Healthy and Unhealthy Guilt in the Bible

Again, thank you all for attending today despite the rain. I know in the northern part of the country you have to weather a lot worse, snow storms, and many times people brave their way, and so it's nice to see the group that we have.

There is in life many different feelings and experiences that we will go through. Some will be positive, some negative, some are healthy, and some are unhealthy feelings that we go through. The trick, of course, is to identify them and keep what is positive and eliminate what is negative. For instance, in the Bible we have Solomon describing all the emotions and experiences we go through life. In Ecclesiastes chapter 3, verses 1-8, I'd like to read this in the God's Word version. It says the following, Everything has its own time, and there is a specific time for every activity under heaven, a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to pull out what was planted, a time to kill and a time to heal. Of course, talking in those days of the Old Testament, you could still mount an army. He goes on to say, a time to tear down and a time to build up, a time to cry and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to hug and a time to stop hugging, a time to start looking and a time to stop looking, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear apart and a time to sew together, a time to keep quiet and a time to speak out, a time to love and a time to hate. Again, more focused on the Old Testament, where people didn't have God's Spirit in them. It goes on to say, a time for war and a time for peace. So during Solomon's Day, these were all the experiences that we can go through. And I'd like to emphasize and focus on one of those feelings, and that is the feeling of guilt. We have all felt it. It's not pleasant. But why did God create that feeling? And is it all bad? Some think so. Some religions try to eliminate the feeling of guilt. Absolutely. They think it is all negative. Bob Schuller, who had the crystal cathedral here before he went bankrupt, was famous for not wanting to talk about sin. He thought it was too negative. And many feel that way. You have to get rid of guilty feelings. There's a humorous story about a neighbor who noticed when he put out the garbage container, sure enough, he would come out later, and it was knocked over. And he finally figured out it was his neighbor that was knocking the garbage container over. And of course, he was upset. And so he went over to his neighbor, and he said, are you knocking my garbage container over? And the neighbor said yes. And then he said, well, I don't want to fight over this, but I have a psychiatrist friend, and I'd like for you to go two weeks for therapy, so you will quit doing this. And so then, sure enough, this man went two weeks to therapy, finished the course, came back, the man put out his garbage container, and sure enough, a little later, it was knocked down. So he went, he was mad, he was angry, came to the neighbor, said, look, I paid for these things. You went to the psychiatrist for two weeks. What happened? Didn't it do any good? And the neighbor said, well, it did. I used to feel guilty about doing that. Now I don't feel guilty at all. There's another story here in this book, illustrations for biblical preaching.

On guilt, it says, the story is told of a time when Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, of course, Sherlock Holmes' author, decided to play a practical joke on 12 of his friends. He sent them each a telegram that read, flee at once. All is discovered. Within 24 hours, all 12 had left the country. And it wasn't true. He'd just written that. So all these guilty feelings, and they apparently thought that everybody was on to them. I'm sure Joel Thomas could get a chuckle out of that, too, because being a lawyer and all the things that he has to know about people. But the point is that guilt, according to the Bible, can be positive or negative.

And we're going to look at this because a lot of people, they beat themselves up with guilt, and they get depressed. They don't have any energy. Others become rebellious and blame others for their own situation. So it can be negative, but it can also be positive. Guilt is something that can be used positively as well as negatively. So I'd like to first start with the definition of guilt. According to the dictionary, it is the fact or state of having committed an offense, crime, violation, or wrong.

So you feel that way because you did something wrong, especially against moral or penal law.

It is also a feeling of anxiety or unhappiness that you have done something immoral or wrong, such as causing harm to another person. It's interesting that that's just basically the world's view of it. And biblically speaking, and this International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, I was surprised by their definition of guilt. It says guilt is both the legal and moral condition that results from breaking God's law. So it's narrowed down to God's law. People feel guilt when you break God's law. So it's interesting when you go over the scriptures, let's go to 1 John chapter 3 verses 3 through 5. It describes also guilt from a positive and a negative point of view. John says here, I'm going to read it from the Amplified version, it says, and everyone who has this hope on him cleanses himself just as he is pure.

