Guilt

….. the feelings of guilt you experience are not always proof positive of your guilt.  That’s because there are two kinds of guilt in this world – there is godly guilt, or grief, and worldly guilt, or grief.  Both claim your sinfulness, but not both are accurate. 

 

“Godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. For see what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you, but also what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what punishment!” (2 Cor 7:10-11)

This means there is good guilt and there is bad guilt.

Guilt can be associated with actual sin, or guilt can be associated with regret, pride, or a misunderstanding of God’s Word.  The cause of godly guilt is always sin.  Godly guilt leads you to God, not to self.  And out of that comes your awareness of your utter sinfulness and your need for a perfect Savior.

Worldly guilt happens “when the guilt you are feeling is misplaced, when it is guilt not over sin but over failure, suffering, mistakes, embarrassment or a missed opportunity.  When you feel guilty after you’ve already confessed a sin to God, this is worldly guilt.  To continue to fret about it and hold on to it is to say God isn’t big enough to forgive you.  It is an affront to God and a lie of the biggest kind that comes from the prince of lies, the accuser from the garden.

Feeling guilty for doing what God loves but what man hates is not godly guilt.  There may be hurt feelings involved, but there is no guilt associated with obedience.  In Luke 14:26-27 Jesus says, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.  Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.”

So there is no guilt in loving God over man.

As soon as guilt convicts of sin, confession is called for.  But if the guilt you feel doesn’t point to sin in your life, then that guilt can be discarded as useless and built around pleasing man, not God. 

 

There is no reason to be ruled by feelings of guilt when Christ came to remove your guilt.

 

 

Michael and Hayley DiMarco, Die Young