A God Greater Than Our Guilt

“For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things. Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God.” (1Jo 3:20-21 AV)

 

Feeling badly regarding the choices we make is part of being a saint.  Once we accepted Christ as our only and personal Savior, the Holy Spirit quickened us and took up residence.  To quicken means to make alive.  We were born again.  We were made a new creature.  Our hearts, prior to salvation, desired sin alone.  Once the Holy Ghost took up residence, we now desire the law of God after the inward man.  However, the presence of the old sinful man is our curse until we graduate to heaven.  It is because of the presence of the old man who is in conflict with the new man created after the likeness of Christ we feel guilt.  And rather deeply.  This is a good thing.  Not in the sense that we feel guilt alone, but rather, we respond to our wrong choices with a feeling of guilt.  In the above verses, our beloved Apostle is comforting us regarding our struggle with sin.  I’ve underlined the portion of the word of God that especially spoke to me this morning.  What follows, is just important.  In essence, John is telling us we can live guilt-free.  Either by living right, to begin with, in verse twenty-one, or having faith that God forgives and is bigger than our guilt.  This second point is one upon which I wish to dwell.

In my twenties, I attended Bible College.  During those years, there were students who started with me, and who were obviously called, but never finished.  There were several reasons why.  Perhaps the world got a hold of that young man and he never flamed the amber that burned within him.  Perhaps the toil of school work was too much.  However, there was one fellow-student who never finished and never went into the ministry for a very different reason.  I remember some of the sermons he preached in homiletics class.  There were classic.  Whenever he preached, the class and instructors were convicted or blessed.  The entire church knew this man was called of God.  What happened?  He came from a rough background and was raised in a home situation.  Because of the perception he had of himself, he made decisions that he should not have made.  It went down a road that resulted in falling away.  All because he lived with unresolved guilt.  He did not allow God to be greater than his guilt.

Over the years, the LORD has brought across my path people who lived self-destructive lives.  There are various reasons for this.  However, one prominent reason people are self-destructive is that cannot live with the guilt.  They drown it out (or attempt to) by self-destructive behavior.  Which only adds to the guilt.  The truth which they desperately need is the hardest to prove to their emotional mind.  That is, God forgives all sin.  We can be subject to our emotional self far too much.  We can refuse to let the guilt go because we see it as a way of chastening ourselves.  We beat ourselves up thinking we do God service in doing so.  But John tells us that no matter how much we condemn ourselves for the choices we have made, the LORD is bigger than our hearts.  He alone forgives.  If He has forgiven, we need to accept that.  He alone can restore joy to the heart that deeply wants to be free from shame and guilt.  I simply encourage this morning by knowing that no matter how I feel, God is greater than my feelings.  Especially guilt.  Condemnation should happen.  If we have done wrong, we should feel bad.  But we should not frustrate the ministry of the Holy Spirit by staying in that guilt.  Repentance, forgiveness, and restoration is the escape from that guilt.  And only God can do that.