Freedom From Guilt

Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger or discipline me in your wrath. Your arrows have pierced me, and your hand has come down on me. Because of your wrath there is no health in my body; there is no soundness in my bones because of my sin. My guilt has overwhelmed me like a burden too heavy to bear. (Psalm 38:1-4)

If you have ever felt guilty for something you have done, you know that this psalmist’s description of guilt is quite accurate. Guilt is painful. It is exhausting, and it is a heavy burden to bear. When you are feeling guilty, it seems like the weight of the world rests on your shoulders. 

The Lord never intended for us to live in bondage to our guilt. He doesn’t want us to stumble through life under the weight and pressure of feeling guilty for our sins. Instead, He wants us to live in the freedom we have through what Christ did for us on the cross.

In the fourth chapter of Luke, Jesus is preaching at the synagogue in Nazareth. Jesus proclaims, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4:18-19) Jesus was stating that He had come to set people free from whatever enslaved them, and that included guilt. 

God does not want us to travel through life with guilt. We should feel convicted by the Holy Spirit when we make a mistake, and we should therefore repent for our sins. But once we repent, we should not continue to let guilt tag along with us. We have been given the chance to live guilt-free because of Jesus; so let’s walk in that freedom as we continue to walk with the Lord.