For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23
When a psychotherapist talks about guilt, he is usually talking about something which the Bible describes as conscience. He’s talking about the emotion which either condemns or exonerates you of your actions. But when the Bible talks about guilt, using the same term which psychotherapy uses, it is in relationship to your standing before God—not your feelings, which may reflect your culture and your understanding of right and wrong.
Shortly before his death, Pol Pot, the Cambodian butcher of several million people, admitted that he had made some “mistakes.” However, he said, “My conscience is clear.” Scores of other criminals from gangster Alger Hiss to Hitler himself justified what they were doing by alleging to have a clear conscience, one void of any offense.
Why does the Bible make such a clear distinction between feelings of guilt or conscience and actual guilt before God? Simply put, your conscience cannot always be trusted. For those who have a clear knowledge of right or wrong, it’s a good measure of your conduct, but for those who have grown up without a clear understanding of right or wrong, of what God expects, your conscience should not be trusted. It tells you that you’re OK when you’re actually in real trouble. This means that a person may stand guilty before God when his own conscience does not condemn him at all. And that’s a dangerous situation to find yourself in. It’s like having an instrument panel that tells you the tank is full, or, when in reality, it’s almost empty, or that you’re flying at a given altitude when in reality you’re about to crash into a mountain.
It’s the attitude in our society—that there is no real right or wrong, nothing that is really moral or immoral apart from what you think—which has contributed to the death of conscience. How? Because the views of society today—what it deems moral or immoral—is at juxtaposition with what God says and expects. If, however, there were no God and no ultimate accountability, your personal conscience would be an acceptable barometer or guide for behavior. On the other hand, if God hasn’t changed his mind about what is moral and immoral, right or wrong, then whether you like it or not, you are responsible for your actions, and someday you will be accountable for them because your conduct as well as your choices come down on the side of guilt.
Now, there’s a redeeming balance, though, to our guilt, and that is the grace of God—his undeserved and unmerited favor that erases your guilt and lets you stand before God forgiven and cleansed. That’s good news! And why doesn’t modern psychotherapy acknowledge that guilt can be balanced by grace? This, of course, means that it would have to acknowledge that God does exist and that our actions which they label as poor choices or mistakes are really sin.
Would that admission be altogether bad? Ask any condemned prisoner if accepting a pardon is bad. Ask anyone who has been granted a reprieve from the ravages of cancer if it’s bad to get a new grip on life.
No, grace is good news. It is the antidote to what’s wrong with the world today. It is the best news that was ever announced to people who know they have fallen short of God’s expectations but don’t know what to do about it. Thank God grace is greater than all our sin.
Resource Reading: Romans 6:1-23
