When guilt is raised up, take heed of getting it allayed in any way but by Christ’s blood: that will tend to hardening. Make Christ your peace; “for He is our peace” (Eph 2:14); not your duties and your tears. Christ your righteousness, not your graces. You may destroy Christ by duties, as well as by sins. Look at Christ, and do as much as you will. Stand with all your weight upon Christ’s righteousness. Take heed of having one foot on your righteousness, another on Christ’s. Till Christ come and sit on high upon a throne of grace in the conscience, there is nothing but guilt, terrors, secret suspicions; the soul hanging upon hope and fear, which is an ungospel-like state. Thomas Willcox
The issue is when a person has guilt brought upon the conscience by the evil one or by a sensitive conscience. Either way, the guilt is a burden upon the soul. There is such a thing as guilt brought on the conscience when there is no real guilt, but whether it is real or whether perceived the place to look is to Christ and His righteousness. There is no cleansing for the soul apart from the blood of Christ and there is no hope for the soul apart from the perfect righteousness of Christ. When guilt is upon the soul, it is so easy to turn to duty and to make excuses, but Christ alone is the real answer. Sin brings real misery on the soul and the only real answer is Christ who alone can deal with the misery of sin.
Each human being that has ever been born (other than Christ) has been born into a state of sin and misery. What this means is that each human being has guilt upon the conscience and that means some misery on the conscience. When human beings have misery, they will do something to try to ease their misery. This inward pain drives them to focus on self and most of the time a way that self can take care of the misery. Many will turn to all sorts of sinful activities in order to dull the inward pain. Others will do religious duties. The soul must learn to look away from self for ways to handle this inward misery and look to Christ. When there is guilt and misery in the soul it is at that point that a believer is most likely to look to duties as a form of confidence for salvation. How difficult it is for the soul to look to Christ alone when Christ appears far away as the soul is in misery and guilt.
The soul has to learn that it is a sinful soul and it will sin, but Christ does not refuse to save sinners because they are less than perfect. He saves sinners for the glory of His own name and by grace alone. The worst of sinners have a ground by which they may plead to God for and that ground is Christ. He died for the worst of sinners and took all their sins upon Himself while on the cross. When Christ went to the cross He knew all the sin of each sinner that He was going to die for and He did not miss one of them. He fully satisfied the wrath of the Father for every sin that the sinner committed before the sinner came to Christ, but He also fully satisfied the wrath of the Father for every sin the sinner committed after the sinner came to Christ.
Yes, it is true, saved sinners are different than they were before and they have new hearts. But they are far from perfect and they will fall far short of the glory of God many times a day. But instead of this driving them to despair, this should drive them to a crucified and risen Savior. Oh how sinners have a fountain of blood opened to them and why will they not flee there for cleansing? Usually it is because of doubt thinking that their sins are too great. Why do they think that? In their despair and misery they begin to doubt and have serious doubts. In their misery the evil one fires his darts at their conscience. Sinner, look to Christ. There is no other way to deal with sin but Christ. Your repentance will not satisfy your conscience, though it may be needed. Only Christ will satisfy that inner pain and misery.
Do you want to believe on Christ but your misery clouds your vision? Don’t look to your faith and don’t look to your duties and your repentance as help for your conscience. Look to Christ. Christ sits upon the throne of grace and this must become true in your conscience as well. It is true that this is not something that happens once and then it is over, but your misery will not go away until Christ is on the throne of grace in your conscience. This guilt will weight on your conscience until you bow to Christ as the only hope. Your sufferings and your misery will never pay for one sin, so look to Christ alone and grace alone. We are told to go to the throne of grace boldly, but what do we go for? We go to obtain grace. Those with burdened consciences and misery in their souls need Christ and His grace alone. They can bring nothing but their misery and their sin to Him because they have nothing else to bring. But Christ came to save sinners like you from their guilt and misery. There is no hope but Christ, so be turned from all that binds you and fall on your face in utter helplessness before Him. He saves the helpless and those who have nothing left.
God Loves... Himself 
Leave a comment