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The Guilt Trip

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I want to tell you about a guilt trip - even though most people hate guilt trips, you're going to want to hear about this one. Actually in my mind there are two kinds of guilt trips. The first kind is when people put on the holier than thou act and try to make you feel guilty for whatever reason. This kind has always made me laugh because one of the things Jesus hated the most was self-righteouness in people - so the guilt tripper should really be the guilt tripee...or something like that. It's sort of like the whole judging thing:

"Are you judging me?"

"Why do you ask? Are you judging me for possibly judging you?"

"Only if you're judging me for judging you for judging me!"

Anyway, there is another kind of guilt trip - and this is the good kind. This is the trip that people take from feeling guilty to feeling forgiven. And why do people feel guilty? Because they are! Deep down at some level all people are aware that they are responsible for offending someone or something - and if that weren't enough, the Bible backs this up:

For all have sinned; all fall short of God's glorious standard (Romans 3:23)

Not a few, not some, not even a minority or a majority... ALL have sinned - which means that all are guilty, and guilt is a really bad thing. It haunts us, cripples us, and eats away at our joy like a rapidly spreading cancer. Dr. Karl Menninger, the famed psychiatrist, once said that if he "could convince the patients in psychiatric hospitals that their sins were forgiven, 75 percent of them could walk out the next day." Amazing - that many people would be able to experience that much healing if they could only find forgiveness!

Which they can...and so can you. This is the guilt trip I'm talking about. It's a journey from the maddening prison of condemnation to the joyful freedom of forgiveness. It's available to everyone, and the most amazing part is that it is 100% absolutely positively free.

Free to you and me, that is - because Someone already paid the price for our sin. It cost Jesus His very life. He spilled His blood so your sins could be washed away:

He is the sacrifice for our sins. He takes away not only our sins but the sins of all the world. (1 John 2:2)

Make no mistake about it - God is mad about sin, which is why we feel guilty. But Jesus Christ came to earth, lived a perfect and sinless life, and became the sacrifice that HAD to be made. When He died, He made it possible for us to change our position with God from guilty to forgiven by trusting in Him alone for eternal life:

Therefore, since we have been made right in God's sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. (Romans 5:1)

Another version of this verse puts it this way:

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

The word "justified" is actually a legal term that pictures God as a Judge declaring us "not guilty" because we have put our faith in Jesus' death and resurrection for forgiveness.

So, back to the guilt trip. Have you taken the journey yet? If you think you can make up for the guilt by doing good things, I'm afraid you are on the wrong path. Here's what God thinks about our "good works":

No one is good--not even one. No one has real understanding; no one is seeking God. (Romans 3:10-11)

When we proudly display our righteous deeds, we find they are but filthy rags. (Isaiah 64:6)

This doesn't mean that we shouldn't do good things, but it does mean we shouldn't rely on good things to earn forgiveness. Incidentally and unfortunately, this is what all religions except Christianity other people teach: some crazy and confusing system of rules and regulations designed to get you the forgiveness you've always dreamed of! But quite honestly, that's all it ever ends up being...a dream that usually drives people back into a nightmare of guilt.

If you're a Christian - that is, a person who has been made right with God through faith in Christ ALONE for forgiveness, then your guilt is a thing of the past. The very second you trusted Christ, the stains on your soul were washed away. Here's the best part...God declared you righteous, and God is outside the realm of time, which means all past, present, and future sins have been taken care of.

So does that mean we can just go out and do whatever? Technically, yes. But realistically, no. When a person truly experiences God's forgiveness, they will not turn around and spit in His face.

Which reminds me...the next time guilt spits in your face, remember that the source of that saliva is Satan, and not your Savior. And the next time Satan calls on the condemnation phone, ask Jesus to get it.

I guarantee He'll answer it for you.

Head: What you need to know about this truth

Jesus Christ satisfied the wrath of God through His sacrifice on the Cross. Therefore those who accept this forgiveness through faith have their past, present, and future sins completely removed.

Heart: What you need to feel about this truth

One rainy day a young mother and her seven-year-old boy were driving through one of the main streets of their town. Little Matthew seemed to be pondering something as he stared at the windshield wipers doing their repetitious work. "Mom," Matthew said. "I've been thinking about something." "What's that?" his mom asked. "The rain is like sin. And the windshield wipers are like God, wiping our sins away." After the chill bumps stopped running up and down her arms, she said, "That's really good, Matthew. Do you notice how the rain keeps on coming? What does that tell you?" Without any hesitation Matthew said, "WE KEEP ON SINNING AND GOD JUST KEEPS ON FORGIVING US." This truth should set us free to feel forgiven and motivated to serve God out of gratitude instead of guilt.

Hands: What you need to do about this truth

From Joni Eareckson-Tada:

'Why do we feel so bad about our past sins? Because we confuse sin with its impression. Got a notebook nearby? Let me show you how it can be so. Write the word 'sin' on the top page. Press hard. Now tear off that sheet of paper, crumple it up and throw it across the room. That's how God forgets your sin. Now take up your pencil and rub it across the new page at an angle, back and forth over the same location where you wrote. And guess what. The ghost of the word 'sin' appears. That's what our flawed memories do. We go back over the deep impression left by transgressions in our life and we feel just as guilty. It's as if the sin never left. But be encouraged, the impression of sin is not the same thing as sin...will you continue to work over forgiven sin as with a pencil? Or will you let the Holy Spirit work His lovingkindess?'