Guilt

Guilt has two primary meanings. According to the New Oxford American Dictionary (3rd Ed.) they are:
1) The fact of having committed a specified or implied offense or crime, and
2) a feeling of having done wrong or failed in an obligation.

We can feel guilt when we grieve the Holy Spirit, but feeling guilt is not the same as being guilty. Father does not use guilt to motivate good behavior. He uses love. We see this evidenced by His sending Jesus not to condemn the world, but to save it (see John 3:17). We can also see His Love through His work in Christ reconciling the world to Himself and not counting our sins against us (see 2 Corinthians 5:19).

There is not a single passage of scripture that says that we must ask God for forgiveness. Father does not have an apology-based system of forgiveness. It is blood (life) based. Hebrews 9:22 tells us that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. Jesus shed His blood and died once for all time. He can never die again. Consequently, forgiveness was made complete at the cross.

The work Jesus did at the cross and resurrection took place in eternity as well as in our temporal world. Therefore, it extends to all of history, across all time. Millennia before the cross, Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. We see that faith when we read of him telling Issac that the Lord will provide the lamb. Millenia after the cross, when we believe on Jesus it is credited to us as righteousness--more than simply credited; imparted, or given to us in reality (see 2 Corinthians 5:21).

So, forgiveness is a done deal. We are forgiven for every sin we ever committed, any we may be committing now, and every single one we will ever commit until the day we pass through the veil into the Kingdom. Colossians 2:13 says this with great clarity, saying, “when you were dead in your wrongdoings and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our wrongdoings. (NASB 2020) Do you see it? He forgave us while we were still at enmity with Him. Just in case we are tempted to minimize this we find it elsewhere. Ephesians 2:5, for example, has this to say, “even when we were dead in our wrongdoings, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)”. (NASB 2020)

We need always to listen to the Holy Spirit. He is continually guiding us into truth, reminding us of what Jesus said, and prompting us toward yielding to Him to bear the fruit He is producing in us every moment. As Psalm 23 tells us, He leads us in paths of righteousness. Jesus said that the Spirit who He sent to live in us leads us into all the truth. Knowing that God is on our side and working to align our desires with His own, we can be sure that guilt is the work of the enemy. Guilty feelings are just that; feelings and nothing more.

Thoughts precede feelings. Those thoughts that produce guilt are not from Father. He leads from the positive. Reassuring us of His love, coaxing us to deny ungodliness and live upright and godly lives in this world (see Titus 2:11-12). His discipline trains us for things to come but is never punishment for things we have done already. Is it unpleasant or painful? Certainly. I feel pain when I learn of yet another area in my life that is not in line with the truth found in Jesus. I feel bad when my conduct does not line up with godliness.

Back when I believed that my guilty feelings over sin came from God, I found that I was trapped in a vicious cycle of habitual sin. Each time I would sin, I would hide from God. I would make myself feel truly dirty and unworthy until it seemed enough time had passed for me to grovel at His feet and ask for forgiveness. I promised time and time again that *this* time I *really* meant it and would truly dedicate myself to Him and to good behavior. I'd feel good and act better for a while and then it would start all over.

Once I understood that I am completely forgiven past, present, and future and that nothing I do impacts Father's acceptance of me, all that changed. I still feel bad when I sin, but I do not become crippled by emotions. I do not imagine that I have somehow fallen out of favor (or worse, jeopardized or lost my salvation) because of what I have done.

My first inclination now is to run to Father and talk with Him about it. I tell Him how I am feeling. I agree with Him about the things He says are true of me. The enemy gets thwarted very quickly and I can rest in the security of Father's love for me.

Take comfort in this and let it make you bold. “Although you were previously alienated and hostile in attitude, engaged in evil deeds, yet He has now reconciled you in His body of flesh through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach.” Colossians 1:21–22 (NASB 2020)