood that he shed on the cross, would altogether remove sin from our beings. Genuine, authentic cleansing from our sins comes with following Jesus. Sin, by its very nature, brings death. Jesus didn’t die for his sins. He didn’t have any. Instead, he died as a sacrifice that we will never fully grasp our minds around. When we commit our lives to Jesus and become Christians, his death becomes the death of our old selves. He paid the penalty for our sins, and his blood made us clean. Our sins will continue, but we have a consistent source of forgiveness.

1 John 1:9

9             But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.

Confessing our sins allows us to experience freedom and enjoy fellowship with Jesus. This freedom should ease our consciences, remove our shame, and lighten our burden of guilt. If you think you’re free but still wrestle with anxiety, shame, and guilt, are you free? Yes, particular physical illnesses cause this to occur, and I understand that it is hard to control without therapy, medication, etc. Yet, suppose you still hold on to the guilt, shame, and burden you carry after years of situations. In that case, you aren’t truly free.

Confession isn’t something that we talk about a lot. They feel so guilty of confessing the same sins repeatedly. They wonder if the confession isn’t worth it. They wonder if they aren’t confessing properly. Other Christians believe that God forgives them when they confess, but if they don’t confess everything, they will be lost forever. These Christians don’t understand that God wants to forgive us. He let Jesus die for us so we can receive that forgiveness. If he didn’t want to do so, Jesus wouldn’t have died the way he did. When we become believers in Christ, all the sins we’ve committed and will commit get forgiven. We still need to confess our sins, but not because we’ll lose our salvation. That’s locked up tight. We confess to experiencing that freedom and joy that God created us for him.

True confession involves a commitment to stop sinning. We wouldn’t be genuinely confessing if we were going to do it again. This point circles back to my comments on intentionality and sincerity. We must pray for the strength to defeat the temptation the next time we face it. The power of confession will show in the strength of the Holy Spirit to resist the temptation to sin. It won’t be immediate, but the power is in the pattern. You might ask, “If God has forgiven us for our sins, why must we confess?” In our confession, we are:

• We agree with God that we have sinned and agree not to do that again.
• Ensuring that we’re not hiding our sins from him and acknowledging the problems we are indeed dealing with.
• Recognizing our patterns of sin
• Relying on the Holy Spirit to help overcome it.

In the next part, we will examine the prophets to see how they view guilt. Until then, stay blessed.