How should a Christian deal with feelings of guilt regarding past sins?
Answered from the commentary of The Christian's Friend, C. H. Mackintosh, William Kelly and 6 others
A Christian dealing with past sin should turn to God, confessing it honestly and taking God’s side against himself, and rest in Christ’s finished work, by which the believer’s sins are forgiven and the question of guilt settled. Repentance is not payment for sin: it includes sorrow and self-judgment, but confidence must rest on Christ, not on the depth of repentance or on feelings.
So the believer need not keep bearing guilt as though the past were unsettled; he may believe God’s word, receive the assurance of forgiveness, and go in peace. If the sin is a present failure, confess it to God as Father; He forgives and cleanses, and communion is restored. Where another has been wronged, repentance also means forsaking the wrong and making restitution as far as possible. Forgiveness does not necessarily remove the earthly consequences of sin, which may remain as discipline and a warning.
Verses: 1 John 1:9, Romans 8:1, Psalms 32:1, Psalms 32:2, Psalms 32:3, Psalms 32:4, Psalms 32:5, Psalms 51:1, Psalms 51:2, Psalms 51:3, Psalms 51:4, Psalms 51:5, Psalms 51:6, Psalms 51:7, Psalms 51:8, Psalms 51:9, Psalms 51:10, Psalms 51:11, Psalms 51:12, Isaiah 1:18, Micah 7:18, Micah 7:19, Hebrews 10:17, Hebrews 10:18, 2 Corinthians 7:10
The above is AI generated summary based on the writers below.
What the commentators say
The passages the answer is drawn from, the most direct first, with the words that bear on the question marked.
Repentance is never as deep as it should be; but if a repentant sinner turns from self to Christ, then his repentance has taken the right direction. He need not further be occupied with it, but will find peace and blessing in putting his confidence in Christ, and resting upon His finished work for salvation.
Beloved friends, such a state is true of thousands. They are clear as daylight as to the sins they committed before their conversion, but stumbled because of present failure. But, remember, there is one Person who will deal with all your sins. This is the One who died for your sins. You will have to come to Him and confess your sins to Him. You will have to own, with shame, that, having known His love, you have despised it. And you will find that His love and forgiveness will come to you sweeter than ever. You will find that another word of His will come to you, and say that "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins." The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth us from all sin."
Beloved friends, such a state is true of thousands. They are clear as daylight as to the sins they committed before their conversion, but stumbled because of present failure. But, remember, there is one Person who will deal with all your sins. This is the One who died for your sins. You will have to come to Him and confess your sins to Him. You will have to own, with shame, that, having known His love, you have despised it. And you will find that His love and forgiveness will come to you sweeter than ever. You will find that another word of His will come to you, and say that “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.” “The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all sin.”
Get down, I mean, in humiliation and self-judgment before God, remembering that though you have changed, He has not. This sin of yours is one amongst the many for which Christ suffered on the Cross, and He has now gone on high to be your Advocate (see 1 John 2:1). God is still your Father, and the word to you is: "If we confess our sins, He [the Father] is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9).
Your back is turned to Him, but He shines upon your back, and He wants you to turn quickly, to turn at once, to Him, and to know that all is forgiven. And He will make your backslidings to be such a lesson to you that in the future you will keep nearer to Him than ever you did before. He will empty you of self-confidence and fill you with confidence in Himself, and once again others also will take knowledge of you that you are the Lord's.
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.
A moment came when God by His word and Spirit laid on your conscience your evil, dangerous and lost state. No longer did you parry the dread conviction that you were wicked and ungodly, an enemy of God, and powerless for good. But He probed the wounds, and made their depth felt, and gave you to bow down in the confession of your guilt, and of your corrupt and wilful nature. Palliatives you refused, and you loathed yourself, and cried to Him whose goodness was leading you to repentance; and like Peter at the knees of the Lord Jesus, you said, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord; yet still like him, there you knelt, and owned Him as your hope. You had now the conscience of your sins, and the dread of God; but to go away from Jesus, No, No. To whom should you go? He had words of life eternal; He was the propitiation for sins; and you felt the need of both.
How precious then to hear from the Lord Jesus, the judge of quick and dead, that He came, the Sent of God, to give all of which the Holy Spirit made you feel the want! to give it in the fulness of love and grace and truth according to the worth of Christ and His work in His sight. Who but He could even have conceived of such a standing as "no more conscience of sins" for such as had been brought to the feet of Jesus, owning themselves as nothing but guilty and lost? Yet there and then never had they so deep a sense of their inexcusable evil; never was the burden of their sins felt to be so intolerable. The gospel of God was His answer in the cleansing power of Christ's blood. It cleanses from all guilt, from every sin, him that believes. Rest then on Him at God's word for your iniquities; and they are remembered no more.
As to the second point — sins, I mean actual transgressions, things that a person knows he has committed, and feels to be wicked in God's sight. These things stare him in the face. Every now and then they rise upon his conscience with such force and freshness, that sins of a twenty or thirty years' history come upon him with the guilt of those of today. This fills him with distress, and he cries out in bitterness of soul that he is a guilty sinner, and that he does not know any one so vile as himself. He is taken up with his sins. It is evident, that the more he is occupied with his sins they more depression of mind and unhappiness he must, have. He may struggle, groan, be diligent in religiousness in ten thousand ways, but he will find no relief till he sees that all has been atoned for by Jesus, the Sin-bearer.
But when the Holy Ghost acts in us, He brings to our remembrance all our sins, and shows them to us; when He brings back thus all our pollutions, He makes us feel what we are before God; the soul is distressed and tormented; but that does not satisfy conscience, we must clearly understand that Christ has borne all our sins.
And when He comes to unroll our whole life since we believed, will it grieve us for Him to know it all? When you have failed in any way, and God has brought the sense of it to your soul, do you want not to settle it till a future time? or is it not a positive relief not to cover it up, but to feel that the thing has been judged? Nothing will do but making a clean conscience before God, not letting a spot remain, but confessing and taking the whole blame; rejecting the thing and condemning it in yourself first.
Verses
- 1 John 1:9If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us [our] sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
- Romans 8:1[There is] then now no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus.
- Psalms 32:1–51(Of David. Instruction.) Blessed is he [whose] transgression is forgiven, [whose] sin is covered! 2Blessed is the man unto whom Jehovah reckoneth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile! 3When I kept silence, my bones waxed old, through my groaning all the day long. 4For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me; my moisture was turned into the drought of summer. Selah. 5I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity I covered not; I said, I will confess my transgressions unto Jehovah, and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah.
- Psalms 51:1–121(To the chief Musician. A Psalm of David; when Nathan the prophet came to him, after he had gone in to Bath-sheba.) Be gracious unto me, O God, according to thy loving-kindness; according to the abundance of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. 2Wash me fully from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. 3For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is continually before me. 4Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done what is evil in thy sight; that thou mayest be justified when thou speakest, be clear when thou judgest. 5Behold, in iniquity was I brought forth, and in sin did my mother conceive me. 6Behold, thou wilt have truth in the inward parts; and in the hidden [part] thou wilt make me to know wisdom. 7Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. 8Make me to hear gladness and joy; [that] the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. 9Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities. 10Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. 11Cast me not away from thy presence, and take not the spirit of thy holiness from me. 12Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, and let a willing spirit sustain me.