I‘ve found, when I’m preaching, that when I touch upon the subject of guilt, something resonates. I pick up on it subjectively as I sense people’s attention being grabbed and as I watch body language and facial expressions. I pick up on it objectively as the level of feedback picks up!
So guilt seems to be something we need to talk about, even though we don’t always want to and not everyone wants us to. In fact, that’s the odd thing isn’t it? Whilst the reaction to me talking about guilt is there, if I told you that I was going to talk a lot about guilt then you probably would have second thoughts about attending church for a while. Even mentioning “guilt” in the title here will put some people off reading!
Why we need to talk about guilt
What is the Gospel?
Not everybody thinks we should be talking about guilt. In fact some people think we talk about it too much. So there is a theological issue at stake (in fact there are 2 theological issues at stake, more of which below). The argument goes that western people don’t want to talk about guilt anymore. It sounds negative. It makes God look vindictive and angry. Also, people coming from a non-western background are more likely to think in terms of honour/shame.
It’s this line of thought that underpins the sort of thinking seen in The Lost Message of Jesus (Steve Chalke and Alan Mann). One of the reasons Penal Substitution is rejected by them is because it is seen as to do with guilt and punishment.
So for example, Chalke writes:
“A friend of mine was invited to attend an Easter service at a large church. Hundreds of people had gathered, including many young people who attended their children’s club. As part of the service, the club’s very enthusiastic leader was invited to speak. He talked for a few minutes, focusing on the fact that all the kids who pass their doors had learned ‘the four most important things in the world.’ By the time he had finished speaking, everyone was obviously keen to discover what these vital truths were. But rather than tell the congregation himself, he invited an eight year old girl to the stage. She introduced herself and then, with as bold a voice as she could muster declared, ‘The four most important things in the world are:
- God created me
- I am a sinner
- Jesus came to die for me
- Until I accept Jesus as Lord and Saviour I cannot receive the abundant life God has for me.’
My friend sat in her seat stunned. Was the second most important thing in the world that eight year olds need to know really that they are sinners? Is this what we have reduced the majestic message of Jesus to? Surely a child would be better knowing:
- Jesus explained that God loves them unconditionally.
- God longs for them to be part of his plan for creation.
- Jesus teaches that no-one can keep them from this destiny except their own decision.
- Jesus’ death and resurrection from the dead prove that he was telling the truth so we can trust him.”[1]
Earlier in the same book, Chalke talks unfavourably about Jonathan Edwards’ famous sermon “Sinners in the hands of an angry God.” This sort of “hell fire preaching” is presented as gloomy and presented a false image of God. Fascinatingly, Chalke fails to tell us that this sermon fits into a wider picture f Edwards’ teaching and writing that presents a wonderful, gracious, joy filled God. He doesn’t mention that Edwards’ preaching was used to prompt a great awakening of faith that included an intense experience of God’s presence. He also misses the point that in the sermon “Sinners in the hands of an angry God.” That God’s hand is presented as restraining the sinner from falling into hell not dangling them there to torture them, ready to hold them in.
Chalke and Mann are probably two of the strongest and, in the UK most prominent critics of traditional, conservative Evangelical approaches to the Gospel.[2] However, they are not alone. This argument underpins the approach of people like Rob Bell. Senior academic theologians including Tom Wright, Joel Green and Scott McKnight are often quoted in support of the thesis.[3]
So if we shouldn’t talk about guilt and punishment, then what should we talk about? In this view, guilt, punishment and penal substitution provides just one model of the atonement, a presentation of why Christ died which is discardable and interchangeable with other atonement models. These models include
Christ as the victor over evil
Christ as the example we are to follow
Christ as the one who demonstrates God’s love to us
Picking up these models enables us to present a different Gospel message more in tune with our hearers. The focus should be much more on confronting evil in the world around us. This will help people to get on board with a cause. Jesus’s life, death and resurrection become more about his victory over evil, demonstration of God’s love and example to his followers.
The problem here is twofold. First of all, this approach leaves a big gap in our reading of the Bible’s presentation of the Gospel. It is right to see that a rich presentation of the Gospel will include talk of how Jesus demonstrates God’s love to us.[4] As we present the Gospel, people should pick up on the sense that Christ has won, that evil has been defeated.[5]And proper discipleship must include teaching believers to follow Christ’s example.[6]
However, if we lose the fact that Jesus has taken the penalty of sin on himself them we lose the heart of the Gospel. In fact without this at its heart, all those other aspects become meaningless. It is right, when we talk about the cross that we ask the question “Why was it necessary for Jesus to die?”
