Feeling guilty for something we have done wrong is a good thing. It shows we know right from wrong and hopefully, the guilt will spur us on to make amends and do the right thing. However, sometimes we agonize over our guilt and then it can be harmful.
I’ve been rewatching Doc Martin this summer because it just makes me laugh. The other day I watched the fourth episode in season 3 where Doc Martin runs over a patient’s dog by accident. After he hears a little yelp, he stops the car, gets out and sees the dead dog. He straightens up, looks around, and I thought he was going to keep going, thinking that no one saw what happened. Instead, he reaches inside his car, puts on latex gloves and finds some newspaper to wrap the poor little dog’s body in. I then thought, ok, he’s just going to throw it away. But no, not Doc Martin! The scene cuts to the dog’s owner calling for the dog. She asks another character, Louisa, who is a guest at a party at the hotel which the dog owner owns, if she has seen her dog. Louisa says, “No.” The owner then continues to look for her dog. Doc Martin steps into the hotel holding the dog wrapped in newspaper. As he enters, his aunt is running down the hotel steps calling for help because her lover seems like he is dead. Martin follows her up the stairs into the hotel room, and hands the dead dog to his aunt to hold, she not knowing there is a dead dog wrapped inside the newspaper, while he works on the patient, and brings him back to consciousness. Cut back to the party. Doc Martin is again holding the newswrapped dog, looking for its owner. He finds her, and tells her directly, “I’ve killed your dog.” He then hands her the dog and tells her it is the owner’s responsibility to dispose of any dead pets….
The point of me bringing up this scene is to exemplify that Doc Martin had no guilt concerning killing a patient’s dog. He knew it wasn’t his fault, and therefore, did not feel guilty. He took responsibility, told the truth and continued on at the party as if nothing happened. Sure, this is comedy, but if I ran over a dog and killed it, especially if I knew the owner, I would feel guilty. I would try to make it right by doing something nice for the owner. I would fret about the accident way too much.
Guilt from Satan
How many of us feel guilty over situations that are beyond our control? Where we didn’t do anything wrong, but we feel we could have done something more? I really think this is a common problem among Christian women who often volunteer in the church. If we aren’t doing something every time we are asked, such as teach Sunday School, cook a dinner for someone who has had a death in the family, babysit for a friend’s children so she can have some time to herself, greet people on Sunday morning, and the list goes on, then we feel guilty that we haven’t done enough.
The fact of the matter is, this guilt comes from Satan. He wants us to be so busy that we don’t reflect on the Lord, study God’s Word and build a relationship with the Father. Just because you say “no” when someone at church asks you to do something, doesn’t mean you need to feel guilty about it. In fact, before answering, it is better to tell the person who asked you, that you will pray about it and see if what you were asked to do is something God wants you to do for Him in the first place. Asking God for advice on what He wants us to do is the first thing we need to do before we make any decision, really.
Guilt from Our Bad Actions
However, there is the guilt we feel when we have done something that we know is not right, or after we have done something wrong and find out it was not right. For example, getting an abortion. Many women feel guilty after having an abortion. Maybe at the time they weren’t a Christian, or thought that a fetus was not a living being. However, they have come to realize what they have done, was not God’s will. This guilt can have so many negative consequences for these women. It can haunt them and cause them to feel unworthy to be called a child of God, or unworthy of happiness or of receiving anything good into their lives. They don’t need to feel this way if they tell God they are truly sorry for the wrong they have committed, and ask Jesus to come into their lives and save them.
The Beauty of God’s Unconditional Love
This is the beauty of God’s plan for saving the human race. He loved us so much that He planned a way for us to give up our debilitating guilt so that we may live peaceful, fulfilling, joyous lives. Even before God sent His Son, Jesus, God put in place a way for us to get rid of our guilt. You see, God is our creator, and He knows that we feel guilty, whether it is guilt from Satan, or guilt of our own doing, and that guilt we don’t confess can hurt us. Therefore before He sent His Son, He created the priesthood from Aaron, Moses’ brother to offer guilt offerings on behalf of the Israelites.
God told Moses to have special clothes made for Aaron and His sons and descendants, who were set apart to be God’s priests. They were to wear these clothes while performing their priestly duties, such as offering a guilt offering. This meant that a person, made a gift to the priesthood so the priest would then offer a guilt offering to God, relieving that person of their guilt.
“Make a plate of pure gold and engrave on it as on a seal: HOLY TO THE LORD. Fasten a blue cord to it to attach it to the turban; it is to be on the front of the turban. It will be on Aaron’s forehead, and he will bear the guilt involved in the sacred gifts the Israelites consecrate, whatever their gifts may be. It will be on Aaron’s forehead continually so that they will be acceptable to the LORD (EXODUS 28: 36-38).”
“When anyone is unfaithful to the LORD by sinning unintentionally in regard to any of the LORD’s holy things, they are to bring to the LORD as a penalty a ram from the flock, one without defect and of the proper value in silver, according to the sanctuary shekel. It is a guilt offering (Leviticus 5:15).”
“If anyone sins and does what is forbidden in any of the LORD’s commands, even though they do not know it, they are guilty and will be held responsible (Leviticus 5:17).”
We see that under the Old Testament Law, even if a person did something wrong and they didn’t even realize it, they could be held responsible. When that person realized they had done something wrong, then they apologized, made restitution and then gave a gift to the priest to offer a guilt offering for them. (Oops, Doc Martin, should have offered to buy a new dog to replace the one he ran over.)
Listen to how David felt when he realized his guilt, “My guilt has overwhelmed me like a burden too heavy to bear (Psalm 38:4).” Instead of wallowing in his guilt though, look how he handled it. “Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the LORD.’ And you forgave the guilt of my sin (Psalm 32:5).” David realized that God knew him inside and out and that trying to hide his guilt from God was useless. “You, God, know my folly; my guilt is not hidden from you (Psalm 69:5).”
Such honesty from David. This is the attitude God wants from us. He has even made it easier for us to admit our guilt, repent and move back into His will for our lives. He sent His Son to be the ultimate sacrifice for us so that Jesus could take our guilt along with all our sins upon Himself. Because Jesus sacrificed His life for us, we no longer need to offer other sacrifices such as animals or grain for our sins. In other words, God’s plan for salvation became perfect when He fulfilled the promise of the Law of the Old Testament by Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. Jesus is the perfection of the Law. Read what the writer of Hebrews says concerning this:
“The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. Otherwise, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins. It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Therefore, when Christ came into the world, He said:
‘Sacrifice and offering You [God] did not desire, but a body You prepared for Me; with burnt offerings and sin offerings You were not pleased.’ Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about Me in the scroll—I have come to do Your will, my God.’ First He said, ‘Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings You did not desire, nor were You pleased with them’—though they were offered in accordance with the law. Then He said, ‘Here I am, I have come to do Your will.’ He sets aside the first [the Law of the Old Testament] to establish the second [Jesus’ death on the cross]. And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
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 [Jesus] sat down at the right hand of God, and since that time He waits for His enemies to be made His footstool. For by one sacrifice He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First He says:
“This is the covenant I will make with them
after that time, says the Lord.
I will put my laws in their hearts,
and I will write them on their minds.”
Then He adds:
“Their sins and lawless acts
I will remember no more.”
And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary (Hebrews 10:1-18).
We need to trust God does as He promises and continues to take our guilt away when we confess it to Him. Once confessed, we are guilt-free! I so hold on to the promise that my sins and what I have done outside the will of God will not be remembered. Thank you, Jesus! Can I get a hollering Yahoo?!!!!
I’M FREE! GUILT FREE! AND SO ARE YOU!
