How
the Spirit Handles That “Guilt
complex”
What happens to the
sins of one who accepts Christ and receives
His Spirit?
A woman’s
voice-piercing, urgent-rang through the halls
of a hospital where I once worked. “What
am I going to do with all my sins?” she
cried out as the orderlies wheeled her toward
the operating room. Quickly the nurses
gathered about, trying in vain to quiet her.
The operating-room door opened, and her last
word, shrill and distinct, just as the door
closed, was “sins.” As a newly
baptized Christian, my heart went out in
sympathy to that suffering, sin-sick soul!
How I have hoped that someone pointed her to
Jesus, “the Lamb of God, which taketh
away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29.)
Where shall we go
with our sins? We cannot leave them home or
at some depot. We cannot leave them in the
doctor’s office or on the
psychiatrist’s couch. We cannot give
them away to any man, be he preacher or
priest. Only Jesus can take away our sins.
Calamities,
disasters, and destructions have plagued our
planet throughout the centuries, but nothing
so terribly grinds down, wears out, and
oppresses the soul as sin. Disease may wrack
the body and waste the frame, but no physical
torture can compare to the inner anguish
caused by guilt. Guilt gnaws incessantly and
relentlessly at the heart. Like a hideous
specter lurking in the dark shadows of the
soul, guilt haunts us, mocks our pleasures,
and sneers at our successes. Guilt produces a
diabolical brood of evil fruits-irritability,
bitterness, sarcasm, criticism, disaffection,
restlessness, suspicion, and hate. Many a
person has become mentally ill while vainly
trying to excuse, palliate, and justify his
wrongdoings.
Like a red flare in
the night, guilt warns that unforgiven sin
exists in the soul. We cannot be rid of guilt
without first getting rid of sin. Moreover,
since there is no way to change a deed that
has been already done, the plight of human
beings seems hopeless. However, there is hope
for those who will accept the forgiveness
that Jesus so generously offers.
Christ can provide
forgiveness because He never sinned. Christ,
the Sinless One, bares our sins, and became
sin for us. He did it for everybody, but only
those who believe in Him can be benefited.
Only those who by repentance and confession
give up, give their sins to Him, and accept
His righteousness in exchange for their sins
can receive the gift He has to offer. (2
Corinthians 5:21.) As the Holy Spirit
flashes this vital truth into the soul of the
sinner, it awakens faith, and the grateful
heart responds to the love that made such a
provision possible. Indeed, “we love
him, because he first loved us.” (1 John
4:19.) Those who truly love Jesus are eager
to surrender their sins to Him and to forsake
the paths of sin. Christians will love Christ
too much to carelessly wound His heart
afresh. The “guilt complex,” as it
is so frequently spoken of today, is truly
complex, but its remedy is quite simple.
The accusing of
conscience, the unhappy restlessness, the
deep dissatisfactions, and the bitter
resentments that build up within the soul,
largely result because divine approval has
been withdrawn. The Holy Spirit, the divine
Comforter who encourages man when he does
right and assures him that in doing right he
is fulfilling the grand purposes of his
existence, withdraws that approval when man
does wrong. He cannot comfort the sinner in
his sins. Without the fellowship of the
Spirit, the sinner has no peace with himself
or with anyone else. Isaiah said, “There
is no peace, saith my God, to the
wicked.” (Isaiah 57:21.)
God sends His Holy
Spirit to the sinner to bring about
reconciliation and restore broken fellowship.
The Spirit works by helping the sinner see
how God looks at sin-to see that sin costs
the life of Jesus. The Holy Spirit leads the
sinner to see the true nature of sin: That
sin is intrinsically evil, diabolical,
wicked, frightening, and totally
reprehensible; that the sting of death is in
every sin. He helps the wrongdoer to
understand that God cannot ignore sin or
brush it aside; that in order to save man
from sin and its consequences, Jesus Himself
had to feel as the sinner feels when plagued
with guilt, and upon the cross suffer as the
unrepentant will have to suffer in the final
destruction of the wicked. Stated in another
way, the Spirit actually exposes sin in its
naked ugliness to the sinner; and when the
sinner sees its exceeding sinfulness and
realizes that only the death of the sinless
Son of God could possibly atone for his sin,
he becomes disturbed. This is called
conviction. Conviction is intended to lead to
repentance. Conviction gives evidence that
the Holy Spirit is working in the heart.
Though the Holy
Spirit brings conviction, He does not stop
there, For His purpose is to restore
fellowship with God, to banish fear,
apprehension, and alarm. The Holy Spirit
suggests, “Better not take your stand
until you know you will stick by it,” or
“Religion will make a fool out of
you.” However, God does not prompt these
thoughts. The spirit of fear is not from God.
(2 Timothy 1:7.)
The steps that the
sinner takes to received reconciliation and
freedom from guilt are simple. All who repent
of their sins, confess them, and believe that
for Christ’s sake they are forgiven,
will know that their guilt has been lifted.
The pardoned soul rests upon God’s
promises. “Therefore being justified by
faith, we have peace with God through our
Lord Jesus Christ.” Romans 5:1. When the
sinner has turned away from sin and forsaken
it, the Comforter assures him that his sins
are forgiven, and he rejoices in the
fellowship of the Spirit.
If after a sinner has
confessed Christ he should be un-Christlike
in his behavior or falter in his obedience in
a moment of weakness, he should not give up
but should go immediately to Jesus and with
repentance and confession claim anew
Christ’s sacrifice on Calvary. Though
the Christian stumbles, God by no means casts
him off. God will pardon the brokenhearted
and repentant. This assurance is found in 1
John 2:1: “My little children, these
things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And
if any man sin, we have an advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”
When David lost the
presiding presence of the Holy Spirit in his
life, guilt plagued his soul. He knew that
happiness for him would never return without
the Spirit. In penitence he prayed,
“Renew a right spirit within me.”
Psalm 51:10. With the return of the Comforter
David could exclaim, “O Lord, … my
mouth shall shew forth thy praise.”
(Verse 15.)
Memory Verse:
John 1:29.
“The next day John seeth Jesus coming
unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God,
which taketh away the sin of the world.”
