Lesson for June 14, 2023
Principles for Christian Living
Lesson 6
Guilt vs. Grace
Guilt is a mental attitude sin that destroys capacity for life and causes a believer to become weary, stifling the ability to think clearly. Guilt, like all mental attitude sins, manufactures its own misery. All believers have failed. No one is immune to failure. All believers possess a sin nature, and we are all guilty before God. However, we are talking about the feeling, not the fact of guilt. We all have something of which we are ashamed, yet our lives are to be free from shame and guilt. (Hebrews 12:1-3) For this reason we must constantly examine our spiritual lives.
These are exactly the instructions we find in Hebrews 12:15, “See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many become defiled.” See to it means constantly check yourself. That no one comes short of the grace of Godis experiential grace, this is failure to execute God’s plan for your life by missing the principle of grace. That no root of bitterness springing up uses the Greek word “pikria” for bitterness and it means bitter fruit. In other words, failure to appropriate the grace of God experientially produces bitter fruit in your life.
The context of Hebrews 12 tells us how to appropriate experiential grace by staying focused on Jesus Christ. It also outlines the discipline that results when we fail to do so. When we fail through producing bitter fruit (human good works), we set aside (come short of) the grace of God. We must be careful not to allow our failure to produce an attitude of bitterness towards ourselves, towards others, or especially towards God. Causes trouble is a reference to guilt. When a believer allows any failure to produce a bitter attitude, they are going to feel guilty. “And by it many become defiled” uses the Greek word “miaino” for defiled and it means to pollute or to contaminate. When we are out of fellowship with God through guilt, not only do we defile ourselves, but we also contaminate everyone around us.
Grace is the cure for the problem of guilt. When you feel guilty, the first thing you must do is use the Rebound Technique and acknowledge the sin of guilt to God.
(I John 1:9)
Acknowledging your sin to God does not mean promising to reform, or any other type of penance. The Greek word for confess in I John 1:9 is “homologeo,” which means to name, acknowledge, admit, or cite. A promise to reform your life, or any form of penance can lead only to feelings of guilt.
There may be genuine sorrow for a particular sin, and we should want to eliminate it from our lives. This can be accomplished only under the power and guidance of the Holy Spirit. After we acknowledge the sin of guilt to God, we need to do three other things: isolate it, forget it, and move on with our spiritual lives. If not, we will be obsessed and preoccupied with ourselves instead of Christ.
God does not want us to live with the millstone of guilt around our neck. Self-recrimination is a waste of time and energy… time and energy we could be putting to better use. This is why He has provided us with the solution to sin after salvation. We need to stop “buying into” the way that religion thinks about sin, which is that a person must make up for their wrongdoing by some system of penance or human works. What we need to do is to start thinking the way God wants us to think about sin, which is to name it, forget it, and move on. If we fail to follow God’s instructions, we remain in our sin, and God as a good and loving father has no other choice than to discipline us. (Hebrews 12:5-11)
Romans 3:19-24, “Now we know that whatever the Law (of Moses) says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God;because by the works of the Law none of mankind will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes knowledge of sin. But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets,but it is the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.” Here we learn why God is free to forgive and to restore.
Now we know that whatever the Law (of Moses) says, it speaks to those who are under the Law. The fact that Israel failed under the Law of Moses is God’s demonstration that the entire human race is sinful and guilty before Him. The purpose for the Law is to stop every mouth, both Jew and Gentile, from proclaiming their innocence before God. And all the world may become accountable is a judicial term for being brought to trial and judged guilty.
Because by the works of the Law none of mankind will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes knowledge of sin. No one is declared righteous due to their own righteous acts. The Law of Moses was like a mirror that showed Israel their sinful condition, and their need for a Savior. The Mosaic Law was given to Israel so they would see their guilt and their need for God’s solution. This was demonstrated to them continually through the rituals and sacrifices.
But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets is a reference to the Old Testament where we see both the Law of Moses and the writings of the Prophets. Both of these demonstrated mankind’s need for a Savior. Apart from the Law means that righteousness did not come by means of keeping the Mosaic Law.
But it is the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.”
Righteousness is the standard or principle of God’s holiness and justice is the function or action of His holiness. Because God is righteous, He must condemn sin wherever it is found. God’s justice carries out that condemnation. And God always does the right thing, whether condemning sin or providing salvation in the person of Jesus Christ. Justification is the theological term for declaring believers to be righteous before God. Christ was condemned in our place. God’s righteousness was satisfied (propitiated) on the Cross, as His justice carried out the sentence of spiritual death. Prior to Christ arriving on the scene in hypostatic union, God’s perfect standard of righteousness was the Law. Christ, of course, fulfilled the Law by keeping it perfectly (the only human being that ever has). By fulfilling the Law, Christ in sinless perfection reveals God’s standard of holiness. Christ is the standard to which a Church Age believer compares himself.
Man’s righteous works fall far short of God’s righteousness. Man’s own concept of righteousness is relative. For example, one person may think that his sin is not as bad as the next person’s sin. Therefore, he is more righteous (in his opinion). God’s view of man’s righteousness is that he is minus absolute righteousness. God’s view of man’s viewpoint of his own righteousness is that it does not measure up to the absolute righteousness of God. The Bible declares that “there is none righteous” and that “man’s righteousness is as filthy rags.” (Isaiah 64:6)
Because of the lack of absolute righteousness, mankind cannot enter Heaven (a holy place) based on his own righteousness. God cannot have fellowship with that which is sinful or falls short of His righteous character. Mankind, therefore, needs God’s righteousness in order to have a relationship with Him and to live forever in this holy place that we know as Heaven.
When a person believes in Jesus Christ as Savior, God the Holy Spirit imputes (credits) God’s own righteousness to that person. (II Corinthians 5:21) The Greek word for impute is “logizomai” and it means “to reckon” or “to take into account.” “Credit to one’s account” is another good rendering of the word from Greek. God’s righteousness is never achieved as a result of human effort and is completely undeserved. God does not credit His righteousness to believers because they have earned it or because they deserve it. Like eternal life, God’s righteousness is a gift.
It was the perfect humanity of Jesus Christ that completely satisfied the righteousness of God by means of His substitutionary spiritual death on the Cross. In His humanity under the control of the Holy Spirit, He was able not to sin and He fulfilled the righteous standard of the Mosaic Law. Christ, a sinless person, willingly became sin for us, taking our place, being judged in our stead. He is now sitting in the place of honor at the right hand of the Father, which signifies that God is satisfied with Christ’s death on our behalf.
So, what does God think about our guilt? He no longer holds us accountable. Jesus Christ took our guilt on the Cross once and for all. Now when God looks at us as believers, He sees the righteousness of Christ within us, not our sin. For this reason alone, we need to stop feeling guilty about our failures and realize that God is not concerned about where we’ve been, only where we’re going!
Psalms 103:12, “As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.”