If evil is just something out there, then surely the right answer would be for God to send out his angel hosts to vanquish Satan in battle. If we simply need an example of godly obedience, then Jesus modelled that in his life. If we need a demonstration of God’s love then a bloody sacrifice seems a strange way to do it, a manipulative and ugly way of catching our attention. In fact if the Cross is simply about demonstrating love or winning some kind of victory then it begins to look exactly like the sort of cosmic abuse that Chalke and Mann were so adamant that they were trying to avoid.
The Cross was necessary because evil isn’t just something out here to be defeated. Evil exists in this world because we, humans are sinners. We deserve death as the punishment for sin. We need forgiveness. The Bible tells us that Jesus bore our punishment. He took our place. It is exactly because he did this that death, evil and the devil are defeated. This is how he demonstrates love, he takes our place, he bears our guilt and shame. This then is the example he offers. It’s an example of how to face unjust accusation and to bear the burdens of others. The Gospel is beautiful because it means freedom from guilt and sin. The Gospel is wonderful because it gives us the hope of eternal life.
This is at the heart of Paul’s presentation in the letter to the Romans. For Paul the problem is as follows.
God has clearly revealed who he is to us but we have rejected him, we have been deaf to his voice and blind to his revelation of himself.
We are objectively guilty and without excuse –all have sinned.
God’s Law is powerless to rescue. We cannot save ourselves. We cannot justify ourselves.
And so the solution is presented in terms of
- Jesus has taken the penalty of sin on himself. He has been punished where we stood guilty
- We are justified by faith –this means we are declared righteous/innocent. We are given Christ’s righteousness
- We have new life, we have died to our old self and risen to new life with Christ
- We are no longer condemned. The high point in Romans 8 surely makes it clear that this is a guilt-punishment-forgiveness issue
The other problem is that their analysis of modern society is just plain wrong and out of sync with the analysis of popular culture. The early 21st Century TV drama “Shameless” probably better captures the prevailing zeitgeist. A drive down Broad Street on a Friday night suggests that shame is not the prevailing mood. Reality TV (Big Brother, The X Factor, Britain’s Got Talent) tend to rely on the assumption that we have low shame thresholds. Trisha and Jeremy Kyle built their shows on the premise that people have very little shame and are prepared to go through public humiliation for cash but a lot of guilt and blame and therefore also willing to attempt public atonement.
The problem is that whilst the Church is deserting the one Gospel that offers hope of atonement and forgiveness, the world is offering its solutions (drugs, therapy, ritual humiliation) for the very same guilt epidemic we have been conditioned into denying exists.
Who is the Gospel for?
If the first theological issue is to do with “What is the Gospel?” then the second is “Who is the gospel for?” We often tend to think in terms of non-Christians needing to know that they can be forgiven. Non-Christians come to Christ because of the guilt of sin. Some feel it others don’t but objectively they are guilty. However, what then happens is that we begin to think about how to go on as Christians, how do we experience sanctification, how do we discover God’s purpose for our lives? How do we face difficulties? What do we do when things go wrong? These questions are seen as separate from the Gospel. So why talk about guilt because most Christians don’t really have a problem with it do they?
The result is that what we tend to offer to Christians for going on is something instead of the Gospel and usually it is either one or a mix of the following three things.
- Legalism. We offer lists of things that they must do. Six steps to being a better husband, seven steps to being a good Christian in the workplace. We measure faith and maturity by how busy people are in church life. In conservative evangelical circles it is probably measured by how much doctrine we know too. We can end up with a legalistic attitude to prayer life and Bible study. We kind of put out an unstated rule that Christians serve to pay back God. John Piper in his book “Future Grace” highlights this as a problem with thinking in terms of gratitude.
- License. We tell people that God loves them and forgives then and so they can go on in life as they please. We rarely of course offer genuine full on antinomianism but we run shy of corporate accountability, church discipline etc and we let people follow their dreams and do what feels right to them. Licence is seen not just in sinful lifestyles but in apathy towards Gospel work. License reacts to the legalism of the old fashioned “quiet time” by saying “I won’t worry reading my Bible or praying regularly.”
