I live on the 20th floor of a high rise in downtown Chicago, and our building is surrounded by one-way streets. I regularly see drivers accidentally turn onto a one-way street going the wrong direction.
The nature of guilt
One-way streets illustrate the nature of guilt. Even though normally when someone drives the wrong way on a one-way street they do it accidentally, they are still guilty of breaking the law. It’s against the law to drive the wrong way on a one-way street. Even if the police do not see it happen and do not issue a ticket, the wrong-way driver is nevertheless guilty of breaking the law.
That is because cities have authority to make traffic laws, and once they do, drivers are responsible to follow them. Every moment someone drives in the wrong direction on a one-way street he or she is guilty and liable to punishment. Moreover, their guilt persists. One month later they can get a ticket in the mail because a street camera recorded their law-breaking.
God is the ultimate lawgiver
So, guilt comes from breaking a law enacted by someone or something that has the moral right to enact laws and punish lawbreakers. In this way, every human has incurred guilt in the sight of God. God created and sustains all things and people. Thus he owns and rules over them. Therefore he has the right to enact laws we are responsible to obey. He is our God whether we acknowledge him or not. He gives us life, breath, water, food, and a beautiful world to live in.
For our good and his glory, he has established good and just laws we are commanded to obey. These laws are fair and right and promote human flourishing. For example, God commands that you shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not lie, you shall not covet, you shall not love money, you shall not worship another God, you shall not commit sexual immorality, you shall honor your father and your mother, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
The objectivity of guilt
If we break any of these life-giving commands even once, we incur guilt as a lawbreaker in the sight of God, the righteous Lawgiver. When we live in an ongoing state of breaking God’s laws, we are like someone driving the wrong way on a one-way street for mile after mile, refusing to turn around or turn off the road, and endangering those around us.
Guilt is not just a subjective feeling. Guilt is an objective condition before a righteous Lawgiver. We may or may not feel guilty, but we all are objectively guilty of breaking God’s righteous laws.
How your guilt can be removed
The Bible teaches there is only one way to remove our guilt before our righteous Judge. We must put our faith in a Savior graciously provided by God. This Savior perfectly kept God’s laws and had no guilt. But then he was crucified for human sin. He took our guilt. His substitutionary death made it possible for us to be forgiven of our guilt. This Savior is Jesus Christ, God’s only Son.
The Bible says, “He has reconciled you by his physical body through his death, to present you holy, faultless, and blameless before him” (Colossians 1:22 CSB).
He alone can remove the guilt of your sin. He alone has atoned for human guilt, the righteous for the unrighteous. He becomes your Savior when you put sincere faith in him and follow him as your Savior and Lord.
The Bible says, “God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him” (John 3:16 CSB)