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Do you feel guilty? (Me too.)
Has a thought ever entered your mind that you were embarrassed to tell anyone else? Have you ever done something in secret that you have kept secret from everyone to this very day? Have you ever hurt someone’s feelings so badly with angry words that it still bothers you? Do your hidden thoughts, secret actions, angry words leave you feeling guilty? Me too. We don’t like to talk about sin and guilt, but it is ever present in our lives. It is with us in the home, in school, and at work. Even on vacation we can’t seem to leave our sins and guilt behind. We can’t escape it anywhere.
Why do we feel guilty?
Did you know that when God created human beings in the persons of Adam and Eve, he created them with a conscience? The conscience is the voice that tells us to do the right thing and it tells us when we didn’t do the right thing. This sense of right and wrong is not learned behavior from our society. God planted his right and wrong in us. It is his moral law. Originally Adam and Eve were created as sinless perfect people. They did not think, say, or do anything wrong.
Sadly, they sinned against God, and this sin entered their heart (Genesis 3), destroying the ability God had given them to think the right thing and do the right thing. The children they had were conceived and born sinful (Genesis 5:1-3). In the sin of our first parents every child is conceived and born sinful (Psalm 51:5). This is the reason that every one of us suffers from sin and guilt daily. The Bible says: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23). Swallow hard now: Our sin makes us deserving of eternal punishment for angering perfect, sinless God.
But my sins aren’t that bad! (Or are they?)
The conscience speaks to us whenever we sin. Its voice is the guilt we feel. We try to escape our conscience by making excuses for our behavior: “Maybe I shouldn’t have said what I said, but you made me say it!” We magnify the sins of others to feel better about ourselves: “I may be sinful, but I would never do what that person over there is doing!” We try to convince ourselves that our sins are not that bad.
When we appear before God, he will accept no excuses. Therefore, he calls us to repentance daily. Repent is a word that means “to have a change of heart.” It means to change direction, 180 degrees. It means to see our sin as it is, make no excuses for it, and turn from it.
What brings us to repentance?
God brings us to repentance through the Ten Commandments. The Then Commandments are God’s right and wrong. He first wrote them on the human heart when he created Adam and Eve. Later he chiseled them in stone for Moses to bring down from Mount Sinai. When we hear God’s Ten Commandments, they don’t leave any room for excuses. The Bible says in Hebrews 14:12:
“The word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow, it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”
Jesus is Salvation and Comfort!
When God causes us to confess our sins to him his goal is not to condemn us, or to leave us no escape. His goal is to show us our need for Jesus, whom he has sent to save us. Jesus is God’s Almighty Son, conceived and born human and sinless. Jesus always did the right thing, and thought the right thing. He had no sin! Yet he went to the cross, the sinless for the sinful, to be punished for everything we do wrong. Because he was punished in the place of all sinners, there is salvation from sin and comfort from guilt for all who trust in him. “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1)! It is by the power of the Gospel, the good news of Jesus, that we trust in him for these things.