In this video, Augustus Nicodemus Lopes explains why a Christian may continue to feel guilty for sin.
There are many reasons why a Christian, after being forgiven by the Lord Jesus, still feels the burden of the sins that he or she has committed. One of the reasons is that this person may not have a very clear understanding of what the Lord Jesus Christ did for him on the cross and also that there is no condemnation now for those who are in Jesus Christ.
But sometimes a person, a Christian, may know that. He or she may have the right doctrine, but then it doesn’t feel like that. Sometimes, this person has to look if there is some sin that is hurting his or her conscience. Sometimes that happens a lot. You know, that person is in the habit of doing something wrong and that thing hurts his conscience and saddens the Holy Spirit, makes the Holy Spirit sad, so that confidence of their relationship with God is gone. I would go that way, too.
But there is another possibility. Sometimes, God just leaves that person to himself or to herself. It’s not that God abandoned that person. But, for a time, God leaves that person alone in the sense that the person doesn’t feel God’s presence. The person reads the Bible but doesn’t get anything. He prays, but apparently, God is not listening. We call that the night of the soul.
It’s not because the person has done something wrong, but it’s only because God wants to try that person, wants to prove and to test the faith of that person. Because it is very good to be happy when everything is OK, but then when God takes out all the comforts, especially the spiritual ones, that’s a good test of our faith.
I would say to that person that still feels guilty for sins, to explore these possibilities. See to it first that your life is OK with God, that there is nothing really to confess. And also it just may be a trial. God is testing your faith. Wait on faith, on the Lord Jesus Christ, and then the light shall come after darkness.
Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on May 18, 2020.