So it says those that have the hope have to cleanse themselves. Everyone who commits, which means practices, sin is guilty of lawlessness. For that is what sin is, lawlessness. And then it goes on to parentheses, the breaking or violating of God's law by transgression or neglect, being unrestrained and unregulated by his commands and his will. Then it goes on to say, you know that he appeared in visible form and became man to take away sins and in him there is no sin. So here it talks about how we can obtain forgiveness and that yes, guilt is part of the package when you break God's law. In James chapter 2 and verse 8, it also defines further what guilt is, how it's produced. James chapter 2 and verse 8, it says, if you really fulfill the royal law, talking about God's commandments, according to the scripture, you shall love your neighbor as yourself, you do well. But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever shall keep the whole law and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. For he who said, do not commit adultery also said, do not murder. Now if you do not commit adultery but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty, not of slavery, not of oppression. God's law liberates us from the guilt and from doing wrong. It says, for judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy, mercy triumphs over judgment. So here's a good definition of God's law, breaking it. Yes, we're going to feel guilty, but we also have God's law to direct us, to guide us, to repentance, to going before God. So let's look at some positive and negative examples of guilt in the Bible. You don't have to go very far. Right there in Genesis chapter 3, we have the first case of guilt in the Bible. Notice in Genesis chapter 3 and verse 6, it says, so when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. So they broke laws, God's commands. Then the eyes of both of them were open, they received more knowledge, but it wasn't from God. And they knew that they were naked. Now God had not said anything about being naked and being wrong. They were the only two humans on earth. And so they were in their private area, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. Why? Because they felt guilt. They had broken God's laws. They had not done what was proper. And that's the typical reaction. You want to hide from God. You want to hide from His presence.

And then the Lord called to Adam and said to him, where are you? So he said, I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself. Well, I was afraid. He was afraid and he felt guilty because he knew what he had done. And then God asked him, who told you that you were naked? You see, it wasn't God that had said something about being evil or looked bad at. Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not, you should not eat. Notice it was a command. Then the man said, the woman who you gave to be with me, she gave me other tree and I ate. So again, we start with the blame game. He didn't own up. He didn't confess. He didn't repent.

Remember, he didn't have God's spirit at this time. And so he acted pretty carnally, which is to blame the other. And so God looked at the woman. And the Lord said to the woman, what is this you have done? Do you think the woman also said, I'm sorry. I confess. I repent. No, that the serpent was the one. He's the one to blame. So this is a typical human nature reaction.

And I always remember a funny story of this mother of some children in the church. When she read that, she said, what do you learn here? And the son said, well, the problem was the serpent couldn't speak at that time. So he got all the blame. Just like sometimes brothers and sisters, they blame each other and the littlest one, he can't really justify himself. But this is a typical carnal relation.

Yet God did not abandon them.

He knew they would have to learn some valuable lessons and their descendants. They would have to suffer, but there was a plan in place to redeem them. Notice in verse 15, he said, and I will put enmity between you and the woman, talking about the serpent, and between your seed and her seed, talking about the coming seed of Christ. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. So God would send his son to redeem mankind and eventually to get rid of Satan.

So grace is the emerited favor and forgiveness of God.

I might also bring out another humorous story, talking about human beings and how they treat each other. This is from Mark Twain. I got a chuckle out of this one, and there's a lesson here. He said, all of us, well, this is what I bring up first, all of us who have or have had dogs, how many have have dogs in the congregation? Okay, you can, and how many have ever had dogs? Okay, just about everybody. You can appreciate this. This is what Mark Twain said, and we would substitute the kingdom of God for heaven here. He said, heaven goes by favor. If it were by merit, you would stay out and your dog would go in.

Of course, dogs don't have free will, so they're programmed. But I think God created dogs just to show us a bit of the humility and that spirit of patience and service that dogs have and how, even after you treat them badly, they come back and they still, you know, lap you and lick you, and they still love you. So that's pretty deep. The important point going on is that guilt results from God giving us a conscience.

He put in every human being a compass of a sort, a type of our conscience, which gives human beings a general sense of what is right and wrong. But a person's conscience can be distorted by his surroundings or by his own ideas. So you can actually mold and shape that conscience where it becomes something atrocious. And Satan is the master at shaping a person's conscience.

