5 Why I am (still) a Christian: The Only Explanation of Guilt
Introduction
Part 4 in my series Why I am (still) a Christian, I blogged about The Insanity of Worldly Guilt. On the one hand, unbelievers are riddled with guilt, and they try to make everyone else feel guilty. If you do not feel guilty for what they deem as "sin” there is something wrong with you.
On the other hand, worldly psychologists' goal is to bring people to psychological wholeness through the elimination of guilt while at the same time, defining a person who has no guilt as having Antisocial Personality Disorder.
The Modern Definition of Sin
Modern Psychology assumes guilt is an "emotion." Psychology Today summarized the contemporary view of guilt in an article called, The Definitive Guide to Guilt:
Guilt is, first and foremost, an emotion. You may think of guilt as an excellent way to get someone to do something for you out of a sense of obligation, but it's more accurate to think of guilt as an internal state. In the overall scheme of emotions, guilt is in the general category of negative feeling states. It's one of the "sad" emotions, which also include agony, grief, and loneliness, according to one comprehensive framework (Fischer, Shaver, & Carnochan, 1990).
There you have it, if you whittle guilt down to its core, all you have is human emotion. It is a complex emotion, but it is an emotion all the same. In other words, guilt has no objective reality in the modern world; it is entirely and totally subjective.
Guilt: More Than a Feeling
Let's contrast this view with the Biblical Christian worldview. According to the Bible, guilt is, indeed, an emotion. Here are two examples:
For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Psalm 51:3
For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. 2 Corinthians 7:10
There are countless examples in the Bible of people feeling guilt. However, Biblically speaking, guilt is more than a feeling. It is an objective reality that exists between the one and only Holy Trinitarian God and sinful human beings.
This is best seen in Isaiah 6. Isaiah had a revelation of God's holiness:
In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said:
"Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory!"
And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.
Isaiah had the only response that any human being can possibly have when we see God as He is:
And I said: "Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!" Isaiah 6:5
The Objectivity of Guilt
Guilt is objectively present whenever a sinful human being comes in contact with the self-existing Holy Trinitarian God who revealed Himself in His self-attesting Bible. Guilt first came on the scene at the beginning of creation, in the garden of Eden when Adam and Eve violated the Holy Law of God:
And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, "You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die." Genesis 2:16+17
Before this, there was no guilt. It didn't exist. It was on the verge of existence when Adam and Eve heard the Serpent’s question:
Did God really say… Genesis 3:1
We see the moment Adam and Eve became objectively guilty:
So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. Genesis 3:6+7
When they disobeyed God's revealed commandment, they committed sin against God and were objectively guilty:
For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.
Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you may be justified in your words
and blameless in your judgment. Psalm 51:3+4 (emphasis mine)
And all humanity has been guilty before God ever since:
Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Psalm 51:5
Guilt is the result of sinning against the one and only Holy God of the Bible. Right from the start, God revealed that the result of disobedience brings death:
You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die. Genesis 2:16+17
Paul says the same thing in Romans 6:23, but uses the slightly different expression:
For the wages of sin is death.
Apart from the Bible, there is no adequate explanation for guilt.
Why People Feel Guilty
People feel guilty because they are objectively guilty before God. Unbelievers do not want to recognize that this is the source of guilt. They cover it by feeling guilty about everything else.
As human beings, we cannot escape the notion of sin and guilt. All human beings know that the one and only Trinitarian Holy God of the self-attesting Bible exists, but most people refuse to acknowledge Him:
For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Romans 1:19-21
For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus. Romans 2:14-16
Conclusion
Unbelieving philosophies, psychologies, and worldviews cannot explain guilt. This is why eradicating guilt results in individuals and societies that are dangerous when they exhibit Antisocial Personality Disorder. This is why people protest against injustice, discrimination, oppression, sexism, racism, hate, etc.
Everybody feels guilty or wants you to feel guilty because all human beings are created in God's image and are answerable to Him and Him alone.
In my next blog post, I will give the only solution to the problem of both subjective and objective guilt.