Ever wondered: Why do I feel guilty?
I got a question from a listener that wants to know: “Why do I feel guilty even after I’ve repented?” Well, that’s a really good question, and I’m grateful to have the opportunity to talk about this just a little bit.
A lot of this comes down to how you see yourself, how you identify yourself.
Do you see yourself as basically a sinner? Some preachers love to point out that you are a miserable sinner. Some Christians say, well, I’m just a sinner saved by grace.
But the problem with that is when you start with the assumption that you are a sinner and that’s your identity, then it’s really hard to change who you are.
Sin does not define you
The thing is, your sin does not define you. God defines you. And the way He defined you is made in His image and likeness. You are His child. You are His son or his daughter. You are the child of the Most High.
Now, we’ve all sinned. We’ve all made mistakes. You have sinned. You’ve done some things you shouldn’t have done. Maybe big, maybe small. But those sins don’t define you. They are not your identity.
How many times do you hear someone say, “Well, I’m a victim,” or let’s say, somebody you know, I don’t know, pick a crime. Somebody shoplifted, and they say, “Well, I’m a shoplifter.”
If that’s how you identify yourself, then it’s hard to let go of that. If you can say, I’m a child of God, I made a mistake, and I committed the act of shoplifting, do you see the difference between how you’re identifying yourself?
One time, a little girl was told at school by the teacher, :You’re a very bad person.” And she said, “No, I’m not a bad person. I just did something bad.” What an insight for a little child to understand the difference between being bad and doing something bad. And so this is true for you as well.
“Why do I feel guilty,” is not the right question
You may have committed a sin. It may been really bad, but it’s not your identity. You are a child of God.
If you’re still feeling guilty even after you’ve repented, and you might want to go back and listen to the last Freedom Friday, Episode 314, where I talked about what does it really mean to repent.
The more you start seeing yourself as God’s image and likeness, that will start to wash away the guilt. And maybe you’ve repented and you felt forgiven. And then you make the same mistake all over again. You commit the same sin and you feel guilty all over again.
There’s a cycle there. Getting rid of the guilt is more than just not committing the sin again. It really comes down to how you see yourself.
Ask instead: What is my identity?
So start with, as I said, your identity as a child of God, made in the image and likeness of God, and start thinking how wonderful your original self is, the way God originally made you in His image and likeness. That’s amazing. You’re the image and likeness of God. The sins that you’ve committed or the inclination to sin is not part of that original identity and it can be removed.
As I said in Episode 312, you may remember this two Fridays ago, if you fall in the mud and get dirty, that mud is not part of you. It happened to you. You may have jumped in, you may have gotten pushed in, but the mud is not part of you and it can be washed away.
Whatever sins you have committed, whether you jumped into the sin or it felt like somebody pushed you to commit that sin, it’s still not part of your original identity and it can be washed away.
That’s what Christ does in your life, washes away the sins. Christ washes away this negative way you’ve been identifying yourself. Let go of that, because that’s not who you really are.
Paul says in his letter to the Ephesians, to put off the old man, to put off the old self, the old way of thinking, the old mindset that says you’re a sinner. Be renewed in the spirit of your mind. Change your perspective and then put on this new concept that you really are the image and likeness of God created in God’s righteousness. That’s Ephesians 4:22-24. So you might want to check out those verses. They have been incredibly helpful.
Washing away the mud/sin/guilt
Let’s go back to this analogy of someone falling in the mud. We’re not trying to put a pink bow on you when you fell in the mud. We’re washing the mud away because it’s not part of you.
And discovering who you really are as a child of God. Paul could not have said to put off the old man, the old way of seeing yourself, the miserable sinner concept of yourself. He wouldn’t have said to put that off if it was part of who you were as a child of God.
The reason he can say put it off is because it’s not who you really are. It never was. Even though you may have identified yourself that way in the past it’s still not part of the way God made you. Okay I’ve said that about 20 million times now so I hope you get the idea. You are made in the image and likeness of God.
The sin is not part of you is not part of your identity so you can let go of it and you can get this new sense of who you really are as a child of God.
The reason you ask, “Why do I feel guilty even after I’ve repented?” is because you really haven’t changed the way you see yourself. It’s all about how how you identify yourself and really it’s about how God identifies you as His child as His image and likeness.
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James Early, the Jesus Mindset Coach, is a Bible teacher, speaker, and church mentor. He conducts Bible workshops online and in person. His focus is on getting back to the original Christianity of Jesus by learning to think, pray, and love like Jesus. Contact him here.
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