Notice in Romans chapter 2 verse 12, Romans chapter 2 verse 12 through 15, Paul talks about that conscience that has been given to everyone. Verse 12 says, For as many as have sinned without law will also perish without law. This is those that don't know about God's laws that are ignorant of it. They still are going to be held responsible for the way they live their lives. And he says, And as many as have sinned in the law will be judged by the law, those that are conscious of God's law. For not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified. Paul didn't have this idea that you did away with God's law. No, just by hearing God's law is not enough. You've got to put it into practice. For when Gentiles who do not have the law, here he explains what he means by that. So in the sections where it talks about those without the law, it's just talking about people that disregard, that have no idea what God's laws are. So these Gentiles, he says, by nature do the things in the law. See, there's this moral compass. They still know stealing is not right. They might not ever read that in the Bible, but something tells them that you're not to take what somebody else's possessions. Now, lying is wrong, according to the Bible, and people have that. If you go into the deepest area of Africa, where you have basically complete ignorance of things, and yet people know you're not to lie about things. Nobody likes falsehoods. That's just something in us. You tell a dog, don't lie to me. A dog has an idea. They don't have a moral compass in that sense.

They do know by the expression whether they've done something right or wrong, but that's as far as it goes. They can read, and sometimes you can fool a dog with, instead of showing pleasure, showing this pleasure, and the dog will act as you show him. There is no inner compass there.

And so it says here, when Gentiles who do not have the law by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law of God, are a law to themselves. They still are responsible for their actions, who show the work of the law written in their hearts. So if they do what's right, if they're kind, generous, honest, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them in the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel. So again, God put that inner compass that always points what you should do and what you shouldn't do. But society distorts that. It distorts it to the point that you have places in Africa or in the central part of South America where you have cannibals. And since they're little kids, it's drummed into them that it's fine to go ahead and kill and eat your enemies. And their conscience is shaped that way. They don't feel bad. Their parents have told them that's okay. The chief in the village says that's okay. So that's a way you can mold a person's conscience by the education they receive. But again, we see here that guilt is associated with a person's conscience. So if you don't get anything else out of this sermon, it is important to realize that there is a healthy guilt feeling and there is an unhealthy one to learn, to differentiate, to get over that unhealthy guilt, and to use the positive one. Let's look at some examples of having healthy guilt feelings. What happened in Genesis 4 with Cain? Genesis 4. In verse 5, talking about the offering that Abel gave, which God was pleased with but not with Cain. It says verse 5, but he did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry and his countenance fell. Got into a bad attitude. So the Lord said to Cain, why are you angry and why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door and its desire is for you. But you should rule over it. Don't let those impulses to damage and to lash out at your brother control you. So, yes, Cain had those feelings and there was a guilt feeling that he said, my brother is doing things better than I and I should do better. My conscience is telling me I'm doing things wrong. But what happens? He did not accept that healthy, guilt feeling and he suppressed it. He ignored it. And God warned him, if you ignore this and you go ahead and let your anger get the best of it, sin is waiting there and you will have to pay the consequences for it. So, Cain knew what he should do. He should have gotten his act together, done things properly, because God said, I will accept it if you do it with the right attitude, if you do it properly, not disrespectfully. But God did not obligate Cain. Cain had free will. And he didn't follow God's advice.

Healthy guilt should lead to repentance, to confession before God. Unhealthy one is to keep it pent up, blame others, get depressed, or ignore it. Notice another example. Here the person did follow through after he sinned.

Psalm 51, the example of David. Psalm 51, verse 1.

David said, Have mercy upon me. And this is written, as it says here, when Nathan the prophet went to him after he had gone in to Bathsheba and then had Uriah killed, all of these terrible things that he allowed himself to fall into. But then David, he didn't lash out. He didn't blame others.

He genuinely repented of his sin. It says here in verse 1, Have mercy upon me, O God, according to your loving kindness, according to the multitude of your tender mercies. Blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgression, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only have I sinned and done this evil in your sight, that you may be found just when you speak and blameless when you judge. So he knew he had broken God's laws. He had done wrong. And he said, Look, I own up to it. These guilt feelings are what's driving me to you, to repent, to confess, to overcome. And then he says in verse 17, The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart. These, O God, you will not despise.

