Welcome
back to my blog. Thank you for joining me today. I hope you find the
information in these blogs useful.
Christians
feel guilty, seemingly almost routinely. Guilt is practically accepted as a
part of the Christian life. Should we feel guilty and why? If not, how do we
stop?
Let's
spend several weeks talking about guilt. It is worth it as it is an important
affliction that affects our lives and our view of God.
How
common is it?
Teleios surveys have shown that approximately 70% of evangelical Christians
feel some level of guilt. Indeed, in almost all the Bible studies my dear wife,
Jeanette, and I have been privileged to teach, the students almost all suffered
from guilt. Our studies have indicated that, fortunately, it appears to be mild
and so usually it can be controlled.
Why
do Christians feel guilty? Well we do not know exactly. Teleios has examined this
question among evangelicals on three levels (full report http://stage.teleiosresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Guilt-and-wellbeing-data.pdf):
· A person is not a believer
(5%)
- This was a very small percent, but recognizes that there are people within
the church community that really do not understand salvation by grace and the Spirit
is probably convicting them (John 16:8-11). In this case, the guilt is
appropriate and perhaps will lead to their salvation.
· Fear of effect of sin (28%) - In this instance the Christian knew they were saved by
grace, but they had some sin, past or present, that would cause God to retract
their salvation. We have written in this blog many times about the sufficiency
of Christ’s sacrifice to cover all sins. For a Christian, saved by grace alone,
all sins are forgiven (Ephesians 1:4-5,13; Ephesians 2:8-9; Romans 3:23-26; Romans6:2-9; Hebrews 6:1-8).
· Fear of God's
displeasure (41%)
- The greatest percent were those who knew they were saved and secure yet
somehow felt some sin, or lack of good work, would cause God to reject them,
producing the guilt. This idea is also unbiblical in that we have direct access
to God through the ripped veil based on Christ's sacrifice (Hebrews 10:19-22).
For
the third most common type of guilt (God's displeasure), what are the triggers
that cause it? I do not know precisely, but here are some suggestions:
· Lack of knowledge of
God's word
- This is key! If we don't know God's word then we are left defenseless in
determining if we hear or read something that suggests we are sinning. So not
knowing, the nagging doubt if we are wrong, leads to guilt.
· Not meeting others’
expectations
– Family, friends and even pastors may have expectations for us, that even may
be dressed up in Christian jargon, that can produce guilt if we do not meet
them. This issue relates directly to the first point in that if you do not know
the Bible then you cannot determine if their expectations are correct. Several
years ago, I was having coffee with a very fine, evangelical pastor and we were
discussing guilt. He thought guilt was useful as a motivating factor! He was surprised
when I said it was not biblical, but ultimately agreed.
· Self-expectations – Again, this is
related to the first point that we may place burdens on ourselves which we fail
to meet, but may not be biblical.
· Wrong response to sin - Even if we know
that we are in sin, we may not respond to that sin in a biblical way. Our
response may be based on social Christian tradition or expectations, such as
priestly or work-based absolution, re-dedication or re-baptism, or pleading for
forgiveness from God. These efforts may resolve immediate guilt but are not
biblical and would not solve most likely a long-term guilt problem.
Thanks
for joining my blog today. Next week we'll deal with the guilt issue regarding
a Biblical response. Join us then.
WC Stewart
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