What does the Bible say about guilt?
Most believers if not all believers have felt some type of guilt in their walk of faith at some point. When we talk about guilt we must talk about the gospel. We are all guilty of sinning before a holy and just God. God’s standard of goodness is perfection and we all fall so short.
God would be just and loving in condemning us to hell. Out of His love, mercy, and grace God came down in the form of man and lived the perfect life that we could not.
Jesus willfully sacrificed His life for us. He died, was buried, and was resurrected for your sins. He took your guilt away. God commands all men to repent and trust in Christ.
Jesus is the only way to Heaven. Jesus paid everything in full. Through Christ a believer’s sins are forgiven. Satan tries to discourage us and seeks to make us feel worthless and defeated.
Why believe in Satan’s lies? Jesus paid your sin debt. Don’t dwell on your past sins. Dwell on God’s love for you. Dwell on His grace. In Christ we are free of condemnation. You are forgiven. How much more will the blood of Christ wash away your past and future sins?
What is stronger than the blood of Christ? Is guilt always bad? No, Sometimes guilt is good such as when you have unrepentant sin. Guilt is to make us repent. Stop being distracted by your past. Fix your eyes on Jesus.
Give up and stop fighting. Let Christ be your confidence. Trust in the perfect merit of Jesus Christ on your behalf. Continually seek the Lord in prayer and ask Him to help you overcome guilt. Ask God to help you understand His grace and to help you fully trust in Christ. Preach the gospel to yourself daily.
Christian quotes about guilt
“The conscience is a built-in warning system that signals us when something we have done is wrong. The conscience is to our souls what pain sensors are to our bodies: it inflicts distress, in the form of guilt, whenever we violate what our hearts tell us is right.” John MacArthur
“Guilt comes from within. Shame comes from without.” Voddie Baucham
“Don’t let shame and guilt keep you from receiving God’s love any longer.“
“The way to no longer feel guilty is not to deny guilt, but to face it and ask for God’s forgiveness.”
“When he says we’re forgiven, let’s unload the guilt. When he says we’re valuable, let’s believe him. . . . When he says we’re provided for, let’s stop worrying. God’s efforts are strongest when our efforts are useless.” Max Lucado
“The moment you asked for forgiveness, God forgave you. Now do your part and leave the guilt behind.”
“Guilt says, “You failed.” Shame says, “You’re a failure.” Grace says, “Your failures are forgiven.” – Lecrae.
“The power of the Holy Spirit is completely opposite to the world’s power. The power of the Holy Spirit gives God’s children the ability to serve His purpose for our lives. The Holy Spirit’s power is unlike any other in the world. Only the power of the Holy Spirit can transform us, relieve our guilt, and heal our souls.”
Sometimes we feel guilty over our past sins.
1. Isaiah 43:25 “I, I am the one who blots out your transgression for my own sake, and I‘ll remember your sins no more.
2. Romans 8:1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in union with the Messiah Jesus.
3. 1 John 1:9 God is faithful and reliable. If we confess our sins, he forgives them and cleanses us from everything we’ve done wrong.
4. Jeremiah 50:20 In those days,” says the LORD, “no sin will be found in Israel or in Judah, for I will forgive the remnant I preserve.
5. Jeremiah 33:8 ‘I will cleanse them from all their iniquity by which they have sinned against Me, and I will pardon all their iniquities by which they have sinned against Me and by which they have transgressed against Me.
6. Hebrews 8:12 And I will forgive their wickedness, and I will never again remember their sins.”
Feeling guilt over sin
Sometimes we feel guilty because we are struggling with a certain sin. It could be struggling with sinful thoughts, which can lead us to think am I really saved. Why am I struggling? The devil boosts your guilt and says you’re just a hypocrite if you ask for forgiveness. Don’t dwell on guilt. Seek forgiveness and help from the Lord. Pray to the Holy Spirit daily for help and trust in Christ alone.
7. Luke 11:11-13 If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?
8. Hebrews 9:14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our consciences from dead works to worship the living God.
Joy and guilt
Sometimes Christians put themselves in a penalty box and think I have to do a whole bunch of good deeds and I will be right with God and guilt-free. We must never let our joy come from our performance, but the finished work of Christ on the cross.
9. Galatians 3:1-3 You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh?
10. Hebrews 12:2 keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. For the joy set out for him he endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.
Don’t listen to the lies of the accuser.
Christ bore your guilt and shame on His back.
11. Revelation 12:10 Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say, “Now the salvation, the power, the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Messiah have come. For the one who accuses our brothers, who accuses them day and night in the presence of our God, has been thrown out.
12. John 8:44 You come from your father, the devil, and you desire to do what your father wants you to do. The devil was a murderer from the beginning. He has never been truthful. He doesn’t know what the truth is. Whenever he tells a lie, he’s doing what comes naturally to him. He’s a liar and the father of lies.
13. Ephesians 6:11 Put on the full armor of God so that you can stand against the tactics of the Devil.
14. James 4:7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
Conviction and guilt
When you feel guilty because of unrepentant sin. Sometimes God uses guilt as a form of discipline to bring His child back on the right path.
15. Psalm 32:1-5 Happy is the person whose sins are forgiven, whose wrongs are pardoned. Happy is the person whom the Lord does not consider guilty and in whom there is nothing false. When I kept things to myself, I felt weak deep inside me. I moaned all day long. Day and night you punished me. My strength was gone as in the summer heat. Then I confessed my sins to you and didn’t hide my guilt. I said, “I will confess my sins to the Lord,” and you forgave my guilt.
16. Psalm 38:17-18 I am about to die, and I cannot forget my pain. I confess my guilt; I am troubled by my sin.
17. Hebrews 12:5-7 You have forgotten the encouragement that is addressed to you as sons: “My son, do not think lightly of the Lord’s discipline or give up when you are corrected by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he punishes every son he accepts.” What you endure disciplines you: God is treating you as sons. Is there a son whom his father does not discipline?
Guilt leads to repentance.
18. 2 Corinthians 7:9-10 Now I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because your grief led to repentance. For you were grieved as God willed, so that you didn’t experience any loss from us. For godly grief produces a repentance not to be regretted and leading to salvation, but worldly grief produces death.
19. Psalm 139:23–24 Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.
20. Proverbs 28:13 If you hide your sins, you will not succeed. If you confess and reject them, you will receive mercy.
Put the past behind you and move forward.
21. 2 Corinthians 5:17 So then, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; what is old has passed away—look, what is new has come!
22. Philippians 3:13-14 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have attained this. Instead I am single-minded: Forgetting the things that are behind and reaching out for the things that are ahead, with this goal in mind, I strive toward the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Reminders
23. 2 Corinthians 3:17 For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
24. 1 Timothy 3:9 They must be committed to the mystery of the faith now revealed and must live with a clear conscience.
Instead of dwelling on your performance, dwell on God’s awesome love and grace.
25. Romans 5:20-21 Now the Law crept in so that the offense would increase. But where sin increased, grace increased even more, so that, just as sin ruled by bringing death, so also grace might rule by bringing justification that results in eternal life through Jesus the Messiah, our Lord.
Bonus
Hebrews 10:22 let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.
Thank you for your time and efforts in researching this topic [guilt] that has plagued me for years. There is much to be learned from your Godly wisdom and deep walk in God’s Word. Much, much appreciated.