So God looks for the attitude, and that feeling of guilt can guide us to go to God, to not hide from him, not be in denial, but just to own up to it. And God will see that, and he will forgive, and we will get a new lease on life. Let's go to the New Testament for another example. 2 Corinthians chapter 7. 2 Corinthians chapter 7.

Starting in verse 8, Paul is talking here because this is the second letter he sent them. There was one member that had been sinning seriously in the congregation. It was a sin of adultery. And so he had spoken strongly, you have to put this person out for the time being until he repents. And so then this is what he writes in his second letter because they had followed up on it. He says in verse 8, he says, For even if I made you sorry with my letter, basically telling them that they need to do something, they can't leave that person in the congregation. He says, I do not regret it, though I did regret it at that time. For I perceive that the same epistle made you sorry, though only for a while. Now I rejoice. Not that you were made sorry, but your sorrow led to repentance. Talking about that person that repented of it by being put out, by letting his guilt feelings bring them back to God and to confess and to repent. He says, For you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us in nothing. For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation. Not to be regretted, but the sorrow of the world produces death. Because that's only temporary. They don't really want to obey God and his laws. It's just temporary. It's like the thief that gets caught, that goes before the judge, says, Oh, please, I'll never do it again. Please lower the sentence, or please, give me another chance. Please don't. And then after the judge deals with him, sometimes mercifully, the guy gets out and says, Great, now I have more time to steal again. There's no real change inside the person. And so he says that the world produces death.

And this is the problem many times with the teaching about one saved, always saved. They say, well, you shouldn't feel guilty. You shouldn't feel like maybe you haven't accomplished what you should or serve God as you should. Just put that out. You should never feel that. Well, no, there is a godly type of guilt that produces sorrow onto repentance. And he goes on to say, For observe this very thing, that you sorrowed in a godly manner. What diligence it produced in you. He woke him up to the point, look, as long as this person is practicing this sin and it's known and you're just tolerating it, that's wrong. A little 11, the whole lump he was saying, just like if you allow sin to just go on without dealing with it, more people will start saying, well, he did it. I can do it too. And so now he said, what clearing of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what vehement desire would zeal, what vindication and all things you proved yourselves to be clear in this matter. Therefore, although I wrote to you, I did not do it for the sake of him who had done the wrong, nor for the sake of him who suffered wrong, but that our care for you in the sight of God might appear to you. You know that person had to learn. Hopefully, if you have a tender conscience, if you feel that guilt, you're going to go to God to get it cleaned up, get it forgiven. And that's exactly what happened in this case. Let's go to chapter two of this epistle to see once the person was removed temporarily. Of course, the brethren grieved over that. Nobody was happy with it, but they were encouraging to that person. It says in 2 Corinthians 2, verse 5, it says, But if anyone has caused grief, he has not grieved me, but all of you, to some extent, not to be too severe. This punishment, which was inflicted on that person by the majority, is sufficient for such a man, so that, on the contrary, you ought rather to forgive and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one be swallowed up with too much sorrow. Therefore, I urge you to reaffirm your love to him. And so, yes, the person repents. They go before God. They get their act together. They do the right things. You bring them, and you give them a warm welcome. You're happy about it. But that's the way it works. Unhealthy guilt leads to either wallowing in depression or in blaming others and even rebelling.

Lucifer repressed the feeling of guilt and blamed God for his punishment. He should have had a tender conscience, and when he started going off the wrong way, he should have gone to God. Father, forgive me. I had wrong thoughts. I had ambition. I realized my vanity got the best of me, whatever, but he didn't. And finally, he just expelled that guilt feeling and basically continued defiant and attacking God. It reminds me of a story that was on TV years ago. I think it was on the Holocaust. It was a series, and it brought up one of the ones who was shooting the Jewish prisoners, and he was telling this younger soldier, he said, don't worry. You know, the first is really tough to shoot, to pull the trigger and see him die. But you know, after the fifth one, you don't have a problem anymore. It becomes routine. You've suppressed your guilt feelings. That's what torturers can do. They can suppress their guilt feelings to the point where they can expel them. And what Paul talks there in Timothy about having your consciences seared. And when you sear something, when you sear your skin, you burn it third degree burn, you no longer have any nerves there. You can't feel anything. And you can do that to your conscience as well.

