Love vs GuiltA Chapter by Not A WriterLove overcomes guilt.Introduction The
worst way to live is to live regretfully. Thoughts such as “If only I had than
. . .” or “Why did I do such a terrible action?” plague our entire being "
inward and outward. We maintaining a sinful nature does not further the pursuit
of our happiness, but rather it adds guilt when we sin. Sin only adds guilt
because that is what it does. Furthermore, the guilt adds more guilt when we
dwell upon the sin even more! We get guilty because we feel bad not because we
violated God’s standard (otherwise we would have obeyed His standard and
believe that He would forgive us), but because we feel sorry for ourselves. This
guilt, which is so dreadful, makes one seem worthless and inadequate in his
eyes. But is this even biblical? Dwelling upon our past sins, we are hurting
ourselves. Every person must learn to love himself as God sees him not only
before he sinned but also after he sinned. Live Life When
an action has been done, it has been done. You can never time travel to the
past and redo what you have done. As the Newsboys song, One Shot,
testifies, “All
around the world, every boy, every girl’s Got
one shot to prove what their all about [ . . . .]” Although you do have regrets
concerning the action you have done, you can still learn from it, so you will
not make the same mistake in the future. However, dwelling upon the sins in the
past is not acceptable " first, to God and second, to yourself. Plus One, a Christian
rock band, has a song called My Life which expresses the importance of
each person living their life to the fullest: “My
life [
. . .] It’s
your life [
. . .] Don’t
want to Get
it wrong It’s
time to Get
it right My
life [
. . .] It’s
your life [
. . .] Need
to make a change Time
for saving My
life.” When we sin, we can have the
assurance that the Holy Spirit will help us not to sin (and thus be in guilt),
if we remain in God’s grace. Paul writes to the Galatians and explains to them
the importance of faith and the Holy Spirit in contrast to the law. First, he
talks about the law in light of faith by the analogy of Abraham’s faith and the
story of Hagar and Sarah than he talks about freedom in Christ. In chapter five
he discusses that no man should indulge in the flesh, but rather he should live
for God (Gal. 5:13). As a result, Paul
says that the only way to defeat sin is “live by the Spirit, and you will not
gratify the desires of the sinful nature (Gal. 5:16).” The first step we must
take in order to live a righteous life is to live by the Spirit. However, we
must “make a change” meaning: do something about our sin so we do not fall back
into it and/or stop dwelling about the past and simply live life. The second
step we must take to live a God-honoring life is to live blamelessly and forget
the past. Guilt is covered Everything
we do or think must follow the guidelines God has set for us in the Bible. But
being guilty again and again, surely God has something to say about it? He
does. Just so we are on the same page, we will see what the word guilty
means by the Webster’s New World Thesaurus. Webster defines guilty as “criminal,
condemned, judged, at fault, sinful, to blame, in the wrong, in error, wrong, blamable,
reproachable.”But is this how God sees us? No, but God sees us as high priests
who enter the Holy of Holies not just once a year but daily. The author who
wrote the book of Hebrews is unknown, but the supremacy of Christ was his main
point. Through Jesus Christ we have gained God’s favor. Instead of being
neglected by God, we have the privilege in coming to Him. The author of Hebrews
says in chapter ten, “Therefore,
brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way
opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the
house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to
cleanse us from a guilty conscience and
having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswerving to the hope we profess, for he who promised is
faithful.” In the Old Testament, the high
priest would slay a turtledove, a sheep, or a bull to make atonement for the
sins of a person. Not only were there animal sacrifices because of man’s sin,
but also animal sacrifices were meant to worship God. However, when Christ
came, He abolished the law and all the ritualistic practices and brought us
under grace. Here is another quote in Hebrews, “Day
after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and
again he offers the same sacrifices,
which can never take away sins. But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice
for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. [ . . .] by one sacrifice he has made perfect
forever those who are being made holy (Heb. 10:11- 14).” What I’m trying to say is Christ is
our guilt sacrifice. He took our sins, sorrow, and shame on the cross. We do
not need to carry the same burdens with us when Christ paid the price. Indeed,
we cannot even pay the price. We cannot do anything worthwhile for God until we
accept that Christ died for our sins by faith. Born Again, a lyric, by Newsboys
gives a convicting message concerning the importance of the cross, “This
is what it is This
is who I am This
is where I finally take my stand I
didn’t want to fall, but I don’t have to crawl I’m
not the one with two scarred hands Givin
him the best of everything that’s left of The
life inside this man I’ve
been born again.” Guilt is past sin living in the
conscience of a man. When guilt lives in me, I find it no different than me
actually sinning that very moment. Having guilt residing in you is a choice;
this choice rejects the love of Christ because it is anxious about not
withholding to his own standard. Love towards God ultimately accepts the love
of Christ through faith. Without faith, all that the man does will be sin, even
if the man confesses his sin to God. Christ’s love is so great that He gave His
all to us, so that He may bring us back to God. Above All, an emotional song, by
Michael W. Smith perfectly demonstrates Christ’s agape love toward us: Crucified Laid
behind the stone You
lived to die Rejected
and alone Like
a rose Trampled
on the ground You
took the fall And
thought of me Above
all. Think Love “So then, just as
you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith
as you were taught . . . (Col. 2:6-7).” Dwelling upon my guilt more than Christ’s saving me is to disobey
Scripture and thus live in sin. The battle is all in the mind " choosing to
believe or not to believe. It is no wonder that God spoke through Paul in a
letter to the Philippians, “Finally,
brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is
admirable " if anything is excellent or praiseworthy " think about such things (Phil. 4:8).” The moment I neglect to think as to what is right is the very
moment I entertain evil thinking. Even if I am not thinking about anything
heinous or evil, if I neglect to think about what is good or am constantly “brain-dead”
concerning the things of God, I sin. Whenever I am guilty, there lies a fear
that fears to commit the same sin again or a fear that fears to be found out.