- Magic. I’ve never found the third “l”. But I think there’s a tendency towards superstition. This is the idea that somehow through something that happens I will be lifted onto a higher plain of Christian living. This was seen in the Keswick holiness movement and in some aspects of charismatic thinking. People craved a second blessing that would give them power or holiness. Often these days, the magic is offered through the medium of the worship service and the mediator of the worship leader. In conservative evangelical circles we can think we’ve escaped this temptation. However, I think that there’s an undertone that if you are part of the right church and sit under the right preachers then some form of magic dust will rub off on you. When the “right sorts of preachers” fall into error or sin then it is earthshattering.
Now as well as being an alternative to what the Gospel says about sin, guilt, grace and forgiveness, these three approaches also relate directly to guilt themselves.
First of all, the least obvious one, licence can become a way of running away from guilt and yet it over the long term can lead to someone storing up guilt that one day leaks out. Also, the person who has lived under licence will use guilt as a defence. “How dare you challenge me?” “You’ve no right to say that.” “You made me feel bad.”
Secondly, we can see how quite obviously legalism relies on guilt to control and manipulate people. Faith becomes mechanistic. Do this and you will get this.
Thirdly, Magic is also mechanistic. Something happens that causes good things. So when the magic does not work we ask why. The result is that we either blame ourselves (I wasn’t spiritual enough, lacked faith etc). Or we blame others “You’ve let me down, your church isn’t spiritual enough, you aren’t feeding me.”
So, these things not only fail but they are also deadly. Yet it is so easy for churches to fall into the trap of running on those principles. They become guilt driven churches. We see this overtly in cults and sects, we spot it in the prosperity gospel and when it comes to salvation then we see why the Reformation was needed to counter the Catholic church’s tendency to rely on these three things. But ordinary, local, evangelical churches can fall into this trap too.
So what’s the answer? Well this is why it is so important to keep going back to what the Gospel is and seeing it again in all its beauty. The good news is that we have a great and good God. This God is glorious and holy, loving and righteous/ He is sovereign. God made us to know him but we have sinned and rejected him. We stand guilty. The penalty of sin is death. Jesus took the penalty of sin on himself. Now because of this, we are forgiven. We are free in Christ, we are free to live for him, to love him, to obey him. And caught up in this central truth are all the other wonderful things that only really make sense and are possible because he has born the penalty. Jesus has won the victory over evil, Jesus has demonstrated God’s love. Jesus does offer an example to his followers about how to live and it is possible for them to follow that example because he has taken their sin and given them his righteousness.
When we remember what the Gospel is and how wonderful it is, we also start to realise who the Gospel is for. The Gospel as people like Tim Keller and Jerry Bridges have pointed out is for all believers, it is for the whole of life. So, our preachers need to preach Christ. We don’t just preach the Gospel to tell unbelievers how to be saved. We preach it so believers know how to live.
The massive pastoral significance of guilt
The motto of our “faithroots” website is “What we believe affects how we live.” So it is no surprise then to see that guilt plays it out in the pastoral life of the church. It’s also no surprise when we remember that the Devil is described as “The accuser” one of his main tactics is to use guilt to try and disabled Christians from godly living/ As Charity Bancroft put it.
“When Satan tempts me to despair
And tells me of the guilt within.”
In fact our songwriters often have a strong grasp of the impact of guilt in the believer’s life. So Stuart Townend writes
“When I’m stained with guilt and sin
He is there to lift me
Heal me and forgive me.”
There are three ways it plays out. First of all, as mentioned above, churches can too easily operate as “Guilt Driven churches” affecting the whole life of the church community.
Secondly, many people can become handicapped in Christian life by their guilt. At its most extreme this may even be expressed in or exacerbated by emotional and mental health issues. I have even seen this work itself out in severe, chronic physical symptoms. However, we can focus on those extremes and miss the way that guilt affects each of us. This is not just about going around carrying a permanent burden of guilt. But if we do not know how to deal rightly with guilt then it can lead to discouragement in Christian service, broken friendships and the attempt to cover up and hide sinful habits.
