If you're anything like me, you love when an expert on a subject expands your understanding of a certain topic, giving you new lenses through which to view all future encounters with said subject. While we’d like to pretend that we already know everything, the fact is that there are a lot of things in life that we stare at with blurred vision, waiting for someone to teach us new ways of interpreting and conceiving that which we're attempting to see.

 

In that regard, I found a recent post on the subject of guilt from biblical counselor Ed Welch to be very helpful (you can read it here). Welch claims that the majority of persons regularly feel something that they would identify as "guilt." However, he suggests that what they know to be guilt might actually be something quite different. He goes on to posit five experiences that we tend to call guilt:

 

1. Guilt (Proper) - a genuine feeling of the weight of my sin(s) against God  

2. Legalism/Works Righteousness - a feeling of guilt for failing to earn my own

    salvation 

3. Shame - a feeling brought on by the social implications of our sin or, having been

    sinned against

4. Being Controlled by the Opinions of Others - a feeling associated with the belief that

    one can never measure up to the expectation of others

5. Being a Human Being - feelings of inadequacy that are simply related to the limited

     and finite nature of being human

 

What I find so interesting about these five experiences is that a) they each require a different approach, whether you’re offering counsel or dealing with your own sense of "guilt," as  Welch so helpfully points out. And, more importantly, b) each experience, when properly comprehended, will drive us to the Gospel. 

 

So, in the case of "Guilt (Proper)," it is only the Gospel of Christ crucified, buried, and risen that can address the very real nature of our guilty standing before God. When it comes to "Works Righteousness," it is only the Gospel of grace that can free us from the endless cycle of performance through which we are trying to save ourselves. "Shame," whether brought on by our own sins or the sins of another, also finds its solution in the Gospel. The grace of God bestowed upon us in Christ, which tells us that we have been loved in spite of our sins, assures us that though the entire world might look on us with disdain, God views us through the perfect, spotless righteousness of Christ. It's also true that the Gospel has the power to nip "People-Pleasing"in the bud. Because God is pleased with us in Christ, we need not go to extreme lengths to please others, instead we are freed to walk confidently having received the ultimate word of approval in Christ. And, finally, the limits and finitude that are so real to us as those who are busy "being human beings," cause us to recognize our inadequacy to overcome any of the previous four experiences of guilt in our own power.

 

"Guilt," no matter how it is commonly used or how you choose to parse it, ultimately forces us to seek salvation, freedom, cleansing, approval, and power outside of ourselves. May our “guilt,” whatever experience actually lies behind it, cause us to turn to Christ clothed in the Gospel as our only hope for redemption.