Guilty

And out of pity for him, the master of that servant 

released him and forgave him the debt. 

—Matthew 18:27—

JESUS wants us to come to him: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28–30). We may, however, feel completely unworthy to come near him because of our wretchedness, our sin which we cannot cleanse ourselves from no matter how hard we try.

Guilt is a powerful feeling. And, quite honestly, guilt has its proper place—feeling guilty sometimes is good when we’re guilty and unwilling to change. But if we allow our guilt to consume us—by not recognizing its inherent power and how our adversary, the devil, can use it against us—then we may become useless in service to God and his perfect intentions for us through Jesus Christ. “But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him. Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing” (1 Thessalonians 5:8–11).

Forms of the English word “guilt” are found most in the book of Leviticus; and this isn’t completely surprising since Leviticus is about God’s holiness and his demand (and expectation) for those who follow him to be holy. “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy’” (1 Peter 1:14–16).

The apostle Peter, through the direction of the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:20–21), quotes a phrase found in Leviticus 11:44, 19:2, and 20:7. Respectively, God is addressing Israel in these passages about dietary restrictions (and why they were to strictly follow them), general commands they were to follow (concerning treatment of their parents, idolatry, and how to properly offer to God peace offerings), and child sacrifice (as the Gentiles in Canaan had been practicing).

Guilt makes us feel uncomfortable. And maybe we don’t enjoy that feeling, although there are some who probably do because it’s how they feel almost all the time (and this isn’t good). But, again, guilt has its proper place: “For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death” (2 Corinthians 7:10).

Good grief is when the thief is sorry he’s a thief; bad grief is the thief sorry he got caught. It’s the essential difference between how the apostle Peter dealt with his grief (John 21:15–19) and how the apostle Judas dealt with his (Matthew 27:3–10; Acts 1:18–19). I am convinced that if the apostle Judas had had godly grief then he, too, would, like the apostle Peter, found forgiveness with Jesus. Again, because godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation.

“If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us” (1 John 1:8–10). Why do we make God to be a liar if we say haven’t sinned? Because God says we all have: “But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe” (Galatians 3:22). “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

“Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!” (2 Corinthians 9:15). “And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard” (Colossians 1:21–23).

God “will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord” (1 Corinthians 1:8–9).

Are we struggling with guilt? Then we should often remind ourselves of 1 John 3:19–22:

By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. 

When the Perfect Comes

"But when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away."

—1 Corinthians 13:10—

We live in an imperfect world. Not because it was created imperfectly, but it became imperfect as a consequence of sin. “For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (Romans 8:20–21).

And to Adam [God] said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Genesis 3:17–19).

The gospel is God’s good news to mankind of a place to live that is perfect:

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away” (Revelation 21:1–4).

“For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind” (Isaiah 65:17).

“But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” (2 Peter 3:10–13).

As God prepares heaven as a place to be received (John 14:1–6), we need to prepare ourselves according to what He has revealed to us through His word (Romans 10:17; 14:23;  2 Corinthians 5:7) to receive it. “Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:28–29; cf. Daniel 2:44).

Are we praying for the kingdom to come? In the prayer Jesus spoke, teaching the apostles to pray (Luke 11:1–4), Jesus began by saying, “When you pray, say: ‘Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come’” (v. 2).

Are we living in holiness? “Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy’” (1 Peter 1:13–16).

As we were reading moments before from 2 Peter 3:11–12, “Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God.”

Again, we prepare ourselves for a place prepared by the Lord. Heaven will be worth it all because there we shall see Him as He is: “And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure” (1 John 3:2–3).

That Is Not the Way You Learned Christ

They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!—assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus.

—Ephesians 4:19–21—

It’s easy to claim to be a follower of Jesus. Anyone can do it! There are many people who firmly (and sincerely) believe that it doesn’t really matter how they behave if they simply believe. The Lord didn’t teach this, and neither did his apostles.

Jesus said, “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you? Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great” (Luke 6:46–49).

In the context of our reading from Ephesians 4, the apostle Paul is urging them not to be like the culture around them, living in the futility of their minds: they’re to be different by putting off their former manner of life, being renewed in the spirit of their minds, and putting on the new self—

Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!—assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness (Ephesians 4:17–24).

The truth of God in the first century is the truth of God in the twenty-first century! God seeks in us a change, a difference from the world in which we live. It’s not always easy to be different than our surroundings, but we can do it if we’ll trust the Lord and follow his commands; and his commands are not burdensome (John 12:50 / 1 John 5:3).

It’s not just about reading the Bible, it’s about allowing God’s word into our hearts and minds—meditating (thinking) on his word (Psalms 1:2 / 19:4 / 63:5-7 / 119:15 / Philippians 4:8-9); spending time with his word, focusing on what matters most (1 Peter 1:13). The thing is, we’re all busy in our own ways, but we all know we should be making the best use of the time God is giving us (Colossians 4:5). We need to prioritize our priorities (Matthew 5:20 / 6:33). There’s a need to have some “down time,” but we don’t need to dwell there!

As the apostle Paul defended himself before King Agrippa, he said, “I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, but declared first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem and throughout all the region of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds in keeping with their repentance” (Acts 26:19–20).

God still calls us to repent, turn to him, and do the things he commands in his word (2 Timothy 3:16-17). It’s not merely a matter of what we believe, but what we do (James 1:19-25 / Ephesians 2:8-10). It’s not just that we stop doing bad things (repenting) but that we do the right things. “So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin” (James 4:17). As the ESV Study Bible explains: “It is not only what people do that matters; the good that they fail to do is equally important to God.”