Tripp and Lane see this as a significant problem in Christian life. Picking up on 2 Peter 3:1-9, they comment:
“Why are many Christians ‘ineffective and unproductive’? Peter provides the diagnosis in verse 9: they are near sighted and blind, having forgotten that they have been cleansed from their past sons. They are blind to the power and hope of the gospel for today.”[7]
This blindness means that
“Many believers also fail to see the other side of their gospel identity their identity in Christ. Christ not only gives me forgiveness and a new future but a whole new identity as well! I am now a child of God with all of the rights and privileges that this title bestows.”[8]
The problem is compounded because:
“Often in our blindness, we take on our problems as identities. While divorce, depression, and single parenthood are significant human experiences, they are not identities. Our work is not our identity, though it is an important part of how God intends us to live. For too many of us, our sense of identity is rooted in our performance than it is in God’s grace. “[9]
And in our blindness we fail to see that God has provided everything we need for a godly life. [10]
Thirdly, whilst some people on the extremes carry a huge burden of guilt, it is equally dangerous to pursue life oblivious to our guilt. We see that in church life too don’t we? Sometimes it’s the person who just lets the challenge go over them like water off a duck’s back. Sometimes it’s the person who refuses to accept conviction and tries to turn the blame back on the person who challenged them. “How dare you say that to me? You have no right. This says more about your state of mind to think that about me than it does about me.”
So Lane and Tripp note that the first symptom of Spiritual blindness is that
“Christians underestimate the presence and power of indwelling sin. They don’t see how easily entrapped they are in this world full of snares (see Gal.6.1)”[11]
So if we are going to care for each other and bear one another’s burdens we will need to understand what guilt is, how it works and what the solution is. If we are going to encourage and challenge each other on in our growth then we will need to understand the guilt problem properly. If we want to be healthy Christians and part of a healthy church, we need to talk about guilt.
What is guilt?
Collins identifies two main types of guilt “subjective guilt” and “objective guilt.”[12]
“Objective guilt occurs when a law has been broken and the lawbreaker is guilty even though he or she may not feel guilty. Subjective guilt refers to the inner feelings of remorse and self-condemnation that come because of our actions.”[13]
Under objective guilt he includes legal and theological guilt. Legal guilt means breaking the laws of the land whilst theological guilt entails breaking God’s Law. He also includes
He also includes “personal guilt” and “social guilt” In his definition of objective guilt. With personal guilt, “the individual violates his or her own personal standards or resists the urging of conscience.” “Social guilt comes when we break an unwritten but socially accepted rule.”[14]
When the Bible talks about “guilt” it is actually talking about “objective guilt.” Subjective guilt is more to do with our conscience and a sense of shame. Often when we talk about guilt we are referring to subjective guilt. This is why it’s important to distinguish between what I feel and what really is the case. Feelings can be deceptive. At the same time, this helps us to get a more nuanced understanding of how sin affects us individually and corporately. Shame properly speaking is a response to guilt. That’s the problem with talking about “guilt cultures” and “shame cultures.” They are really two aspects of the same problem –sin. So shame is an important feature of the Bible narrative. When Adam and Eve sin, they realise they are naked. They are ashamed. They try to cover their shame with fig leaves. God provides animal garments as proper clothing to cover their shame. When Noah gets drunk after the flood, he ends up naked and the subject of gossip. His son, Ham, further exposes his shame. Shem and Japheth seek to cover his shame. So, when we get to The Crucifixion and see Jesus stripped, tortured and publically ridiculed as he hangs on the Cross, we are presented with the solution to guilt and to shame. Not only is Jesus punished in my place but he bears my shame. Justification has a legal character to it. I am declared innocent. But justification also carries the idea of my nakedness and shame being covered by the clothes of righteousness.
By the way, I think that honour/shame culture is not so much about how I individually respond to my sin as to how a society responds collectively. It’s not an alternative to talking about guilt. Rather it’s an extension of our understanding of it. “Honour-shame” cultures recognise that my individual sin brings shame on all of us. We all share in the consequences of one person’s wrong doing.
The problem with shame is that it may not always be rooted in real guilt. Subjective feelings can be misleading. As well as distinguishing objective guilt from subjective guilt, we also want to distinguish false guilt and real guilt. False guilt means that someone may be overwhelmed with a burden of shame when they are not to blame. This may be because they have a characteristic trait which means they take responsibility for things not within their control or remit. It can also be a problem with people who have experienced abuse. They are led to believe that it was their own fault.
