Our society has developed a significance on feelings. Psychiatrists in movies ask ‘how do you feel?’ and we’re told to ‘get in touch with our feelings.’ Emotions drive us. Our identities are based on our feelings, their importance, how certain things affect them. Feelings are important. But, sometimes, the true meaning of a word is obscured by how we feel about it.
Guilt is a feeling we don’t like to focus on. It’s like anxiety and worry; we don’t want to be depressed or challenged. We avoid sorrow. But guilt is more than a feeling; it’s a condition. We have to acknowledge our sin and guilt to receive salvation.
The dictionary defines guilt like this: “guilt is an emotion experienced when someone believes that they have violated their own moral standard or those of society feeling responsible for a perceived transgression.” The implication is that guilt only exists when we feel it. If we don’t feel guilty, there isn’t any guilt. So what happens when we do something wrong, but never feel bad? Does that mean it isn’t wrong anymore?
The Bible begins with guilt; in Genesis 3, Adam and Eve sinned against God for the first time, they were guilty, and they needed redemption. The central theme of the Bible is the human need for salvation. We only need to be saved if we’ve done something wrong—but salvation doesn’t work if we don’t realize we’re guilty. Redemption requires acknowledgement of sin and guilt.
When guilt is merely a feeling, we determine what’s right and wrong. But guilt is a condition. It’s the state in which God holds us in response to our sin. We feel guilty because we have sinned, because we know we’ve transgressed against God.
If sin is the reason for guilt, and only God can take sin away, how can we ever get rid of our guilt? In the Old Testament, God’s solution came in the form of sin and guilt offerings. When a person knew they committed a sin, they gave a sin offering. But when the sin was unintentional, or the person didn’t know it was wrong, they gave a guilt offering—because even then, guilt wasn’t just a feeling. Blood was atonement. Blood paid the price. But the sacrifices had to be made every year, on the Day of Atonement. So God created the new covenant, where Jesus paid the price for us once and for all.
For those in Christ, there is no guilt. You may still feel guilty over your sins, but you don’t live in the condition of guilt. That’s the point of salvation; God has already redeemed us. Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” He knows we’re imperfect and sinful, and He saved us anyway.
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