The Torah Network

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FEELINGS OF GUILT

Have you ever had a guilty feeling about something? Perhaps you did something wrong and you felt guilty about it. Perhaps you have magnified the feeling of guilt beyond the [wrongness] of the act that precipitated the guilty feeling. Or perhaps you feel justly guilty for a sin and you don’t know what to do about it. The best way to relieve justifiable guilt is to confess the sin to YHVH and ask Him to forgive you. If the sin is against another person, confess the sin to that person and ask that person to forgive you. Forgiveness is the only cleansing agent that can remove both guilt and a guilty feeling about a sin.

THE SOURCE OF GUILT

GUILT COMES FROM GIVING IN TO TEMPTATION.

“The woman was convinced. The fruit looked so fresh and delicious and it would make her so wise! So, she ate some of the fruit. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her. Then he ate it, too. At that moment, their eyes were opened and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So, they strung fig leaves together around their hips to cover themselves.” (Genesis 3:6-7). Notice what Eve did: She looked, she took, she ate and she gave. The battle is often lost at the first look. Temptation often begins by simply seeing something you want. Are you struggling with temptation because you have not learned that looking is the first step toward sin? You would win over temptation more often if you followed Paul’s advice to run from those things that produce evil thoughts (2 Timothy 2:22).

INVOLVING OTHERS IN SIN COMPOUNDS GUILT.

One of the realities of sin is that its effects spread. After Eve sinned, she involved Adam in her wrongdoing. When we do something wrong, often we try to relieve our guilt by involving someone else. Like toxic waste spilled in a river, sin swiftly spreads. Recognize and confess your sin to YHVH before you are tempted to pollute those around you.

SIN MAKES US FEEL GUILTY.

After sinning, Adam and Eve felt guilt and embarrassment over their nakedness. Their guilty feelings made them try to hide from YHVH. A guilty conscience is a warning signal YHVH placed inside you that goes off when you have done wrong. The worst step you could take is to eliminate the guilty feelings without eliminating the cause. That would be like using a painkiller but not treating the disease. Be glad those guilty feelings are there. They make you aware of your sin so you can ask YHVH’s forgiveness and then correct your wrongdoing.

THE ABSENCE OF GUILTY FEELINGS DOES NOT MEAN A LACK OF GUILT.

“Fearing for their lives, the desperate sailors shouted to their gods for help and threw the cargo overboard to lighten the ship. And all this time Jonah was sound asleep down in the hold.” (Jonah 1:5). While the storm raged, Jonah was sound asleep below deck. Even as he ran from YHVH, Jonah’s actions apparently didn’t bother his conscience. But the absence of guilty feelings isn’t always a barometer of whether we are doing right. Because we can deny reality, we cannot measure obedience by our feelings. Instead, we must compare what we do with YHVH’s standards for living.

GUILT COMES FROM FAILING TO DO WHAT YHVH EXPECTS.

“You are so proud of knowing the Law, but you dishonour YHVH by breaking it.” (Romans 2:23). Paul continues to argue that all stand guilty before YHVH. After describing the fate of the unbelieving, pagan gentiles, he moves to that of the religiously privileged. Despite their knowledge of YHVH’s Will, they are guilty because they too have refused to live by their beliefs. Those of us who have grown up in faith believing families are the religiously privileged of today. Paul’s condemnation applies to us if we do not live up to what we know.

THE SOLUTION FOR GUILT

GUILT CAN BE REMOVED THROUGH MOSHIACH.

“Now YHVH has shown us a different way of being right in His sight; not by obeying the Law but by the way promised in the Scriptures long ago. We are made right in YHVH’s sight when we trust in Yeshua Moshiach to take away our sins. And we all can be saved in this same way, no matter who we are or what we have done.” (Romans 3:21-22). After all this bad news about our sinfulness and YHVH’s condemnation, Paul gives the wonderful news. There is a way to be declared [not guilty]; by trusting Yeshua Moshiach to take away our sins. Trusting means putting our confidence in Moshiach to forgive our sins, to make us right with YHVH and to empower us to live the way He taught us. YHVH’s solution is available to all of us regardless of our background or past behaviour.