This means that false guilt is more obviously associated with subjective guilt. However, false guilt may be identified when there is personal or social guilt. In a legalistic community, a person may be declared guilty when in fact they have done nothing wrong. Even legal guilt may be false guilt when the laws of the land ask us to go against God’s laws.
The Problem with Guilt
Let’s have a look in a bit more detail at how guilt affects us individually and in church life.
The Guilt Driven Life
Let’s pick up first of all on two of those types of blindness which Lane and Tripp mentioned. What happens when someone becomes blind to the power of the Gospel and the reality of forgiveness in their life? What happens when they forget that they have all of the resources they need to live for Christ?
Here are some ways that guilt can affect them. What happens? First of all, when we forget the power of the Gospel then we are likely to try and hide our guilt. We don’t want people to know the truth about who we are. This is because guilt and shame are closely aligned. If others could know what we are really like, the bad thoughts which keep coming back, the habits we struggle to keep, the things we said and did at work away from the church then we will work hard to keep those things secret. You will realise that at this stage I could be talking about either subjective guilt or objective guilt and with real guilt, there will be usually be subjective guilt to follow.
Guilt is the enemy of integrity and intimacy. We put up barriers so that others see the person we want to portray. Others never get to see what you really are like and where you struggle. So people keep on going, turning up to church, serving in ministry and no-one spots that there’s a problem until it all explodes. Sometimes this can even breed resentment. Even as we put on the mask, we blame others for not spotting what is really going on. Subjective guilt is very good at the blame game. Think back to Genesis 3. When Adam and Eve eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge, they realise that they are naked. There is shame, a felt guilt. However, this shame does not provoke confession and repentance. Instead, they first of all try to hide their shame with fig leaves and then they turn in on each other. Both blame the other one for their culpability in the act.
The problem is that the masks we put on are about as sustainable as that fig leaf garment. We can’t keep up the pretence for ever. So guilt is the enemy of faithfulness. It is easier to keep others at arms-length and to move on when they get too close or the truth starts to leak out. This will lead to transient lifestyles and temporary relationships. It will be no surprise that many people struggle to stay in one church for a long time. We keep on moving on hoping that our real identity won’t catch up with us.
Guilt is the enemy of hope and service. If I feel guilty because I have failed in the past then it may discourage me from trying again. I fear that events will repeat themselves. I’ll fail again, I’ll let others down.
Subjective guilt is the enemy of constructive feedback. The person who carries subjective guilt around with them may well find it very difficult to hear criticism. Instead of hearing a mixture of positive and negative comments which could help them improve, they simply hear “You are a terrible failure).
Guilt is the enemy of a healthy prayer life. When I am aware of guilt –false or real- then it makes it harder to come and talk to God. I am aware of his holiness and justice. I fear judgement.
When we deal with guilt legalistically then we will try to make amends. We try to put things right. Often we risk making matters worse. For example, the parent who feels guilty for being absent makes amends by buying expensive gifts but these have to be paid for on the credit card and then the bill has to be paid off requiring longer overtime hours and more absence. You get into a vicious cycle.
When we try to deal with guilt through licence then we try to find ways to escape or to be excused. When we deal with it through “magic” then we hope that some kind of intervention will put things right or following a ritual will make atonement. You can see then how at the extremes, guilt will feed into addictive and compulsive behaviour problems, escape through drug or alcohol addiction or retreat behind an emotional health condition that excuses me from accountability.[15]
Guilt Denial
But then you have those who are blind to the reality of sin in their life. This includes the non-Christian who is completely unaware of their lost-ness. Sadly as Christians we can forget that we live in the “now and not yet.” We lose sight of how temptation comes. We have blind-spots to our own failings. We don’t see the different ways in which we hurt others and fail to love God with our whole heart.
Just as talking about “guilt driven life” recognises a spectrum of feelings leading up the completely overburdened with guilt, so too there will be a spectrum with denial. At a pathological level, some people are completely oblivious to their sin. However, most people will be aware of their failings and shortcomings. However, we are not always aware of when we fail. Also, we sometimes end up downplaying guilt either by minimising the seriousness of the sin (it was just a white lie) or our culpability in it (I was just joining in, I was only following instructions, I lost control and couldn’t help myself, it was the booze talking, I’m rather tired and stressed at the moment).
