Based off the booklet What Can I Do with My Guilt? –
R.C. Sproul
I’ll start with the conclusion. I
picked up this book because it’s short, free on kindle, and because it’s
something that’s crossed my mind several times over the past year. According to
R.C. Sproul (and I’m inclined to agree with him here), our guilt should bring
us to the cross. It should bring us to Jesus, to forgiveness, to reconciliation
with God.
Last summer, I was struggling
with feelings of guilt, and I brought this up in a conversation with a wonderful
friend. I’m not sure why she said this at the time. Maybe she said this because
she thought it was what I needed to hear at the time. And maybe it was. She
told me that guilt never comes from God… that I didn’t need to feel at all
guilty in any way. That I had done nothing wrong. And even then, God never
wants us to wallow in guilt. Guilt is never from God.
R.C. Sproul’s take is quite
different, isn’t it?
Guilt Vs. Guilt Feelings
Guilt – objective reality; “that
which a person incurs when he violates a law”
Guilt Feelings – subjective
feeling; those things we feel if we’re not a psychopath or sociopath
Side points:
-
God is the ultimate Lawgiver. Everyone is held
accountable by God to God’s laws. God’s laws are perfect laws because God
himself is perfect.
-
Guilt and guilt feelings are rarely in
proportion
o
Having guilt feelings doesn’t necessarily
indicate the presence of guilt
o
Not having guilt feelings doesn’t necessarily
mean we didn’t incur any guilt
Common ways to deal with guilt
Denial; believing a law does not exist does not mean there is no
law (God has written His law on the hearts of His creation…); attempt to stifle
conscience
Justification, Rationalization; coming up with excuses doesn’t work
with God; attempt to stifle conscience
Penance; we can’t possibly pay the penalty for breaking God’s law
REAL CURE: Forgiveness through Jesus
If feeling unforgiven/ guilty:
1 John 1:9
If after confessing still feeling guilty:
I found this part really
interesting. R.C. Sproul proposes that this may be arrogance on our part.
God says that he will forgive us
if we confess our sins. Yet, after time and time again after confessing the
same sin to God, we still feel guilty. We assume that these guilty feelings
imply the presence of guilt. But this is living according to our subjective and
ephemeral feelings. We need to live by
God’s objective Word and Truth. If God says we are forgiven, we are forgiven,
no matter how we feel. We have no right to refuse that forgiveness. We need to
trust God. To do anything less would be to place our feelings above God’s Word –
arrogantly. So, despite any guilty feelings, if we know that we have
truthfully confessed our sin to God, we need to trust that He has forgiven us.
I like your conclusion, and the distinction it draws between accusation and conviction. But since you didn't mention it, I also want to point out my go-to verse on this, 2 Corinthians 7:10 - "For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death."
ReplyDeleteSo I think repentance is also important, and separate from asking for forgiveness. The question to ask is, are your feelings spurring you on to live differently in the future? Or are you simply dwelling on the past?
Thanks for commenting, Tim! And thanks for adding that verse!
ReplyDeleteHmm I've been raised to view repentance as a necessary part of asking for forgiveness. I remember at some point in perhaps 5th grade, the pastor at chapel at my private school talked about how "saying sorry isn't enough" and how being asking forgiveness needs to include true repentance including the sincere desire to never again do whatever it is that we are asking forgiveness for. At that time, I thought that was all very obvious, so I must have been taught before that before then. It wasn't until later that I began to realize that asking forgiveness isn't necessarily tied to true repentance... but when I use forgiveness here and generally, in my mind, it includes repentance.
Are you saying that you believe having guilty feelings and carrying them around with you indefinitely is fine as long as they are spurring you to live in a better way and not making you dwell on the past? That's very interesting... My take is that upon realizing you have guilt feelings, you run straight to God, confess whatever sin is causing those feelings, leading to a greater appreciation and love for Jesus and God's grace and love and forgiveness... and then you move on with that renewed understanding of the depth of God's love for you. And that deepened understanding will be what spurs you to live differently in the future, not the guilt feelings themselves.
(Oops, I didn't realize you had replied, sorry. I've checked the "notify me" box now.)
ReplyDeleteI agree, I don't think carrying around guilty feelings is a good thing. That's why I really like the phrase in the verse, "salvation without regret." Usually the person I have the most trouble forgiving is myself. And the verse reminds me that those regrets aren't actually helpful.