The evidence of fear only serves to prove that Christ’s love has not yet been
perfected in us. John the Apostle, author of the Gospel of John and the Epistles
of John, wrote to the city of Ephesus to warn them of false teachers. As he
writes, he mentions love as a forefront of the Christian life. With 1 John
being the book that mentions the word love the most, we can learn the
relation between love and fear: “God is love.
Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will
have confidence on the day of judgment, because
in this world we are like him. There is no fear in love. But perfect love
drives out fear, because fear has to do
with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love (1 Jn. 4:17-18).” As we learn in this passage, love conquers all. Love toward God is
possible, although not by our own doing. We need Christ’s help. However, in
order to love God, we must have a submissive spirit towards God. Once we have a
submissive spirit, God gives us the faith to accept Christ’s sacrifice. This
faith leads us to love. Every Christian will find himself across the canyon to
the land called love when he first crosses the bridge called faith. Our Confidence One may wonder
why I might end this tangent with forgiveness when they suspect that it should
be tops in the list. My reasoning is Jesus should be mentioned first because
when guilt settles in our heart, needless forgiveness is always on our mind
when Christ remains rejected day in and day out. Whenever I wake up, I must
remember Christ’s love for me and how I am called to love in Him return. This call
of love is not a call of despair when I wake up and realize that I must live
for someone else besides myself. The call of love is a call that tells me to
thirst for the all-satisfying God that satisfies. We guilty people have already
done the believing (vain believing), but now we must believe in love. “Father, please
forgive me and help me as I go my way.” Five minutes pass. No sin has been committed.
Yet the same prayer has been repeated " again. “Father, please forgive me and
help me as I go my way.” I do not know if this resembles you, but it resembles
me. With 1 John 1:9 being my confidence that God forgives me, I uttered prayers
of forgiveness. As I saw that I continually professed my sins, I wondered how
long I would be in the state of forgiveness. It was like confessing my sins to
a priest! And it was draining me! Believing is belief done in vain if it is not
added by love through faith. Until that happens, we lie in sin. But when it
happens, 1 John 1:9 truly means what it says. “If we confess
our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” When I do believe through love, my sins are washed away, and I am
like a high priest: holy and righteousness in God’s eyes. This is how God sees
me. It is how I should see myself. After all does not God love me as much as He
loves His Son, Jesus Christ? Jesus said this Himself in the Gospel John: “Holy Father,
protect them by the power of your name " the name you gave me " so that they may be one as we are one.” When I remember the cross that Christ died on to shed His blood
for me, my former sins begins to fade away and my guilt dies out as the cross
of Christ shines through my life. No longer than does earthly sorrow remain due
to the self-pity of me not being as good as I am supposed to be, but rather
Christ’s love for me moves me to repentance. Indeed is that not what love does?
“Or do you
presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to
lead you to repentance (Rom. 2:4).” Moreover, Christ’s love for me touches (or at least it should) how
I should live each day. When I have Christ’s love, I have gained everything
that God has given me for I am His. As a result, this makes me awe at Christ’s
love for me and makes me want to love Him in return not because I have to, but
because I want to. “”For the love of
Christ controls us (2 Cor. 5:14).” Conclusion Realizing the
love that Christ has for me helps how I deal with guilt now and the future.
Guilt has no power over me. Am I not under Christ? There is
therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of
the Spirit of life has set you free in
Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death (Rom. 8:1- 2).” Love for God must control our lives if we ever want to make
progress concerning the guilt that pokes at our lives. As I discussed in this
paper, we must 1) realize that Christ died for us and crucified our guilt with
Him on the cross. 2) I must consistently meditate of the love God has for me,
and I must stir up a love for Him. Lastly, 3) I must ask for forgiveness in a
loving way through faith. Love conquers all. Just look at the cross. Malcolm Smith speaks a most encouraging
message that sums up the Christian religion: “Christianity is
not a formula, but the Person of Jesus Himself. Never think that Christianity
is a matter of adjusting behavior, but rather, of letting Christ live through
us in His strength and power.” © 2011 Not A Writer |
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Added on July 8, 2011 Last Updated on July 8, 2011 AuthorNot A WriterKyoto, MI, JapanAboutJapanese writer Into all things anime 日本万歳. どんなに頑張っても私を見つける.. more..Writing
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