So guilt denial will also lead to blaming others. “It was their fault, not mine.” In other words, there may well be a strong connection between the ability of some to ignore their responsibility and the tendency of others to carry an unduly heavy burden.
Guilt denial means that I don’t hear the corrective challenge of others. This is so dangerous. It means I risk failing to hear wisdom’s call (Proverbs 1:20ff) and so also the convicting voice of the Holy Spirit. It means that I may fail to learn and go on repeating mistakes and causing harm and hurt to others.
The Guilt Driven Church
A few years back, Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church wrote his best seller book “The Purpose Drive Church.” Sadly, too often people attending church can feel as though someone has published an alternative book “The Guilt Driven Church.”
How does a Guilt Driven Church work? Well at its extreme we are likely to see control, harsh legalism and even cult-like characteristics. A guilt driven church will often rely on fear to motivate people. Church members serve to earn the approval of others or to avoid disappointing them. Guilt plays on fear by subtle means. It is only in cults that you are likely to see the threat of physical punishment, shaming or shunning.
However, the following subtle messages can be sent out.
“You need to attend this meeting or carry out this task because this is your way of paying back others in the church for what they have done for you (especially where there is a strong focus on practical help).”
“If you don’t do this then it will upset and disappoint people.”
“If you don’t help with this ministry then we may no longer be able to run it.”
“If you don’t give/serve/attend then it will affect your life negatively. God will not bless and provide for you.”
Now Guilt Driven Churches are not just caused by how the formal leaders behave. There are two reasons for this. First of all, there are other people who exert unofficial leadership in a church. These can include people who hold social status due to the length of time they have been a member, their social position in the community, their charisma, the emotional power of their personal testimony or the crucial role they play in the life of the church (e.g. if they are the only person seen as being able to carry out a particular role).
Also, in any organisation and churches are not immune to this, official leaders will quickly find that there are people around them who start to presume to speak for them. This may include friends and relatives. The problem is that a leader may express their own frustrations to friends and relatives in private. This may be part of their own process of working through an issue. They may be aware that acting on their frustrations will play on guilt. However, those around them may only pick up on he frustration and then seek to act and speak on their behalf.
Then there’s another reason why a church can feel like it is guilt driven. If you have individuals within the church whose own lives are guilt driven then they may be likely to hear everything that the leaders say to them through that perspective. I know that I can say something that sounds incredibly prescriptive to one person and they will not take it as controlling or burdensome. They’ll hear what I am saying and they’ll be able to respond by making up their own mind about what I’m saying to them. I also know that with others, the gentlest request will be heard by them as an authoritarian command.
Now the problem is compounded because when we go back to the list above, although all of those statements can be used to play on or create felt guilt, sometimes they are also true. For example, there are things we would like to do as a church and if we don’t have the volunteers to do them then they will stop. These are activities that are having a positive impact and we would be sad to lose them. There are times when we need to challenge and advise people for their own good. There are times when the refusal to lift a finger to help in any way is a mark of either laziness and selfishness or even outright awkwardness and defiance. I think the important thing here is that those leading need to lead from the right motive. Their aim is not to induce a false feeling of guilt. Sometimes it may be necessary to make people aware of real guilt as we seek to challenge or correct but when we do that, then the aim is not to see a person struggling on with a heavy burden of guilt or atoning themselves. Our aim should be to see them confronted again with the wonder and beauty of the Gospel. We want them to find grace.
An alternative narrative
One of the things that good teaching and preaching should do over time is offer an alternative storyline. Preaching is bigger than just giving 3 or 4 practical tips for the week ahead (though of course it shouldn’t neglect to do that!). It should change worldviews; it should re-orientate people’s lives towards Christ (away from self and idols). It should motivate us to worship. Indeed preaching is itself part of our worship.
So what will picking up the guilt-grace-forgiveness theme mean in practice? Well first of all, whether or not we pull out the theme and look at it as a stand-alone sermon topic , we can expect it to be a thread that runs through our teaching because it is a thread that runs through the Bible.
The aim is not to make people feel guilty. Indeed good preaching in this area should not leave people going home downcast and discouraged. It should start with a clear diagnostic of the problem. We should help people to distinguish between false guilt and true guilt. We will talk about sin. However, the correct response to this conviction of guilt is not to wallow in subjective guilt. Rather, in the Gospel we find true freedom from guilt. Forgiveness and grace are the cause of celebration. There should be a sense of enjoying the Gospel.
