Is Guilt from God?

[m.o.m.]

I have a thought for discussion.

In a recent Sunday School class one of the people made the statement: "Guilt is not from God." I think this is a popular theory today and often quoted by those trying to counsel those with low self-esteem, etc. And I am sure that false guilt is not from God; however, there is a true guilt, I think.

I was wondering what others think and what the bible says.

Does guilt come from God? A very godly woman once told me that the world would be a better place if we had some true guilt.

Please share scriptures in your responses. Thanks!

m.o.m.

[OneJoe]

Hello m.o.m., I am in a bit of a hurry at the moment so I will make this short. I do believe in true guilt and then there is what we often see today, self pitty. I believe guilt is of course a result of conviction. Conviction is of course from God's word. I believe God's word makes us guilty by the law; however, the guilt we feel will obviously be whether we feel convicted by the Holy Spirit applying the word to our heart or revealing to us our wicked ways. So I do believe that true guilt, conviction, etc. is all from God. God did give us a conscience that makes us feel guilty, only after the truth is revealed of course.

Rom 3:19 Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.

Joh 8:9 And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.


Onejoe

[CheeseKing]

There is false guilt out there. Sometimes, people want to blame others for something, so that they can avoid being guilty, while the blamed person would feel this 'guilt', but it is not real guilt. They are blamed for something and recieve what I would believe to be false guilt. If we are guilty for something, we must not pass on the blame to another. We must be held accountable for what we do and must not try to weasle our way out, when we do something wrong. The Lord knows all and sees all, so there is no point in trying to push the blame on someone else. I believe Satan would be the source of all false guilt and God is the source of all real guilt. If you commit a sin, I would believe that it is the Holy spirit, that makes you feel guilty...

[germanJoy]

I have a thought for discussion.

In a recent Sunday School class one of the people made the statement: "Guilt is not from God." I think this is a popular theory today and often quoted by those trying to counsel those with low self-esteem, etc. And I am sure that false guilt is not from God; however, there is a true guilt, I think.

I was wondering what others think and what the bible says.

Does guilt come from God? A very godly woman once told me that the world would be a better place if we had some true guilt.

Please share scriptures in your responses. Thanks!

m.o.m.
The word "guilt" is defined as "condition of having done wrong" while the word "sorrow" is defined as "cause of grief or sadness, regret". For me personally, Jesus freed us from sin and the guilt of sin. I have not heard of "true" guilt yet but perhaps what you really meant was godly sorrow.

2 Cor. 2:10 For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation; but the sorrow of the world produces death. For behold what earnestness this very thing, this godly sorrow, has produced in you: what vindication of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what avenging of wrong! In everything you demonstrated yourselves to be innocent in the matter.

[m.o.m.]

Yes, German Joy, He has freed us from the sin AND the guilt of sin. Thank you for reminding us of that. His grace covers all. I do like the term godly sorrow to apply to what I was thinking. A true conviction of what sin is and of who we are without Christ. Thank you for your response.

When I mentioned false guilt, I was referring to those who take on the guilt thrown at them by others as opposed to a godly sorrow for the true conviction of sin. I hope this clarifies.

God bless!

m.o.m.

[TheCowExpert]

Well, we just talked about this in Bible class a couple of weeks ago. If the sin has been made right with God and with the people who were involved, then the guilt that you feel is not from God, it's from the Devil, trying to make you think that you can't serve God because of these sins that you have committed. If you haven't asked forgiveness of God and of the other people who were involved with your sin, then the guilt is brought up by the Holy Ghost (which is the part of Jesus who comes to indwell us and guide us at the moment that we are saved.) At this moment, I'm not sure of any of the verses. Sorry!

[OneVoice]

I have a thought for discussion.

In a recent Sunday School class one of the people made the statement: "Guilt is not from God." I think this is a popular theory today and often quoted by those trying to counsel those with low self-esteem, etc. And I am sure that false guilt is not from God; however, there is a true guilt, I think.

I was wondering what others think and what the bible says.

Does guilt come from God? A very godly woman once told me that the world would be a better place if we had some true guilt.

Please share scriptures in your responses. Thanks!

m.o.m.

Romans 8:1

You know... repentance requires a measure of shame, and remorse.
If we are not repentant and ashamed of our sin how can we be saddened to falling on our faces at His pierced feet, if we are not truly grieved and mourn our sin, the death that it is and confess it to Him? (Romans 6)
To know sin, all sin is against God and God first and God alone at it's absolute. (psalm 51)
But is it guilt.
I God's judgment we are guilty of it.
But the guilt is ours because of sin. It isn;t a thing given.
Guilt we are and guilt we have so long as we may be found stained, impassioned and clothed in the filthy rags of sin.

But in Christ, in repentance, in our turning away from sin as something we desperately want to be away from, sin that we are ashamed to speak and know God has seen, to so want to turn from it and KNOW it is gone, we turn TOWARD Him.

And in doing so we find we are met with his open arms and as He embraces us our sins are covered, washed clean by His blood and God sees them no more. he puts them behind Him as far from Him as easy is from west (Psalm 103) and He takes on our filthy rags and the shame is His and the punishment of God's wrath taken on Him self. he suffered all we were entitled to and nothing less. His work of salvation for us is a complete work. (John 19:30)

For those who put their trust in Jesus there is now no condemnation. There is no guilt because He has taken your sin on Himself.
He was punished as if caught in OUR sins.

We are to know our sin for what it is, and the appropriate response is shame. The state we stand in even as we confess it to Him is guilt. But that shame is washed in His forgiveness; the guilt is satisfied in His justification by His blood shed for us.

That is the completed work, accomplished in unfathomable love, by unmerited, indelible grace or God's mercy for the single purpose of the redemption of man.

That is God's purpose.
What is ours?
to stand in guilt?
That means we stand in condemnation.
And there is now NO condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. AMEN!

The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him for ever.

As believers in Christ that is our job (what a great job), that is our privilege, and it is our eternal promise:

To enjoy HIM for ever.

[TheTreeOfLife]

Romans 3:21 But now apart from [the] Law has the righteousness of God been revealed, being testified to by the Law and the Prophets


guilt doesn't come from God, but is revealed by God's righteousness.


Think about Adam, and when God came searching for him in the garden, Adam hid in shame because of his guilt for rebelling against God's will. Do you think that if Adam had simply and immediately upon taking that fruit, ran to God and admitted his sin, he might not have been cast out of the garden? Instead he chose to hide from God, to cover up his sin. His guilt ruled over his reason.

Jesus releases us from our guilt, we are no longer slaves to our guilt. This had to happen in order that we might be saved, and concentrate our focus on Jesus, and not on the things of the past.