And so there is a healthy role. God knew what he was doing when he created the guilt feeling. Notice in 1 John chapter 3.

1 John chapter 3 verse 19.

Here, the whole epistle of John is talking about, brethren, we need to continue to keep God's commandments. Let's go to 1 John chapter 2. We have a little bit of time to just get the gist of this. In 1 John chapter 2, he says verse 3, now by this we know that we know him. If we keep his commandments, he who says, I know him and does not keep his commandments is a liar. And the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps his word, notice equating the commandments with Scripture, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in him. He who says he abides in him ought himself also to walk just as he walked. So this is the theme of the entire epistle. And then in chapter 3 verse 19, he says, and by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him. For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God. Now some just read that section and say, see, don't worry about your conscience. You've already been saved. You don't have any questions, any qualms about that. That's not what is expressing here because notice the next verse. Verse 22, he says, and whatever we ask we receive from him because we keep his commandments and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. So he's not saying, well, don't worry, you're already saved and you don't have to obey God. And of course, sometimes they'll bring up Old Testament laws, 613 laws that are out there, and they say, well, how can you keep all of that? Well, they also know that out of those 613, about 500, if not more, of those laws have to do with how to do sacrifices and the ritual law and all of these purification laws. And basically, the commandments and the elaboration or extensions of those 10 commandments, that's what we continually keep because Christ already fulfilled that part of the sacrifice. And so we don't have to worry about 613 laws. Most of them are in Leviticus, dealing with how to do the rituals and what kind of things you should have in the tabernacle and how you should build it and all of this. So you see, that's very different. In the New Testament, we know Christ fulfilled the ritual part of the law. But the point is, John is emphasizing the commandments of God, the moral and spiritual law.

And so where he says is, look, if your conscience, all of a sudden, he says, if it condemns you, sometimes even because of what the world tells us, he says, God is greater. Go to God's Word and go to his guidance because that's what we should follow because our conscience can be very distorted and it can be changed. And sometimes we have these skill feelings when we're doing the right things. And sometimes we're doing the wrong things and we're not getting the guilt feelings because they're telling us, oh, don't feel bad about that. I'd like to read from a section on this is a bakioki, Samuel bakioki, the Seventh-day Adventist author. His book, Popular Beliefs, are they biblical? He has a section on this idea about once saved, always saved. He says, the basic idea is that once a person becomes a child of God, he or she can't commit a sin that can cause them to lose their salvation. Many people find this doctrine comfortable because in essence it relieves them of all personal responsibility in their relationship with God.

So they feel, yeah, boy, I'm already forgiven. So, well, I can sin here or there. I'm still a nice person. God has saved me. So why should I worry about that? Why should I cleanse myself? Why should I go and confess and have deep repentance over it? And so one thing that I learned is that you can become self-righteous about this saving grace where, oh, don't you dare ask me to do anything because Christ already did it all for me. And they feel superior because they feel, well, we've already been granted this. And so here you are. You're trying to please God by keeping His commandments. They forget what Philippians chapter 2 verse 12 says.

This is from the very apostle Paul, which they like to quote, trying to do away with God's law. And yet Paul didn't say that at all. Notice in Philippians chapter 2 in verse 12, it says, Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. So God's there, but we have to do our part. Basically, they're saying, oh, don't worry about any fear and trembling. You already are saved. You don't have to worry. You don't have to question if my faith is fine or not. But some scholars trace the roots of this idea of eternal security, one saved always saved, back to the Gnostic teachings that found their way into the early church, especially through Augustine. So we go back to Augustine. He was the one that perpetrated that you could go to war as a Christian. He was the one that perpetrated the immortality of the soul and that purgatory and all of these ideas. And now here we find him dealing with salvation and saying, you're so wretched. Only if God chose you beforehand can you have a chance. And so he goes on to say, for example, Jeff Patton, author, notes, ultimately, the roots of eternal security, that doctrine, are in the Gnosticism that preceded Augustine. But it was Augustine that has the unwelcome honor of leavening the whole lump. He was the one that spread it out to where not only Catholics, but also Protestants and Calvinists, they all teach a type of eternal security. And one saved always saved. Catholics have the seven sacraments. They say, well, if you do these, you don't have to worry about anything. You'll be saved.

