“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Romans 8:1
Part 1: From Guilt To Gratitude
We all know the feeling of being guilty. I still vividly remember one of the first times I saw blue lights behind me while driving down the interstate as a teenager. I tried to move over and let the officer pass, but as soon as I did, he moved in behind me. My heart sank, and my adrenaline started pumping. That same feeling washes over me every time I see blue lights in my rearview mirror—even if I don’t end up being pulled over.
We all deal with our guilt in different ways. Sometimes we’re crushed by it. Sometimes we excuse it. And sometimes we’re even driven by it. But no matter how we respond, that sense of guilt is a universal experience.
I spent some time this week thinking about the different directions guilt has led me in my own life. I can remember times when guilt led me to lie—because I didn’t want to deal with the consequences of what I had done. I became shockingly deceptive in an effort to avoid facing my guilt.
And I can remember times when guilt activated what Paul Tripp calls “my inner lawyer.” That’s when you pull out your list of 35 reasons to reframe what you’ve done: “I was tired.” “They started it.” “This was out of my control.” “I just did what anyone else would have done.” On and on the excuses go.
I’ve also seen how guilt can turn sinister—leading me to shift blame onto someone else.
But probably more than anything, I can remember how guilt has led me into a life of immense pressure, where I work really hard to prove myself and live up to some unspoken standard.
Maybe you can relate. Maybe guilt has led you to lie or to fake it. Maybe it’s made you shift blame or argue for your rightness at every turn. Maybe it has become your taskmaster, pushing you into a life of performing and pleasing. However it appears in our lives, guilt is a universal problem.
But here is the good news: the offer from Romans 8:1-4 is that to be a Christian is to leave behind the idea that God is like a police officer with blue lights flashing behind you. To become a Christian is to be set free from a life of performance. It is to enter into a life where the driving factor for why we do what we do is no longer guilt—but gratitude.
In the next few articles I want to explore how we move from guilt to gratitude. We will unpack Romans 8:1-4 and rejoice in the freedom we have in Christ.
