The lady looked to be in her mid-thirties and was of southern European heritage. She told me that she, “used to go to church,” but had not done so for many years. She had guilt written all over her when telling me this. She went on to say that she had been divorced for fourteen years, she had a fourteen year-old daughter which she found difficult to bring up alone and that life for her was, “full of worries and very little peace.” She didn’t disclose those worries but I could discern that guilt was a root cause of them – religious guilt.
I knew a lot about religious guilt, that was one of the motivations as to why I chose the work of becoming a messenger of Jesus Christ’s gospel. I wanted to tell others how to get rid of it. That dear lady stood before me almost transfixed as I shared that message. She had never heard it before. I made it clear to her that Christ did not come into this world to put a guilt trip on us, but in fact, it was the exact opposite – He came to remove the guilt. The surprised look on her face cannot be described and had it not been for the Spirit of God confirming my words, she would have closed her door in unbelief.
A young man came to the door of a residence whose owners were away. He had a paint brush in his hand so I used it as an analogy when sharing the gospel message. He said that he had never really, “heard much about God and church,” but he often felt guilty because of his lack of knowledge and attendance. His face was red with guilt as he said it. His concept was that if he did go to church, it would make him a better person. He was startled when I challenged that viewpoint. I asked him, “a better person, in whose eyes?”
I then drew his attention to the brush by explaining that many church-goers see themselves discolored like the walls of a room. To brighten themselves up they go to church to get a paint-job and once they’re satisfied their “walls” have been “painted” through participation in the service, home they go with every intention of keeping the “walls” fresh and clean, but then the guilt trip comes on because somewhere along the line they’ve dirtied them again. He looked at me strangely when I said that the greatest hindrance to knowing Jesus Christ, was the “paint brush.”
Jesus Christ is not in the painting business, He’s in the removal business. The paint brush covers the dirt, but the reality is the dirt is still there under the surface no matter how efficient the brush and paint may be. It’s the same with guilt. No matter the quality and quantity of religious effort and practice, guilt will remain and control, if we have no personal relationship with the biblical Lord Jesus Christ. Most religious practitioners do not believe that. Others do believe it, but they prefer their own brush and paint in any case, because it keeps them in control.
I met countless religious and former religious practitioners with drinking problems. That was another motivation why I chose to become a gospel messenger. I could identify with these people. Some drank to cover up guilt, others suffered guilt because they drank. I called on an old religious lady who’s forty-seven year old son was in bed suffering with a bad liver, destroyed by booze. At first he didn’t want to talk. He thought I was a priest and he turned away with guilt. I told him that I was not a priest, but that I had once been a heavy drinker.
I gained his full attention when I told him it was not the “religious’ Jesus who helped me to moderate my drinking, but rather the biblical Jesus. He wanted to know the difference and I was pleased to tell him that he could find that out for himself simply by reading the gospel of John. I told him that if he was serious about having his guilt removed then he must choose to believe and trust the promises written therein, as those from the Lord to him personally. I then said, “Jesus is your only hope.” He said, “I think you’re right.” I said, “Prove it.”
I explained to a young mother the purpose for my visit and immediately she began to cry as she told me she, “had not attended church for a long time.” Her cry was not that of one who genuinely missed attending, it was a cry of guilt. She had two young children and a new baby who kept her awake at night and it was during those times that, “I dwell on my sins and short-comings.” Her guilt was far from alleviated by church-attending family members and friends either. The words I spoke and the literature I left with her were designed to do so, however.
Guilt is a reality for all of us. It comes as a result of sin and the Bible tells us all sin is an offence to God. In fact guilt can really only be understood by relating it to God. Sin has consequences. But the good news of the Bible is that it reveals sin’s remedy too. We see within its pages that in order to avoid its consequences, we must let God deal with our sin – and if we will do so – He deals with the guilt as well by removing it! In Jesus Christ, we come face to face with the perfect remedy for those thoughts and acts committed that make us liable for judgement.
And New Testament Romans 8:33 tells us that once God has forgiven us and removed our sin and guilt, then nobody has the authority to put a guilt trip on us. I am not saying that these people I spoke with were not guilty before God because of sin. Perhaps they were. But they had been lied to when they thought all they had to do to get rid of guilt was to, “come to church.” From my experience I have found the church to be the one place where guilt can be freely spread around at no charge. I am appalled at the number of Christians who receive such when they know they have received the free gift of Christ’s salvation.
A believer must expect to have guilt trips put on them by heathens, pagans, God-despisers, Christ-despisers, Bible-despisers and unbelievers of all kinds. That is what they do. It makes them feel better towards their own guilt. Satan is a slanderer and an accuser and he uses those people for exactly that. But, far too many Christians fail to hear him speaking through their own leaders, teachers, brothers and sisters and as a result, Satan is having a field-day in most church communities. The Arch-enemy of the Lord Jesus Christ is very visible outside the church, but he can be well hidden inside, where he’s much more destructive.
I am suggesting that the reasons for the expressions of guilt in those people had to do with faulty concepts of God, based on known church rules, commands, formulas and traditions. As a result, they perceived that if they were to attend, join and participate, then they would be meeting with God’s approval. The reality is, they would not. They would simply be meeting religious man’s approval. The great enemy of religious man is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Why? Because the gospel of Jesus Christ liberates. It liberates all believers from obligations to meet religious man’s expectations.
So liberating is Christ’s gospel, that most people who people hear it and embrace it, eventually go on to inwardly believe that it cannot be that simple. Inwardly they believe something like, “There must be more expected of me than this (simple faith & trust in the Lord to bring about His purposes within them). Ably helped along by their leaders, teachers and peers, they then go on to develop guilt trips and act to overcome them by adding to the gospel. Extra-biblical rules and traditions then set in and before they know it, out they go to impose the same on everyone else they meet.
The Bible calls such additions and acts, self-righteousness. The church is full of it and it is a putrid smell in the nostrils of God because it devalues the life and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ – the one and only Savior and Solution to the world’s greatest problem – guilt. “O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified? This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?” Galatians 3:1-3.