Do You Stand Guilty Before God?

Several years ago, we were driving through France when a red light came on in the dashboard of the van we were driving. We had to stop and visit a garage to make sure the engine was okay to travel further. As the red light is to the inner workings of my car, guilt is to the soul of a man. Guilty feelings are like a red warning light that tells us to stop and correct the problem before going on. Where is the conscience? Can't we turn off the red light in our souls? Brain scientists have found no area of our physical makeup where the moral conscience lies, that part of our nature that tells us we have done something wrong. That is because it is part of our soul—our invisible nature that lives on beyond physical death. Dear reader, this is critical stuff—you must take care of guilt before this life finishes because this is what God says:

⁶“Do not deny justice to your poor people in their lawsuits. ⁷Have nothing to do with a false charge and do not put an innocent or honest person to death, for I will not acquit the guilty (Exodus 23:6-7).

You may say that you have never sinned and do not feel guilty. Then let me ask you a question—Have you kept the Ten Commandments all your life? Have you ever lied? Have you ever stolen something that belongs to another? The greatest commandment in the law is, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your strength” (Deuteronomy 6:5). Have you kept that commandment? If not, then even though you might not feel guilty, upon your death, the Law of God and your conscience will stand and accuse you before God in the courtroom of heaven. Your conscience is just the early warning light. In the courtroom of heaven, the God of creation has seen every act and every thought you have ever committed. 

You must make peace with guilt on this side of eternity. We cannot be wrong about these things. Each of us only has one life to live. There is no second chance after death. The Bible says, “It is appointed to man once to die and then to face judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). We must make sure that the red warning light of guilt that shines on the inside of us, is satisfied and that the blame has been washed away. The good news is that the God of heaven loves you with an everlasting love and has initiated a plan to save you from your guilt and eternal destiny without Him. This is what the Lord says:

For I, the LORD, love justice; I hate robbery and wrongdoing. In my faithfulness I will reward my people and make an everlastingcovenant with them (Isaiah 61:8).

The deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob. 
²⁷And this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins (Romans 11:26-27).

God loved you so much that two thousand years ago, He came in the person of His Son, the Lord Jesus, and gave Himself as the Sin Bearer. The God of justice cannot just weigh your good works beside your evil works—which sin would be the tipping point? All sin is an act of rebellion against a Holy God and His law. His justice demands payment of the life of the individual for even just one sin (James 2:10). His plan right from the beginning was to expiate or atone for (take away) your sin by Jesus taking the punishment for your sin. It would be a New Covenant or agreement between each of us that receives His free offer of taking your guilt away and on to Himself. It was a covenant signed in the blood of a sacrificial lamb—Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). 

In our fallen human nature, we have a tendency to want to accomplish our salvation ourselves by working hard at overcoming our sinful nature—but this brings pride, a sin which is ugly toward God—and it doesn't take away the problem of sin and guilt. God has made it so simple that even a child can know the joy of sins forgiven and cleansed. Turn to Him, repent (change the direction of your life before God) and believe the gospel (the good news about our sin paid for). Place your life into the hands of Christ and believe (trust) Him: 

²⁸Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” ²⁹Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent” (John 6:28-29). 

Keith Thomas