This should then lead to practical application. Areas we will be able to pick up on will include:
The true joy of Christian service
Being open and honest in relationships
Keeping short accounts
How grace leads to fruitful prayer life
Forgiveness and freedom from doubt
Grace as the anecdote to habits and addictions –work, drugs, self-harm etc.
How to help and support those who are heavy burden
Our preaching should be to the heart, these things cannot be solved through self-help. We are not just offering surface solutions –plasters over deep wounds but deep heart surgery. However, this will be supported by practical teaching about the specifics of these things .
So what is the alternative narrative that addresses these things? Well ut very simply and obviously, it’s the Biblical narrative.
The Bible tells us about people who are guilty of sin and feel shame. Adam and Eve hide in the garden and cover themselves with fig leaves, King David tries to hide his guilt when he commits adultery with Bathsheba and kills her husband. Their sin, guilt and shame mean that they feel exposed, ashamed and afraid. They hide from God.
God seeks guilty, shamed sinners out. He is not afraid to expose the truth of their sin, he challenges and convicts Adam and Eve, he sends Nathan the Prophet to speak to David. He sits with a woman at a well and tells her that he knows about her many husbands and current lover. But God does not leave shame exposed, he clothes Adam and Eve with animal fur, he moves Shem and Japheth to cover Noah’s nakedness. God does not leave our guilt unforgiven.
The beauty of the Gospel is this. On the Cross, Jesus hung naked, exposed to the mockery and ridicule of the World. Jesus bore our shame so we don’t have to. On the Cross, Jesus received the sentence of death that we deserve. Jesus took our guilt “he became sin for us.” That is one side of the Gospel. Jesus took our place, he became our substitute bearing our sin, shame and guilt. But there’s the other side to the exchange too. Jesus through his perfect obedience in life and death shows himself to be righteous. Jesus was justified. The Bible tells us that God gives us Jesus’ righteousness (see Romans 4 & Philippians 3). His righteousness is credited to us. This means we are justified, “just as if I’d kept God’s Law perfectly.” Justification means that our guilt is dealt with because we are forgiven, declared innocent, treated as in the right. But we also have that other fantastic Bible image of being clothed, of being covered played out in the doctrine of justification. I am clothed with Christ’s robes of righteousness; my nakedness and shame are covered too. This is the wonder of the Gospel doubled up and doubled up again.
Conclusion
The subjects of Guilt, Grace and Forgiveness are essential themes that underpin our telling and retelling of the Gospel story. They are relevant to people at all stages in the Christian journey. Whilst these should not be the only things we talk about they certainly are important and central.
[1] Steve Chalke and Alan Mann, The Lost Message of Jesus (Grand Rapids, MI.: Zondervan, 2003), 172-173.
[2] See also Alan Mann, Atonement for a Sinless Society (2nd Ed. Eugene, Oregon. Cascade Books, 2015). In this book he expands on the thesis that guilt does not resonate with people but shame does.
[3] The extent to which they buy into the argument will vary from theologian to theologian and some may be less happy than others to be identified with the argument.
[4] 1 John 4:9
[5] Colossians 2:15.
[6] 1 Peter 2:21
[7] Timothy S Lane & Paul David Tripp, How People Change (Greensborough. New Growth Press, 2006), 3.
[8] Lane & Tripp, How People Change, 5.
[9] Lane & Tripp, How People Change, 5.
[10] Lane & Tripp, How People Change, 5.
[11] Lane & Tripp, How People Change, 4.
[12] Gary R Collins, Christian Counselling A Comprehensive Guide(3rd Ed. Nashville, Dallas. Nelson, 2007), 178.
[13] Gary R Collins, Christian Counselling A Comprehensive Guide, 178.
[14] Gary R Collins, Christian Counselling A Comprehensive Guide,178.
[15] Please note here that I am not saying that guilt is the sole cause of these issues. There may be other independent causes. As we mentioned above, guilt may exacerbate a health problem with another cause. Sometimes it is the other way round and an underlying health problem causes a distorted view of the world leading to feelings of false guilt. I recognise as well that sometimes the cycle has been in motion for so long that it is difficult to untangle cause from symptom.
Faithroots 