WE ARE DECLARED “NOT GUILTY” BECAUSE OF MOSHIACH.

When a judge in a court of law declares the defendant [not guilty,] all the charges are removed from his record. Legally, it is as if the person had never been accused. When YHVH forgives our sins, our record is wiped clean. From His perspective, it is as though we had never sinned.

MOSHIACH FREES US FROM THE CONDEMNATION OF SIN.

“Now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Moshiach Yeshua.” (Romans 8:1). [Not guilty; let him go free]; what would those words mean to you if you were on death row? The fact is that the whole human race is on death row, justly condemned for repeatedly breaking YHVH’s Holy Law. Without Yeshua we would have no hope at all. But thank YHVH! He has declared us [not guilty] and has offered us freedom from sin and power to do His will.

MOSHIACH CAN RELIEVE OUR GUILTY CONSCIENCE.

“It is by our actions that we know we are living in the truth, so we will be confident when we stand before Adonai, even if our hearts condemn us. For YHVH is greater than our hearts and He knows everything.” (1 John 3:19-20). Many are afraid that they don’t love others as they should. They feel guilty because they think they are not doing enough to show proper love to Moshiach. Their consciences bother them. John has these people in mind in this letter. How do we escape the gnawing accusations of our conscience? Not by ignoring them or rationalizing our behaviour, but by setting our heart on YHVH’s love. When we feel guilty, we should remind ourselves that YHVH knows our motives as well as our actions. His voice of assurance is stronger than the accusing voice of our conscience. If we are in Moshiach, He will not condemn us (Romans 8:1; Hebrews 9:14-15). So, if you are living for Adonai but feeling that you are not good enough, remind yourself that YHVH is greater than your conscience.

IN WHAT WAYS ARE WE GUILTY

Romans 3:23: “All have sinned; all fall short of YHVH’s glorious ideal. James 2:10: “The person who keeps all of the Laws except one is as guilty as the person who has broken all of YHVH’s Laws”. The magnitude of guilt may change with the magnitude of sin, but the presence of guilt is as sure with a little sin as with a big sin.

James 4:17: “Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it. Sin is not only doing wrong things, but not doing right things”. Jonah 1:4-5: “All this time Jonah was sound asleep down in the hold”. The absence of a guilty conscience doesn’t always mean you are doing right.

HOW CAN I BE FREED FROM GUILT?

Psalm 19:12-13: “Cleanse me from these hidden faults. Keep me from deliberate sins! Don’t let them control me. Then I will be free of guilt.” By avoiding sin as much as possible and confessing any sin to YHVH. Guilt is the consequence of wrongdoing.

Acts 13:39: “Everyone who believes in Him is freed from all guilt and declared right with YHVH. This is a wonderful example of the grace of YHVH. All we have to do is accept YHVH’s free gift of salvation.” This means believing that YHVH sent His Son Yeshua, to die for our sins so that we are no longer guilty for them.

Numbers 14:39-45: “We realize that we have sinned, but now we are ready to enter the land Adonai has promised us. But Moses said…: It won’t work. We must be sincere in admitting guilt”. Jeremiah 3:13: “Only acknowledge your guilt. Admit that you rebelled against Adonai your YHVH”. There is a high cost to acknowledging guilt and admitting sin, but an even higher cost if we don’t.

Job 6:29: “Stop assuming my guilt. Job’s friends kept assuming he was guilty for some sin that caused his trouble.” There are two lessons here: 1 -- Sometimes we are not guilty of wrongdoing, but we feel guilty. We must learn to discern between true and false guilt. 2 -- We can better deal with our own guilt if we develop an attitude of not assuming everyone else is guilty.

1 John 1:9: “If we confess our sins to Him, He is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from every wrong.” Prayer and confession free us from guilt. Don’t let guilty feelings over sin keep you from prayer, your only means of confessing to YHVH and restoring your relationship with Him.

Lastly but most important --- If you love YHVH your Elohim, you will keep ALL of His Commandments.

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