Guilty: sometimes we feel it when we aren't; other times when we are, we don't feel it.
Guilt is a tough matter to deal with.
Only One has never been guilty of anything because only One is holy. And that One has made that holiness the standard by which all of us are to live. Well, none of us has or has even cared to try.
Sin is more appealing and so much easier to accommodate. When "everyone" is doing whatever it is, when there is no reason to mortify sin, why not just do as we please?
The conscience is a tender thing, but one which we can over time do our best to silence, much like silencing the smoke detector by removing the battery. Of course, silencing a smoke detector can cost lives.
When I was much younger, I had a tendency to take responsibility for bad things, even if there was no way I could have had a hand in them. I had to learn the difference between one kind of guilt and another. I learned I was guilty of enough, responsible for enough, without taking on unwarranted guilt feelings, but that took some time--much time.
Sin is in our DNA. Not sinning, not wanting to sin, is a matter of Divine intervention, or we will sin ourselves to death, dying in our sleep due to that silenced smoke detector, the Holy Spirit of God.
Guilt is real. God calls us to account for our sins. And He knows each one of them, both of commission and omission. He knows our hearts, our motivations--completely--from the first cry to the last. There is no higher court to which we can appeal.
In Hebrews 9:27 we read, it is appointed for us to die once and then face judgment. All of our opportunities to be made right with Him come in this life and in this life alone, and none of us knows when this life will end; it is dire to face His eternal fire.
Sin being in our DNA means we have to have a changed nature, not merely a changed external wardrobe, a new heart not merely a new behavior, and we can change neither because we are spiritually dead (Ephesians 2). Grim and grimmer, isn't it?
Those who chafe at God's decision that salvation should be granted through only one way ought to also remember that He is not obligated to save anyone.
It is only because He chooses to save any, that salvation is even available.
For those who chafe at the idea that we are not the free choosers, remember that unless His grace frees us in that one way He has made, we will spend both this life and the life to come enslaved to Satan, under whose bonds we were born, who is the present prince of the power of the air, who often presents himself as an angel of light when he is no such thing, and who can do only what God permits and approves (see Job 1-2).
Oh, would that you who chafe at the way of salvation see the cost of it borne by the Holy Lord of all that it might be accomplished according to the Father's good pleasure.
Chafe not, but plead to know such grace, such saving grace, such costly grace.
The Necessity of Repentance
Ecclesiastes 7:20: "Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins."
James 2:10: "For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it."
Romans 1:18-20: "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them."
Romans 3:23: "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."
Isn't any faith in God enough to be right with Him?
James 2:19: "You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe--and shudder."
How can I be made right with God, then?
Only by faith in Christ and His completed work, seeing these passages as true:
Isaiah 53:6: "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned--every one--to his own way, and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all."
John 1:11-12: "He came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him. But to all who did receive Him, who believed on His name, He gave the right to become children of God."
John 3:16-21: "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God."
John 3:36: "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him."
John 6:44-45: "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. It is written in the Prophets, 'And they will all be taught by God.' Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me."
Acts 4:12: "And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved."
Romans 10:13: "For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."
2 Corinthians 5:17: "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away, behold, the new has come."
2 Corinthians 5:1-2: "Working together with Him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For He says, 'In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you.' Behold, now is the favorable time, behold, now is the day of salvation."
What do I do after I have repented and called on the name of the Lord? What will I have?
Here are some of the things you will have:
Certainty: 1 John 5:13: "I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life."
Recognition: Ephesians 2:8-9: "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing: it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast."
Comfort: Jeremiah 31:3: "The LORD appeared to him from far away. 'I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued My faithfulness to you.'"
John 1:1, 14: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God....And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth."
Growth: Colossians 2:6-7: "Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving."
1 Peter 2:1-3: "So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up into salvation--if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good." A hunger and thirst for righteousness should drive you to ongoing intake of the Word.
Activity: Ephesians 2:10: "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."
Warning: Colossians 2:8: "See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ."
2 Peter 2:1-3: "But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep." This calls for the necessity of learning the Word well enough to begin to develop discernment.
2 Timothy 4:3-4: "For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths." Be careful of the kind of teaching you sit under. Be like the Bereans who checked for themselves what the Word taught (see Acts 17:11).
