Guilt; it's something we are all familiar with. For most of us not a day goes by that we don't feel guilty about something. Part of that is our culture which loves to make us feel guilty in order to try to modify our behavior. One ad makes us feel guilty for indulging in a dessert while another makes us feel guilty for NOT having indulged in a dessert. Or we are made to feel guilty about not working out or not spending more money on presents for loved ones. The list goes on and on but that isn't the type of guilt I want to talk about today. Today I want to talk about guilt and its roles when we sin or fall short.
So if I'm not talking about that kind of guilt what kind am I talking about and is it good or is it bad? Well, there are two types of guilt that impact our spiritual lives. The first is conviction. Conviction is what we might call "good guilt". Dictionary.com defines guilt this way: the fact or state of having committed an offense, crime, violation, or wrong, especially against moral or penal law; culpability: Since by sinning we have transgressed God's moral law we are guilty and God is right to convict us of that sin. Conviction is brought by the Holy Spirit and is designed to bring us to a point of repentance and ultimately into a deeper relationship with Christ. You see, when God convicts us it isn't to condemn us but to bring us correction. The Bible is full of examples of God correcting His children. The book of Proverbs tells us that those who heed God's correction are honored (Proverbs 13:18), show prudence (Proverbs 15:5), and gain understanding (Proverbs 15:32). By bringing conviction God is attempting to shape and mold us into the person He created us to be. It isn't for our destruction but our benefit.
Condemnation, on the other hand, is a completely different animal. It does not come from God but from the Enemy. It is the form of guilt that seeks to separate us from God and destroy us which is why I refer to it as "bad guilt". Where conviction desires to see us return to God and be forgiven condemnation seeks to enslave us and shame us into hiding from God. It doesn't want to see us forgiven, it wants to see us forever separated from God in the hopes that we will never see heaven. Obviously this isn't something that we want as part of our lives and for those of us who have placed our faith in Christ the Bible tells us that there is no longer any condemnation for us now that we are in Christ (Romans 8:1) so how is it that we sometimes find ourselves under condemnation?
Our inner zombie isn't our friend and wants us to return to the darkness from which Christ saved us. It is an opportunist and so when it manages to get us to sin it then takes the conviction that the Holy Spirit within us brings and attempts to disguise it as condemnation. It is when we buy into that lie that we find ourselves no longer being drawn to God through conviction but instead find ourselves feeling isolated from God. Our zombie wants us to feel as though the transgression is so great that God won't take us back. If we feel that way we will most often run and hide as we cannot bear the thought that we have wounded God so grievously that He would turn His back on us.
So what are we to do then? We need to be ever vigilant not to allow ourselves to fall victim to the lie that conviction is the same as condemnation. If the guilt we are experiencing isn't prompting us to seek God and His forgiveness but instead is urging us to run from God then we need to call it what it is and remember Romans 8:1-6 which says, "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit. Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; -NIV" We need to also remember 2 Timothy 1:7 which says, "For God did not give us a spirit of fear and timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline. -NLT" Self-discipline to remember that those of us who have placed our faith in Christ do not have to live under condemnation but can come to God, ask for and receive His forgiveness and then draw closer to Him. The closer we grow to God the more often we will win in our skirmishes with the zombie inside.
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