The Bondage of Guilt and Condemnation

During the Mother’s day service at my church, two teenage girls stood up to be counted with the rest of the moms. We live in a small, rural community with only 5 teenage girls in attendance already, and I would imagine there was a lot of judgment going around. I would also imagine the girls were feeling a lot of guilt and condemnation. Does it end there? With judgment and guilt? Where will that take them and us?

There are two different sides to guilt. In one respect, guilt is being guilty, doing something wrong. The other side is “feeling” guilty, which can be good and bad. We need to accept and acknowledge the wrong we have done. We need to “feel” our guilt, but we shouldn’t stay there. The feeling of guilt should lead us to repentance, causing us to return to God and restoring our relationship with Him.

Isaiah 38:17 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

Lo, for my own welfare I had great bitterness;
It is You who has kept my soul from the pit of nothingness,
For You have cast all my sins behind Your back.

Isaiah 1:18 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

“Come now, and let us reason together,”
Says the Lord,
“Though your sins are as scarlet,
They will be as white as snow;
Though they are red like crimson,
They will be like wool.”

Once we have acknowledged our guilt and turned away from our sin we should move on. God does not keep count of our sin and neither should we. He can make us new and wash us clean, and that is something we should seek regularly, for every sin not just the “big ones”. But once we have done that we should move on as God does, leaving them behind us. We should not dig up what God has buried.

The same goes for judgment and condemnation. For one thing, the only Person who has a right to judge others is God. We are to call sin sin (which can also be called judgment), but we are not to judge the person who sins because then we are placing ourselves above them, claiming that we have no sin. We are not God, so we should not act like it. Condemnation is the same way. Only God condemns. Satan tries but he has no right to and neither do we.

This was somewhat the progression of my thoughts Sunday, as I mused over what I saw. It made me wonder what the girls were thinking and feeling. Then I wondered where that would lead, what their futures would be like. It would be so easy for them to fall prey to the guilt and condemnation they likely felt and stay there. Their lives would then be a subsequent downward spiral into depression and probably more sin because where else would they have to turn?

My message to them and to everyone else feeling the weight of shame, guilt and condemnation is that you don’t have to stay there. God doesn’t want you to stay there, but satan does and he will do his best to keep you oppressed by those spirits. Maybe you did something wrong. Maybe everyone knows you did something wrong. That cannot be changed. What can be changed is where you are now. You don’t have to stay in that sin, bound by shame and guilt. Yes it is embarrassing, even humiliating, not to mention mortifying to admit, but you need to go to God, confess your wrong and turn away from it. This is repentance. Then move on. Move away from what you have done and resolve to do better. Maybe you will fall again, into that same old ditch where you fell before. It happens. When it does get back on the road through repentance and keep walking.

I know how horrible it feels to own your guilt, how hard it is to accept forgiveness you don’t deserve. I’ve been there. The truth is none of us deserve to be forgiven. That is mercy, not receiving the punishment you deserve. Grace, in the same way, is receiving a gift you don’t deserve, the gift of God’s love and forgiveness. We are saved, not because of our own righteousness, but because of Christ’s. That is why He died, because nothing we could do is good enough to save us. We need His blood to cover us so that when God looks at us He sees His Son, not our sin. That does not mean that we have the license to go on sinning, but it does mean that we don’t have to live in that sin and shame any more.

2 Corinthians 5:21 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

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

Romans 5:17-19 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men. For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous.

Romans 3:21-25 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed;

That is God’s redemptive love that He offers to all. We don’t have to stay in our sin. We are not permanently condemned by what we do. There is forgiveness, grace and mercy, free to any who will receive it. Are you burdened by the weight of guilt and shame? Are you living under the condemnation of choices you’ve made? You don’t have to live there. Go to God, admit your sin, accept His forgiveness and walk away from it (sin). Leave your sin, guilt and shame behind and determine to live a new life in Christ! Find peace in His redemption! Don't allow satan or those around you to drag you back down into that bondage of shame. They have no right to condemn you.