Pastor Sproul continues: Let me return now to the question: What do you do with your guilt? You have every right to respond to me by saying: “What guilt? You’re assuming that I have guilt.” That is true, but I can make that assumption based on my theological and biblical perspective. Ever lie, cheat, steal, lust or hate; nobody’s perfect. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:19–23). They know that they have broken the law of God. That’s why, when I ask this question, I do not start by arguing that there is such a thing as guilt. I can assume that people understand the reality of guilt. Manifestly and unambiguously, the Scriptures teach here not only the reality of human guilt but the universality of it. God has declared the whole world and every person in it to be guilty of breaking His law.
The word sin in the New Testament in the Greek language, harmartia, literally means “to miss the mark.” It was borrowed from the sport of archery. But when it is carried over into the theological categories of the New Testament, we’re not talking about shooting arrows at targets, we’re talking about life. We’re talking about reaching the standard of the perfection of God’s law, and the Scriptures say that no one has hit the mark. Everyone falls short of the standard of righteousness, the standard of moral conduct that has been established by God Himself. Because that’s the case, every- one in the world is guilty before God.
“What do you do with your guilt?” I’m talking about the person’s guilt before God. The most frequent response to that question is this: “It’s God’s job to forgive.” It’s one thing to adjust the sight on the bow or to reduce the distance to the target, and it’s another thing to ask God to adjust His character. Remember, the law of God flows out of the character of God, and His laws are righteous because He is righteous. He will not adjust the law that reflects His perfection to accommodate you and me. As long as He doesn’t adjust that law, we remain guilty before that law.
We know from the study of psychology that there is probably nothing more paralyzing to human action than unresolved guilt feelings. Such feelings paralyze people. That’s why, when we are confronted with guilt feelings, we need to deal with them. Unfortunately, all too often, we attempt to deal with our guilt and guilt feelings by man-made methods. When we wrestle with the question of what we do with our guilt, at least on the human level, we are asking how we can make up for our guilt. We want to know what we can do to set the scales of justice back on an even plane. In some cases, we can make restitution or endure certain punitive measures. But what about our guilt before God? God does exist.
Pastor Sprout states that some people in denial say: “I don’t believe I have guilt in God’s sight.” Not caring about God’s response to one’s guilt does not make the guilt go away. The Scriptures teach us that God has published His law plainly, not by putting it on billboards or on national tele- vision, but by giving us a record of His moral law in the written Scriptures. God has published His moral law not only on the tablets of stone that were delivered from Mount Sinai by Moses and became part of the inscripturated Bible, He has written His law on the hearts of His creatures. This means that every human being has an innate sense of what is right and wrong. Simply put, God has published His law in a place that no one can miss—it’s not in some obscure law book tucked away on a back shelf in a library; rather, it is in our hearts. When the Bible speaks of the heart in this context, it obviously is referring to the idea of the conscience. So whether we like it or even acknowledge it, we cannot change the reality that we have some grasp of what is right and what is wrong.
Because of that shame, our behavioral patterns change. Not only that, our ethic, our moral expectations, not simply for other people but for ourselves, also changed. We’ve adjusted our ideals downward. We adjusted our code of behavior downward. We adjusted our morality downward. Why? So that we could have an ethic we could live, a moral code that was within reach, one that would give our conscience rest and peace, and would leave us with a good feeling about ourselves instead of a rotten feeling. In essence, We’re living in denial of our guilt. I am convinced that many people, if not all people, go through a similar process of denial.
There’s a very real sense in which we are to act carefully according to the direction of this inner voice of God that we call “conscience.” But we must remember that for us to be wise in following the dictates of our conscience, we must first make sure that our consciences are informed by the Word of God. The Scriptures say that the silence at the final judgment will be maintained. Every mouth will be stopped, because there will be no excuses, no denials, no protestations of innocence, no alibis. Paul tells us that we are without excuse when we violate the law of God (Romans 1:20). In God’s court, we’re guilty, and nothing we can say can change it. It is absolutely futile for any human being to attempt to justify himself or herself before God.
By way of analogy, the psychological pain that comes with guilt feelings is God’s way of sending an alarm to our souls that speaks to us and tells us there is something wrong that we need to deal with. But we try to get relief from the pain by denying it or excusing it rather than understanding that guilt feelings may, and often do, have a therapeutic and redemptive importance to our lives.
Let's continue Pastor Sproul's message on "guilt" in the next post. In Christ, Brian
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