Have you ever done something wrong that you later regretted? Perhaps you have lied to your parents or taken something that wasn’t yours. Maybe you’ve treated others rudely or spoken about people you don’t like with slanderous intent. Is there anybody on the planet who hasn’t violated their own conscience or broken a law or rule?
Consequently, people live with varying degrees of regret, shame, and guilt over their past actions, knowing they have no ability to atone for them or make them right. Lying, stealing, slander, murder: These all happen daily in any given society. Hidden hatred, racism, greed, and envy are staples of human civilization. We covet what others have, and we take what we don’t own. Some people cheat on their taxes; others plagiarize from books or music. The list of our sins goes on and on.
Guilt is a universal problem for humanity. It exists in all places and at all times of history. No one can claim moral perfection. Every human being has participated, in some way, in corrupt behavior. The beauty of the Bible is that it doesn’t sugarcoat the misdeeds that humans have been committing since the dawn of time. Nor does it merely describe and then condemn those transgressions. It also provides a solution to our guilt.
Two Long Words to Help You When You're Struggling With Guilt
If you find yourself feeling guilt or shame over your past actions, we hope this article comforts you by explaining what God has done to deal with your guilt. To explain this, we will introduce you to two important biblical words: justification and sanctification.
For many people, reading the Bible is difficult because it uses words we don’t use in everyday language, and at Bibles.net, we want to make the Bible clear and understandable for people who might not regularly read or study it. Many Bible words are wonderfully meaningful: Though they may be foreign to us, they have everything to do with our life and experience with God.
What Is Justification?
Let’s tackle the word justification first. Maybe you’ve heard someone say, “Jesus died for my sins.” Essentially, that is what justification means—Jesus, the Son of God, died a substitutionary death for your sin, being condemned in your place, so that if you trust in him, you might stand righteous and free of guilt before God.
Although this concept may initially make sense, the overall concept may still be confusing. So, let’s go back to where the Bible begins its story of humanity and our relationship with God, in the book of Genesis.
Where Did Sin and Guilt Begin?
God made the first man and woman, Adam and Eve, who were the parents of the human race, and put them in a paradise called the Garden of Eden. They were created in God's image, to represent him in the world and rule over his world and to have a relationship with him. God gave them freedom to enjoy all his creation and one command: Do not eat the fruit of a particular tree in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:16-17).
Unfortunately, as Genesis describes, they both ate this forbidden fruit (Genesis 3). Consequently, God banished Adam and Eve from the Garden and cursed them for breaking his command, which he warned beforehand he would do if they disobeyed him. This first act of disobedience resulted in both spiritual and, eventually, physical death, and not just for Adam and Eve, but for every person who would come after them as well.
This is why the Bible says that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23 ESV) and that the “wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23 ESV).
This is where we are first introduced to the biblical concept of sin. Sin is anything done in violation of God’s will. For Adam and Eve, it was as simple as eating a piece of forbidden fruit, because in so doing, they doubted God’s goodness toward them and shirked his authority. This made them sinners in God’s eyes, and their sin damaged their relationship with him.
How Has God Dealt With Our Sin?
The same situation happens in every one of our lives, in varied forms. Each time we’ve made choices contrary to God’s will as revealed in the Bible, we sin and are subject to the same penalty that Adam and Eve suffered, which is ultimately death.
As you read this, you might be thinking, “But I thought you said this article was meant to provide comfort?!” The wonderful news is that God didn’t leave us in this lost state. He sent his Son, Jesus, who lived a perfectly righteous life—without sin or any disobedience against God—and then gave himself as a substitute for all who have faith in him. He took the penalty of death that we deserve upon himself in his death on a cross.
Above we quoted from Romans 6:23, but here’s the complete verse: “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23 ESV). Incredibly, God offers forgiveness for all our sins through Jesus! And he does it graciously, as a gift. It isn’t something we work for or earn, as if we could. Rather, we simply must trust in Jesus and receive the gift of salvation he freely offers each one of us.
How Can I Be Justified?
Being forgiven by God and made right in God’s eyes is what the Bible calls justification. It is why the Bible teaches that “a person is justified by faith” (Romans 3:28 NIV). By believing in Jesus, we are justified, or made right in God’s perspective, and he no longer holds our sins against us.
So what do we do with our burden of guilt? We run to Jesus! We confess to him that we are sinners in need of the salvation he freely offers, and we receive. We trust that Jesus’ sacrifice atoned for all our sins, and now, because of what he has done for us, we stand faultless before God, clothed in Jesus’ own righteousness, which he gives us as a gift.
However, God doesn’t justify us and leave us as we are. He then begins doing a wonderful work in our lives to sanctify us.
What Is Sanctification?
Our second word, sanctification, is a bit easier to grasp. Think of a piece of gold rock that is mined from the ground. In order for that gold to become usable for money or jewelry, it must be refined, usually through a process of melting and re-melting the rock. Through each stage of purification, the gold becomes cleaner and cleaner of impurities as they float to the top of the molten gold, becoming dross or slag that is then scraped off. Eventually we can produce a piece of gold that is 99.99% pure.
The biblical concept of sanctification is similar, but instead of refining gold, God is refining our hearts. For all those who put their trust and hope in Jesus (who are justified), God gives us his Holy Spirit. This Spirit lives in us, helping us make choices that are pleasing to God. We become increasingly capable of saying no to sin. Our minds, hearts, and actions become purer. In all these ways, God is making us “holy,” which means less sinful, and more devoted to him. To “sanctify” means to make holy.
What Is the Goal of Sanctification?
What is the end result of holiness? That we are morally perfect? No, not merely that we are good for goodness’ sake. The goal of our sanctification is that we resemble our God. Ultimately, as followers of Jesus, God’s Spirit is working to make us more like him. This sanctification process is described by the apostle Paul in this way: “For those whom he [God] foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that we might be the firstborn among many brothers” (Romans 8:29 ESV, emphasis added).
In other words, God determined to work in those who put their trust in him in such a way that they grow to look more and more like Jesus. The sanctification process is not just us becoming less sinful; it’s a process of us becoming more like our Savior.
God doesn’t just scrub us clean of sin. He also makes us productive. Not only are our sins forgiven (justification), but now we can do good (sanctification)! God aims to produce the “fruit” that comes from his own Spirit in our lives (Galatians 5:22–23): love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. God aims increasingly to fill us with the fruit of his Spirit. God also has prepared good works for each of us, that each follower of Christ may individually and uniquely reveal him to the world: “For we are his [God’s] workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10 ESV).
Freedom from Guilt and Shame
The beauty of justification and sanctification is that we no longer need to wrestle with feelings of guilt or shame over our past sins. Because of God’s sacrifice of his Son, we can receive total forgiveness for our sins—past, present, and future—and enter a once-and-for-all reconciled relationship with God. Plus, God grants us new life through his Spirit and is at work within us to change us, giving us the ability to do good, productive works that are pleasing to him.
So, if you find yourself wrestling with feelings of guilt over past actions, God offers you freedom through Jesus. Even now, you can pray to God that he would forgive you of your sins and remold you into a person who becomes increasingly like Jesus.