You've been elected by God.

Bakiyoki goes on to say, the teaching of eternal security is pagan in its origin and stands in open opposition to the teaching of the Bible. So I'd like to cover one more point regarding guilt. It is so important to understand what it means to be under the law and to be under grace. Let's go to Romans chapter 3 in verse 19. To me, this is why a person can be at peace before God. Romans chapter 3 in verse 19. He says, now we know that whatever the law says, talking about God's law, it says to those who are under the law, who are knowledgeable of it, and who are under the penalty of that law, if they break it. That every mouth may be stopped, in other words, no excuses, no murmurings, and all the world may become guilty before God. So we have all broken God's law, and we understand nobody can feel they don't need forgiveness from God. Everybody needs it. And that we are, when we come to an understanding of God's law, we know we have broken it.

We're guilty, and that we need forgiveness. That was the chief motivating factor in me wanting to be baptized at the tender age of 18. I just felt I just had this burden on me. I just want to get rid, just like a backpack full of sins. I wanted to get rid of that backpack. I wasn't at peace till I got rid of that backpack. And why? Because I wanted to no longer be under the penalty of God's law. I wanted to be under the forgiveness of the grace of God. And so he goes on to say, Therefore, by the deeds of the law, no flesh will be justified in his knowledge, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. Person knows that they are responsible. I like what it mentions here in the Amplified version. It says, For no person will be justified, made righteous, acquitted, and judged acceptable in his sight by observing the works prescribed by the law. For the real function of the law is to make men recognize and be conscious of sin, not mere perception, but an acquaintance with sin which works toward repentance, faith, and holy character. So it works toward leading us to God's forgiveness. Verse 21, he says, But now the righteousness of God, apart from the law, is revealed being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. So that's a requirement. Believing, following, his steps, obeying him, for there is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation or that means sacrifice by his blood through faith to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance, God has passed over the sins that were previously committed. That's what is forgiven to demonstrate at the present time his righteousness, that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Where is boasting, then? It is excluded. Nobody can boast before God that he hasn't sinned, that he hasn't broken God's law, that he has felt that guilt. By what law? The law of works? No, but by the law of faith. You have to accept Jesus Christ as your personal Savior and his sacrifice. Therefore, we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law. Keeping God's law does not pay the penalty. I compare it. You can go ahead and respect all the traffic laws coming over here, pass all of the green lights, and you stop at every red light except the last one. And the last one, you pass a red light. And guess what? The police pulls you over and says you just broke the traffic laws. You pass the red light, and you say, but sir, look at all the good, respectful way that I didn't do that all the way from my home to here. You know, isn't 19 out of 20 good enough? He's not going to buy it. So by what you do, you're not going to pay for the penalty. Only Christ's sacrifice can pay for that. And then he says, verse 31, do we then make void the law through faith?

A lot of these evangelicals would say yes. And what does Paul say? Certainly not. On the contrary, we establish the law. The law has a purpose. It's a means to an end. It's not an end to itself. It's a way of getting us to come to God, to repent, to believe, and to follow that. But you don't throw away God's law after that. Notice in Romans chapter 7. Romans chapter 7. I wish we could read the entire thing because here he deals with guilt. He feels bad because he knows he broke God's law, being a Christian, receiving God's Spirit, being an apostle.

He goes on to say here in verse 7, what shall we say then? Is the law sin? Is that something bad, as many will say, evangelicals and others? He says, certainly not. On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. Understanding what God determines is God's way, and if we break it, it is sin.

For I would not have known covetousness, the tenth commandment, unless the law has said, you shall not covet. But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, that human nature we have, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law, sin was dead. Not knowing the law, you weren't going to have guilty feelings. Once you understand God's law, you begin to have guilty feelings. You start saying, I should do this. I should keep this. I should respect God. He said, I was alive once without the law.

