What does the Bible say about guilt?

The Bible passages highlighted below can be used in sermons, prayers, pastoral care, or worship planning dealing with guilt.

Creation and Fall

In the primeval story of Creation and Fall (Genesis 1-3), Adam and Eve live naked before God and each other in the garden of Eden. Their nakedness symbolizes their innocence, their utter lack of shame. After their sin, when God comes for a daily walk in the garden, they hide from God in shame for what they are, and they grab fig leaves to cover their nakedness.

This is our story too. We have all felt guilt at some time or another, and we know the shame that follows in its wake. One of the few rays of hope in this dark story is that in the end, when God must cast them out of the garden, God graciously makes durable coverings of leather to cover their naked shame.

Wilderness of Sinai

We next meet guilt and shame in the wilderness of Sinai where God is establishing a nation of freed slaves as God's covenant people. God wants to dwell with them so that they will be "a priestly kingdom and a holy nation" (Exodus 19:6).

But how can the holy God dwell among an unholy people stained with the guilt of sin? The answer is seen in the institutions around the tabernacle, especially the various guilt and sin offerings presented there, culminating in the great Day of Atonement. The only way for guilt to be expunged is for atonement to be made. At that time and place God accepted animal sacrifices for atonement.

The Psalms

As Israel's faith develops, we see a growing questioning of the regime of animal sacrifices. Psalm 51, for example, offers us a deeper understanding of sin, guilt, and forgiveness. While the psalmist acknowledges the depth of his sin, he longs for complete cleansing ("blot out my transgressions," Psalm 51:1) and a new and holy life ("Create in me a clean heart, O God," Psalm 51:10).

And the way to this cleansing is not sacrifices, at least not sacrifices alone. "You have no delight in sacrifice. . . . The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise" (Psalm 51:16-17). Then the "joy of your salvation" and a "willing spirit" will replace the brokenness of guilt and shame (Psalm 51:12).

Culmination in Jesus

The human struggle with guilt and shame culminates in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Throughout his life he was a friend of sinners, accepting them and giving them a new identity. In the parable of the self-righteous Pharisee (Luke 18:9-14), Jesus contrasts the Pharisee's delusional self-righteousness with the tax collector's utter dependence on grace. The point was not which one felt properly guilty, but which one "went home justified before God."

The cross of Christ and the vindication of his resurrection ultimately deliver us from shame and guilt. Here we see what all the animal sacrifices point to: Jesus is the perfect human who takes on himself the guilt and shame of humanity. He is the "atoning sacrifice for our sins" (1 John 2:2). He is the "Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29).

The cross of Christ removes the stain of guilt and its accompanying shame from our hearts, so that we are now sinless, guilt-free, and unashamed before God. In the cleansing waters of our baptism we replace the leather loincloth of Eden with Christ's blazing white robe of righteousness.

The writer of Hebrews especially addresses the issues of guilt and shame in our lives. He presents Jesus Christ as the one true high priest who offers himself as a perfect sacrifice for sins. He notes that the Old Testament worshipers had to offer sacrifices over and over because the sacrifices could never truly deliver them from their guilt. In contrast, "we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all. . . . For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified" (Hebrews 10:10, 14).

The writer goes on to speak of our confidence in coming before God "in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean . . . and our bodies washed with pure water [in baptism]" (Hebrews 10:22).

Sermon ideas about guilt

One way of seeing the difference between guilt and shame is that we feel guilty for what we do, we feel ashamed of what we are. Christians sometimes fall into thinking that we ought to feel guilty because, after all, we are born sinners, and we all need forgiveness. But our guilt and shame as weak and sinful human beings have been removed by the grace of God in the cross of Christ. Our new identity is in Christ, in whom we are now saints. It is only by living in that identity, rather than in guilt and shame, that we can become the holy people we are in Christ.

A sermon on guilt can point out that guilt is not God's instrument but Satan's. The name Satan means accuser, and that is exactly how Satan dominates our lives, by snaring us in a web of hopeless guilt. God, on the other hand, is the liberator, who alone can put guilt to flight. Instead of wallowing in guilt, we must learn to wallow in grace.

Christians sometimes tend to think that guilt is a good thing; it shows that we are aware of our sinfulness before God. While the Bible acknowledges guilt and offers a way out of it, it generally sees guilt as a bad rather than a good thing. The way out of guilt is to constantly claim the forgiveness and righteousness of Christ.

As the author Jerry Bridges writes in The Discipline of Grace, "Nothing cuts the nerve of the desire to pursue holiness as much as a sense of guilt. On the contrary, nothing so motivates us to deal with sin in our lives as does the understanding and application of the two truths that our sins are forgiven and the dominion of sin is broken because of our union with Christ."
 

Excerpts about guilt

Following are sample excerpts from Zeteosearch.org sermon resources about guilt:

• "Giving in to our guilt, admitting that we've done it wrong in life, is prelude to grace flooding into us and so getting us out of that pit into which we've sunk." Sermon Illustration, Sermon Preparation by Scott Hoezee from Center for Excellence in Preaching