What does God say about guilt?

One of the experiences that is common to all human beings is the feeling of guilt. God made the human soul with a self-reflective tendency, that we refer to as the conscience. Whenever we do something that goes contrary to what God wants, we naturally feel a sense of guilt. This feeling of guilt is a result of sin. The Bible defines the essense of sin as a willful desire to do things our own way as opposed to God’s way.

Isaiah 53:6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way…

So sin is the proud defiance of a person’s will against any standard of God’s righteousness. It is disobedience to or rebellion against the revealed will of God. People naturally want their own way. We are born this way. Nobody had to teach us to do wrong. We have a natural tendency to evil.

Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

Not only do we feel guilt because of our sinfulness, but we also have an inner sense that God is not happy with us.  We have a sense that God is the Judge of the universe, and we stand guilty before Him.  We remain under God’s condemnation until we believe in Jesus and are forgiven.

John 3:18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.