Yes, when he was a child, when he just ran around merrily, he didn't have any guilt feelings. He didn't feel he needed to. He said, but when the commandment came, when he came to an understanding and maturity, sin revived and I died. I realized I was guilty. And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death. For sin, taken occasion by the commandment, deceived me and by it killed me.

My human nature betrayed me. Therefore, the law is holy and the commandment holy and just and good. Don't blame God's law. Paul never did. The only thing he talked about was the ritual law that should not be used to substitute for Christ's sacrifice. That's where it upset him. And then he says, has then what is good become death to me? Certainly not. But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful. The more I know about God's law, the more subtle sin can be.

You start realizing thoughts, habits, all kinds of things that you thought, oh, they're okay. You start saying, no, no, they're not. For we know that the law is spiritual. Here it's bringing this up. It comes from God. It is holy, just, and good. But I am carnal, soul to understand. I've got that human nature in me. For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, what I want to do, the right thing, that I do not practice, but what I hate, that I do.

And so he goes on here in verse 22. He says, for I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. We know what we should do. But I see another law in my members, that human nature warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity, to the law of sin, which is in my members. Got that human nature that wants to do what is wrong. O wretched man that I am. That's a healthy guilt feeling. He didn't say, oh, I've been saved. Oh, all of that's forgiven.

I've got Christ's righteousness, so I don't have to worry about my carnal human nature anymore. No, a true Christian is still concerned about that. The Bible tells us we can fall away time and time again. Why God emphasizes he who overcomes to the end will be saved.

Overcoming means you're not sure. Paul wasn't sure until the end of his life that he would be faithful. Notice he says, O wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Yes, that's the right way.

So then with the mind, I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh, the law of sin. So I've got this division in me. I don't do everything I'd like to do, and we have to recognize it and own up to it, acknowledge it, and get there and work out your salvation with fear and trembling. He says, there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. Well, okay. So he says, look, I've got these problems, but guess what? I'm not under that penalty of the law as long as I practice and I repent and I go before God and I follow his way, that condemnation is not going to happen.

Those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit, in perfectly as it is. For the law of the Spirit of life, the law with God's Spirit in a person in Christ Jesus, had made me free from the law of sin and death, from that penalty.

For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh. On account of sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. And so being under God's grace means following him. You're going to trip, you're going to fall, get up, go to God, commit yourself and the true repentance, and never give up, because God is there for us. It is not this works religion that you have to do everything perfectly, or that the works are going to do it the saving. No, but it is a requirement that God expects us. Along with the faith in Jesus, you need to keep the commandments of God. As Revelation 14, 12 tells us. Let's go to one last scripture in 1 Corinthians 9. So, of course, as in Bakioki brings this out, there's this healthy tension that we don't know exactly until our last dying breath, that we have run the race and we have remained faithful. Notice Paul, who says here in 1 Corinthians 9 and verse 24, he says, Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Now there's competition. You're competing against yourself. Run the best race in your own life that you can. Run in such a way that you may obtain it with effort, diligence, sacrifice, getting up. Just like it tells us in Proverbs, the righteous fall seven times and seven times. He has to stand up again, continue on. He says, And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. So we have to do our spiritual exercises, prayer, Bible study, meditation, occasional fasting. They do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. Therefore I run thus, not with uncertainty. Thus I fight, not as one who beats the air, not somebody who just isn't putting out effort.

They call it shadow boxing. When the boxer is learning his moves, it's nice to be a shadow boxer. You never get hit back. But that doesn't make a real boxer, right? So he says, Thus fight, not as one who beats the air, but I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified. So he knew he could still be disqualified. And so that is true Christianity. That's why this idea once saved, always saved, actually comes from pagan origins. It crept up, and now it's spread throughout the world, like bad leavening. But brethren, we have a God who knows that we need that conscience. Guilt can be healthy. We shouldn't let guilt be negative and beat ourselves up, and God will never forgive us. He says he will, and he gave his son as an assurance of that. But that does not mean giving us license to turn grace into licentiousness. That is the wrong type of religion. So brethren, I hope we understand better. There's a healthy guilt in the Bible, and there's an unhealthy guilt. And to learn to discern between the two, remove the negative, and let's keep the positive.