There is a war going on in our society against the Biblical understanding of guilt. Many of the most prominent voices in our culture teach that guilt is an emotion that needs to be managed with careful analysis and psychological remedies. This mindset rebels against the idea of guilt as a healthy warning mechanism that lets people know when they are not living the way God intended.
Dr. John Street, a Professor of Biblical counseling at The Master’s University, in Santa Clarita, CA recently told a disturbing story about this unbiblical mindset in a podcast titled “The War on Guilt.” Dr. Street’s relative was working as a nurse at a hospital where she was required to accompany a young woman to a counseling session. The young woman had become pregnant out of wedlock and had decided to keep the baby. Her doctor required her to attend counseling sessions to deal with her guilt and Dr. Street’s relative was assigned to accompany the woman to the counseling sessions.
During the second session, the psychologist told the young woman that her problem was guilt. His advice was for her to go out and have as many illicit relationships as needed until she didn’t feel guilty about it anymore.
The idea behind that advice comes from a behaviorist approach to psychology. The idea is that emotions come from behavior and one way to change the emotion is by modifying the behavior. If someone is experiencing excessive guilt then one way to address it is for the person to believe they don’t need to feel guilty about the action. There is a risk involved in giving that advice.The risk is that the person will damage their conscience to the extent that they don’t feel guilt even though they are taking part in self-destructive behavior.
The Bible addresses guilt very differently. The Bible speaks of guilt as a burden that only God can alleviate. Psalm 32:2 gives a description of the feelings that can come when someone sins against their conscience, “When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night, your hand was heavy upon me; my vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer.” The guilt that David described was not something to be ignored. It was a natural warning telling David he needed to confess his sin and seek forgiveness from God.
Once David confessed his sin to God, his guilt was removed by God. Psalm 103:12 says, “As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.”
This remarkable cure for guilt can only be found in God because he is the one who defines right and wrong and he is the one who will judge humanity. By the grace of God, he has provided a means by which every human being can have their sin forgiven and their guilt removed. This was made possible by the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ. When Jesus died on the cross he paid for the sin of all those who confess their sin, believe in the saving work of Christ, and commit their lives to live for God and his glory.
The saving work of God is the best solution to alleviating guilt because it is dependent on the work of God and not the behavior modification of a human being. Romans 10:9-10 says, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” The emphasis is not on the work of man. It is on the saving work of God. Those who discover this truth are able to be set free from the depression of guilt. They are able to recognize that their hope is not found in themselves, but in God.
