What does the Bible say about guilt?

Guilt produces a fear of God whom we know we have offended, and a fear of the punishment we instinctively know we deserve. There is only one way to lift this depressing sense of guilt and fear. It is through justification by faith in the redemptive work of Christ on the cross. In the epistle to the Romans, Paul deals directly with the question of our guilt and God's answer to it. There we read that all the world is guilty, but God provides the means for our justification: "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus — that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus" (Rom. 3:23-24, 26).

If God has brought our guilt before us, it is not to have us ever conscious of it; but rather that confessing it we might avail ourselves of the wonderful blessing of "No more conscience of sins" (Hebrews 10:2). To bring this inestimable blessing to men, the Lord Jesus Christ, God's own dear Son, came down from heaven, and on the cross offered Himself a sacrifice for sins. That one offering has glorified God, completely satisfying the claims of His holy and righteous throne; enabling Him to clear the guilty from every charge of sin, if they will but confess their guilt and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. So clear can we be, that not one stain remains on the conscience; and we can enter with holy boldness the very presence of the God against whom we had sinned.

Justification from Guilt. As sinners we are guilty before God, and His righteousness demands that we should bear the judgment of our guilt, but God is able to justify the sinner, to clear him from his guilt, even as it is written, "Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 3:24). In the wonderful grace of God we are set free from the charge of guilt, but it is in perfect consistency with God's righteousness because of the redemption that Christ has secured through His death.

"And be guilty" As in Romans 3, "That every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God" (v. 19). Every sinner, whether he knows it or not, whether he has been awakened to a sense of it or not, this is his condition — "guilty before God." That is the first thing.

By our sin we have put ourselves under the shame and stigma of guilt before a true and righteous God. Such being the case, He is perfectly right in passing sentence of condemnation against us. If one will believe God, he bows to this sentence in full acknowledgement that he is wrong, and God is right. “We know that whatever the things the law says, it speaks to those under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world be under judgment to God” (Romans 3:19).

The scriptures have anticipated the question. It is written explicitly: "That every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God." Again, "There is no difference: for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." (Rom. 3:19, 22, 23.) It is quite true that some go farther in sin outwardly than others; but the ground of judgment, as to man's condition before God, is his state of heart, his will, his feelings, his thoughts as well as his deeds.

Sin may be viewed in two ways, either as an offence against God, or as defilement to the sinner. God has His sovereign rights and claims over all His creatures, and it is this fact that constitutes sin a wrong done to Him, an outrage upon His majesty and glory. Sin in this aspect needs forgiveness, the way of which has been shown in a former paper. But sin also is in its very essence and nature defiling, polluting; and it is to this allusion is made in that striking entreaty in the prophet Isaiah: "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." (Isa. 1:18.) There is also a recognition of this by the psalmist when he cries, "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." (Ps. 51:7.) The word guilt perhaps combines these two aspects of sin, because it tells of the soul's sin against God and the effect upon the soul itself; and the first question for our consideration is, the method God has provided for cleansing the guilty soul from its deep-dyed iniquity.

Guilt refers to the day of judgment, but there is, too, the actual condition. I am not only exposed to judgment but I am lost also.

Coupled with a sense of guilt is a consciousness that we deserve to be punished. This increases our fear. God, who knows all about this, has said: "Be sure your sin will find you out" (Num. 32:23). We cannot have peace and true happiness until the question of our guilt is settled in a way that is just.

Our God-implanted conscience, part of the moral nature of man, makes us feel guilty when we have done something wrong. It also makes us realize that we deserve punishment. Some try to ease their guilt by joining a church and getting involved in religious activities, but they know deep down that this will never bring peace.

I pass on to Genesis 45, and there I find they are in Joseph's house, and Joseph is with them once more. I do not doubt he felt that the work was done in the conscience. You will find there is a deep sense in their souls of how terrible their guilt was. It is like the third chapter of Romans: "That every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God" (Gen. 45:19). I cannot justify myself. I do not want to. Because when my mouth is stopped with the sense of my guilt that is the moment God's mouth is opened in grace, and when I cannot justify myself that is the moment when God will justify me in grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.