We are hopelessly guilty in ourselves and consummately innocent in Christ.

What's the most resilient parasite? An idea. A single idea from the human mind can build cities. An idea can transform the world and rewrite all the rules.
-Dom Cobb, Inception

In recent weeks I have become absolutely intrigued with a sensation all too familiar to the human emotions: guilt. Even just reading the word will send an indubitable feeling of nausea into the stomachs of many of us. We know what it is. It's that uncomfortable feeling of recognition of flaws in our own demeanor. Guilt is not a foreign concept to the human experience in any way. But what is the Biblical approach to guilt? How does God view guilt, in other words how we should view guilt? Is guilt unhealthy? Is it a destination in itself, or is it a transitory segway into something else? Is there a place for guilt in a life of living out the gospel?

While we do all know what guilt is, I think it is helpful to give ourselves a fresh familiarity of the definitions of the word guilt that it has come to hold in our modern language. As George Orwell keenly stated, the first duty of the modern intellectual is to state the obvious. Dictionary.com gives several similar but distinct definitions for the word guilty:

guilt·y
1. having committed an offense, crime, violation, or wrong, esp. against moral or penal law; justly subject to a certain accusation or penalty; culpable: The jury found her guilty of murder.
2. characterized by, connected with, or involving guilt: guilty intent.
3. having or showing a sense of guilt, whether real or imagined: a guilty conscience.

Notice the difference between the top definition and the bottom two. The top definition pertains to a legal or moral standing of violating some law that does not heed our submission to acknowledge it. The two bottom definitions refer to a state of mind and spirit, an introspective assessment. The one is what you actually are, the other is that you feel like you are. Notice that they do not always have to coexist. A judge can pronounce a sentence of guilt on someone that does not feel guilty, i.e. their conscience does not convict them of having done wrong. Likewise, a person may have feelings of guilt for something they are not actually responsible for. Guilt and a guilty conscience should always go together, but they don't always.

Furthermore, before we proceed, we must draw attention to the fact that guilt can be felt for immoral deeds done, as well as amoral ones. (The word "amoral" lends itself to a different discussion, namely that in one light nothing in life falls under the category of amoral because everything is lived either for God or for ourselves, but I'm talking about matters of choice of two or more things that can all be lived for the glory of God, the amoral preference of certain moral things.) In other words, some of the things we feel "guilty" about aren't sin, even though guilt is by definition a sentence of having done something wrong. We may feel guilty that we don't spend enough time with our kids or that we ate too much dessert or that we ordered the lobster entrée at the restaurant the other night instead of a nice, grassy salad. Those things may or may not be sinful. At a lavish degree they are, at the point when you are not properly adhering to your God-given calling as a parent to raise and rear your kids in the truth, or you are using sweets as an escape to "eat away" your worries and fears, or you are not being financially wise and spending too much on self indulgence that could instead be used in a manner more glorifying to God. Conversely, there exists the possibility that we have guilted ourselves unjustly. We may have mildly indoctrinated ourselves to believe that there can never be something done apart from family (such as work or school) that can be a worthwhile investment in our family, that enjoying an unhealthy food or drink is inherently sinful, or that an occasional expensive activity or enjoyment is always looked down upon by God. We need to develop a healthy burden of guilt for the things we should feel guilty for and a healthy denial of guilt for the things we shouldn't.

One last thing: in the amoral sense as well as the immoral sense, guilt can be a great reminder to spur us onto change. Maybe you are eating too much ice cream and you should substitute a bowl of fruit for every other bowl of ice cream. If we never felt guilt, we might never change our bad habits! However, I think we need another word to describe guilt in the amoral sense. I think "vexation" is a better word, as it helps convey the idea that we are bothered with ourselves and our behavior but are not really feeling the clang of the gavel down on us in the figurative courtroom as we do when we truly feel guilt. In both immoral and amoral cases we may feel regret as the natural subsequent offspring of guilt. They are not the same, however. One is inward regret and one is upward regret. One is regret that we let ourselves down, the other is regret that we let God down (or rather, that we failed to love Him by abiding by His statutes). The difference between the two is that of a mountain, not a hill.

When guilt is rightly held, how long and in light of what Biblical truths should we hold it?

Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the Name of the only Son of God.
John 3:18

And when [the Holy Spirit] comes, He will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.
John 16:8

Guilt is absolutely indispensable to the Christian faith. Feelings of guilt are the firstfruits of conviction, without which none of us would turn to God for the forgiveness of sins. We owe the Holy Spirit for convicting us, for guilting us, so that we may respond to the Father's offer of salvation through His Son Jesus. Without His intercession, His opening our eyes, we would never come to the rightful conclusion that we are sinners in need of a Savior. If we do not see ourselves as being in enmity with God, then can we come to grips with the need for reconciliation? "Till sin be bitter, Christ will not be sweet." Every conversion starts with the burden of guilt that sin condemns you to an eternal separation from the God from Whom all goodness flows and all praise is due. Once we feel that burden, we may proceed to either accept the sacrifice of Jesus or attempt to save ourselves. Repentance is the stem from which the roots of guilt lead, leading up to the leaves of salvation. We can seek no rescue if we do not believe we are spiritually in danger.

Conviction of sin is one of the rarest things that ever strikes a man. It is the threshold of an understanding of God. Jesus Christ said that when the Holy Spirit came He would convict of sin, and when the Holy Spirit rouses the conscience and brings him into the presence of God, it is not his relationship with men that bothers him, but his relationship with God.
-Oswald Chambers

Whether in the matter of justification of the unsaved or sanctification of the redeemed, guilt is a good and required first step up the staircase to godliness. I would have to say that the Biblical definition of guilt is "the enlightenment of the Spirit of sin as sin." We should feel guilty about our sin, for it is what made our Savior bleed to death a life that did not deserve to be bled.

However, we must not forget the well-known anthem of the Christian.

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.
Romans 8:1-2

If You, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But with You there is forgiveness, that You may be feared.
Psalm 130:3-4

We cannot get stuck in our guilt. We are forgiven. We cannot remain downtrodden and dismal. We cannot refrain from shouting for joy and rejoicing in our inmost being. We are saved. The King has saved us, the wretches that wished to perish, at an infinite cost to Himself. Those that are guilty have been ruled innocent. Our vast sins, our spit in His eyes, our sick mockery, He bore them all. Our sin is washed away, as far as the east is from the west. Whiter than snow. Is there nothing more amazing in all of history?

And I don't have to carry
The weight of who I've been
Cause I'm forgiven.
-Sanctus Real

If we lose sight of this we will allow ourselves to be condemned. This is ignoring the heart of the gospel; it is minimalizing the victory that God has won for us, that He has conquered the dominion of sin in one swift blow. We must remember the true heart of the gospel: we were (and still are) guilty, Christ was (and still is) innocent. Both parts are integral. We must remember both what we were freed from and the fact that we were freed from it. We must cry the tears of contrition before we cry the tears of joy. The life of the Christian is to shine with a joy and a hope unparalleled in the world around us that can subvert any despondency and any melancholy. We have every reason to sing, and no reason to stop. There is nothing as bad as God is good. There is nothing as enslaving as Jesus is freeing. With God on our side, hopeless is not a word. It has been cast out of our vocabulary and into the pits of hell. Let us not weep when the angels are celebrating the defeat of sin and a soul accepted into the presence of God. The debt was paid once and for all, so why dwell on the now null debt rather than the relief of it?

Nevertheless, we also mustn't apply tactics to avoid guilt. We all know what these are. We may partake in the act of "deguilting" ourselves of that which we should feel guilty for. This is the chief essence of sin, masking itself to detection. There are several ways of doing this. We may choose to ignore it. After all, no recognition, no guilt. It's as simple as that. We may view it in such an obscure light that it appears not to be sinful (after all, many good things may be corrupted by sin but are still in themselves good things). We may create hypothetical situations in our minds to convince ourselves that the action was justifiable or even needed. First it is possible that A was true so B was required, then it becomes probable that A was true so that B was required, until finally it is undeniable that A was true and so B was required. We have committed inception on ourselves, as in the ingenious film of the same name. We have falsely planted an idea in our heads that lets us off the hook. Tell yourself something enough times in your mind, and it will become true to you. It is absolutely scary. I have seen it in many others but most clearly in myself. May we pray for the illumination of God's Spirit! Free us from self deception, from alleviation of the guilt Christ died for.

This is very hard to put into words, I know I sound self-contradictory. "Feel guilt but don't feel guilt." It is always hard to explain and uncover the truth in a paradox, of which many exist in the Word. I guess what I'm saying is, remember the guilt but not without remembering Christ. Be convicted by it, resolve in the Spirit to live a life pleasing to God with as little regrets of sin as you possibly can, but remember that that very guilt has been triumphed over, and Christ's innocence has been imparted to you. There is a godly balance between the two, not being downcast (Psalm 42, 43) because we have been made clean but at the same time not absolving ourselves completely of guilt in an antinomian fashion (Romans 6:1-14).

Wow...it is amazing how one little word can provoke such thought and discussion. :) I know I have only feebly scratched the surface. I pray that the Lord continues to reveal more such things to me through His Spirit and that it will be an exhortation and blessing to others.