Feeling guilty when you have disobeyed God is a sign of a good conscience. A hardened heart feels less guilt and even approves of others who do the evil. Rom. 1:32
True and thank the Holy Spirit for that conviction. Don’t thank Him for your sinning but thank Him for the conviction of the truth that you did sin. Some people sin and think it is okay. To sin and feel guilty is good. We ought to feel guilty more often than we do for we are more sinful than we think.
John 16:8
“And He (the Holy Spirit), when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment”
We are guilty, we have disobey God!
Yes, a saint is guilty. Always, was and will be guilty!
A saint is guilty but forgiven, God could pour out His Wrath on the sinner, but not the saint who is forgiven. God can’t be angry with the sinner who is forgiven because God poured out His anger on Christ when He bore our sins in His body on the cross for 3 hours and then said “It is finished” He paid the price in full. He paid the ransom for our sin to set us free.
Guilty of transgressing the Law of God. God has boundaries and we have crossed them. We are not to transgress His Law. We stay in the boundaries of the Ten Commandments or Love to God and love to our neighbor. We are guilty, we have crossed the line of perfection.
We have transgressed the Law of God, we have sinned, and our hearts are iniquitous and God is right when He Judges us guilty and deserving punishment. Psalm 51
Satan comes along when we feel that guilt and snatches the truth away and lets us believe a lie.
Matthew 13:19
“When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart.”
What has been sown in the heart is “We are guilty (truth #1), but Christ has earned God’s Love, Grace, Mercy and forgiveness for me by His work on the cross. (Truth #2)”
The truth Satan snatches away truth #2 “but Christ has earned God’s Love, Grace, Mercy and Forgiveness for me by His substitutionary death on the cross, so I don’t have to earn God’s Grace.”
Satan snatches Truth #2 away and replaces it with a lie when you are feeling guilty. “We are guilty (Truth #1) then he takes truth #2 away “snatches away what has been sown in the heart”
What is the truth that was sown in the heart?
God made Jesus who knew no sin to be sin for us that He might impute Christ’s righteousness to our account whereby He declares us righteous, therefore we ought to put this breastplate on daily!
Answer:
The truth that was sown in the heart is Truth #2 (the gospel) and Satan replaces Truth #2 (the gospel) with works salvation thinking by telling us when we are feeling guilty that we must earn God’s favor by doing good.
Liar, get away from me Satan! You will have power to do this “Get away from Satan once the truth of the Gospel is abiding in you” but you have to drive it in daily. Drink it up! Like babes desire the pure milk of the Gospel so that they may grow! Drive the gospel in your head and not believing you can earn God’s favor by the righteous things you do.
( I remember always having a clean room when I felt guilty or I would do more things at church to try to get the guilty feelings to go away. I grew out of this by preaching the Gospel to myself over and over again. We all must do this in order to be saved and grow to be more like Christ.)
No we do not earn God’s favor by doing good, Christ earned God’s favor and grace to us by being good on our behalf. Christ lived a perfect life. This is His Righteousness. Christ says to God, “I have lived a perfect life for them and they are guilty, yes, but forgive them because I paid the punishment for their sin, they deserve punishment, yes but forgive them because of what I did for them and my intercession for them right now at Your Right Hand.” “I, Jesus Christ live to intercede for them.”
Hebrews 7:25
“He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.”
He saves us by interceding! When we feel guilty think of Christ. Do not think you have to earn God’s favor or be perfect in order for God to forgive you. Yes, you have to be perfect in order to go to heaven. But Christ was perfect for you. “Dark am I, yet lovely” in Christ alone by God’s grace alone through faith alone.
Put your shield of faith in the Christ’s work on!
You see when we feel guilty and we believe we have to earn God’s favor and love we are no longer having faith in Christ! but believe we can earn God’s favor. This is faith in ourselves and our own supposed goodness. Put on the breastplate of righteousness by faith in Christ when we feel guilty. We must do this all day every day, if not hourly!
When feel good and right conviction of sin, we do not forgive ourselves. God if He chooses will forgive us for offending Him and making Him angry.
The battle for your soul is in your mind.
Ephesian 6:12 “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.”
“The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” Satan blinds by keeping them believing his lies when the guilt comes by unbelief in the Gospel. Mainly that they have to earn their salvation rather than faith in Christ doing it for them.
Application:
Daily and hourly practice right and balanced thoughts and feeling of guilt and forgiveness in Christ by thinking “Dark am I, yet lovely in Christ”. Think of your sin and the punishment you deserve by thinking “Dark am I” and yet also think “lovely and holy am I in Christ”.
Yes we are guilty standing alone, yet declared righteous in Christ!
This is true we are dark with sin, but morally perfect in the eyes of God because of what Christ has done for us. So the thought is “Dark am I, yet lovely in Christ” This is “Dark am I” (truth #1), with “yet lovely in Christ” truth #2 = Freedom from the punishment and enslavery to sin and guilt. Your conscience will be clean, clear and cleansed by preaching to yourself the Gospel when you sin.
This must be practiced. This does not come natural. We have to drive this truth in over and over and over again all day everyday! Thousands of times!! Tens of thousands of times in our lifetime! The preacher preaches the Gospel and it is in all our Worship Songs. Yet with all of this Satan manages to snatch that truth away so that the sinner will go to hell and the saint will not grow.
