6 Why I am (still) a Christian: I Want To Be Rid of Guilt

Introduction

I am (still) a Christian because no other worldview, philosophy, theology, political theory, faith, or religion can explain or get rid of guilt. There are only two ways to try; Jesus Christ and everything else. By "everything else," I mean humanity's attempt to rid ourselves of guilt by our own effort. The concise word for this is "works."

Ways People Try to Rid Themselves of Guilt

What have you tried? Meditation, mindfulness, Xanax, therapy, Islam, witnessing for Jehovah, cleansing rituals, cutting, binging, apologizing, restitution, penance, protesting? I could spend all day listing ways people try to rid themselves of guilt.

The Necessity of Guilt

If you don't feel guilty, there is something wrong with you. According to Modern Psychology and the DSM-V, if a person doesn't have any "regard for right and wrong and ignores others' rights and feelings," they have sociopathy. If people "show no guilt or remorse for their behavior," they would be diagnoses with Antisocial personality disorder.

I have never met a person who doesn't feel guilty about something. I've seen people on murder documentaries who apparently didn't. Names like Ted Bundy and Charles Manson are terrifying because they didn't feel guilty. The rest of us feel guilty.

God’s Plan To Rid Us Of Guilt

I am (still) a Christian because the self-existing Triune God carried out His eternal plan. God the Father sent His only-begotten Son into the world, who was fully God and fully man. The Bible says that even though sinful humans crucified Jesus Christ, He was :

Delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God Acts 2:23

While Jesus Christ is fully God, He also is the only innocent Human Being that has ever existed in the history of the world. He shed His blood so that guilty people who have faith in Him can be forgiven of their sin and released from guilt.

2 Corinthians 5:21 says it best:

For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

If I may flesh this out a little more with parenthetic comments:

For our sake he (God the Father) made him (Jesus Christ) to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him (that is Christ) we (the guilty) might become the righteousness of God. (forgiven of our sins, released from guilt, and made holy) (clarification in parentheses are mine)

The Holy Spirit then applies the death of Christ to those who trust in Christ alone:

If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. Romans 8:11

How Would You Like To Be Rid Of Your Guilt?

I am (still) a Christian because there is simply no other way to get rid of my guilt. There is no other way for you to get rid of your guilt either. Try as she may, Lady Macbeth cannot wash away the blood on her hands. Neither can you.

Do you want to be rid of guilt once and for all? It is only through trusting in the sacrificial, substitutionary death of Jesus Christ. Only in Him will you find relief from the oppression of guilt.