Reference: Guilt
Hastings
1. Guilt may be defined in terms of relativity. It is rather the abiding result of sin than sin itself (see Pearson's Exposition of the Creed, ed. James Nichols, p. 514 f.). It is not punishment, or even liability to punishment, for this presupposes personal consciousness of wrong-doing and leaves out of account the attitude of God to sin unwittingly committed (Le 5:1 ff.; cf. Lu 12:48; Ro 5:13; see Sanday-Headlam, Romans, p. 144). On the other hand, we may describe it as a condition, a state, or a relation; the resultant of two forces drawing different ways (Ro 7:14 ff.). It includes two essential factors, without which it would be unmeaning as an objective reality or entity. At one point stands personal holiness, including whatever is holy in man; at another, personal corruption, including what is evil in man. Man's relation to God, as it is affected by sin, is what constitutes guilt in the widest sense of the word. The human struggle after righteousness is the surest evidence of man's consciousness of racial and personal guilt, and an acknowledgment that his position in this respect is not normal.
We are thus enabled to see that when moral obliquity arising from or reinforced by natural causes, adventitious circumstances, or personal environment, issues in persistent, wilful wrong-doing, it becomes or is resolved into guilt, and involves punishment which is guilt's inseparable accompaniment. In the OT the ideas of sin, guilt, and punishment are so inextricably interwoven that it is impossible to treat of one without in some way dealing with the other two, and the word for each is used interchangeably for the others (see Schultz, OT Theol. ii. p. 306). An example of this is found in Cain's despairing complaint, where the word 'punishment' (Ge 4:13 English Version) includes both the sin committed and the guilt attaching thereto (cf. Le 26:41).
2. In speaking of the guilt of the race or of the individual, some knowledge of a law governing moral actions must be presupposed (cf. Joh 9:41; 15:22,24). It is when the human will enters into conscious antagonism to the Divine will that guilt emerges into objective existence and crystallizes (see Martensen, Christian Dogmatics, Eng. tr p. 203 ff.). An educative process is thus required in order to bring home to the human race that sense of guilt without which progress is impossible (cf. Ro 3:20; 7:7). As soon, however, as this consciousness is established, the first step on the road to rebellion against sin is taken, and the sinner's relation to God commences to become fundamentally altered from what it was. A case in point, illustrative of this inchoate stage, is afforded by Joseph's brothers in their tardy recognition of a guilt which seems to have been latent in a degree, so far as their consciousness was concerned, up to the period of threatened consequences (Ge 42:21; cf. for a similar example of strange moral blindness, on the part of David, 2Sa 12:1 ff.). Their subsequent conduct was characterized by clumsy attempts to undo the mischief of which they had been the authors. A like feature is observable in the attitude of the Philistines when restoring the sacred 'ark of the covenant' to the offended Jehovah. A 'guilt-offering' had to be sent as a restitution for the wrong done (1Sa 6:3, cf. 2Ki 12:16). This natural instinct was developed and guided in the Levitical institutions by formal ceremony and religious rite, which were calculated to deepen still further the feeling of guilt and fear of Divine wrath. Even when the offence was committed in ignorance, as soon as its character was revealed to the offender, he became thereupon liable to punishment, and had to expiate his guilt by restitution and sacrifice, or by a 'guilt-offering' (AV 'trespass offering,' Le 5:15 ff; Le 6:1 ff.). To this a fine, amounting to one-fifth of the value of the wrong done in the case of a neighbour, was added and given to the injured party (Le 6:5; Nu 5:6 f.). How widely diffused this special rite had become is evidenced by the numerous incidental references of Ezekiel (Eze 40:39; 42:13; 44:29; 46:20); while perhaps the most remarkable allusion to this service of restitution occurs in the later Isaiah, where the ideal Servant of Jehovah is described as a 'guilt-offering' (Isa 53:10).
3. As might be expected, the universality of human guilt is nowhere more insistently dwelt on or more fully realized than in the Psalms (cf. Ps 14:2; 53:2, where the expression 'the sons of men' reveals the scope of the poet's thought; see also Ps 36 with its antithesis
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And Cain said to LORD, My punishment is greater than I can bear.
And they said one to another, We are truly guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the distress of his soul when he besought us, and we would not hear. Therefore this distress has come upon us.
keeping loving kindness for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and who will by no means clear [the guilty], visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, upon the th
And if a soul sins, in that he hears the voice of an oath, he being a witness, whether he has seen or known, if he does not testify, then he shall bear his iniquity.
If a soul commits a trespass, and sins unwittingly in the holy things of LORD, then he shall bring his trespass-offering to LORD, a ram without blemish out of the flock, according to thy estimation in silver by shekels, after the s
or anything about which he has sworn falsely, he shall even restore it in full, and shall add the fifth part more to it. He shall give it to him to whom it pertains, in the day of his being found guilty.
And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities to a solitary land. And he shall let the goat go in the wilderness.
I also walked contrary to them, and brought them into the land of their enemies. If then their uncircumcised heart be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity,
Speak to the sons of Israel, When a man or woman shall commit any sin that men commit, so as to trespass against LORD, and that soul shall be guilty,
And they said, If ye send away the ark of the God of Israel, do not send it empty, but by all means return for him a trespass-offering. Then ye shall be healed, and it shall be known to you why his hand is not removed from you.
And LORD sent Nathan to David. And he came to him, and said to him, There were two men in one city: the one rich, and the other poor.
The money for the trespass-offerings, and the money for the sin-offerings, was not brought into the house of LORD; it was the priests'.
LORD looked down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if there were any who understood, who sought after God.
God looked down from heaven upon the sons of men, to see if there were any who understood, who seek after God.
Let them be blotted out of the book of life, and not be written with the righteous.
When he is judged, let him come forth guilty, and let his prayer be turned into sin.
Yet it pleased LORD to bruise him. He has put him to grief. When thou shall make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see [his] seed. He shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of LORD shall prosper in his hand.
Therefore I will divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death, and was numbered with the transgressors. Yet he bore the sin of many, and made intercessi
And LORD gave me knowledge of it, and I knew it. Then thou showed me their doings.
Give heed to me, O LORD, and hearken to the voice of those who contend with me.
But LORD is with me as an awesome mighty one. Therefore my persecutors shall stumble, and they shall not prevail. They shall be utterly put to shame, because they have not dealt wisely, even with an everlasting dishonor which shall
And in the porch of the gate were two tables on this side, and two tables on that side, to kill on it the burnt-offering and the sin-offering and the trespass-offering.
Then he said to me, The north chambers and the south chambers, which are before the separate place, they are the holy chambers, where the priests that are near to LORD shall eat the most holy things. There they shall lay the most h
They shall eat the meal-offering, and the sin-offering, and the trespass-offering. And every devoted thing in Israel shall be theirs.
And he said to me, This is the place where the priests shall boil the trespass-offering and the sin-offering, [and] where they shall bake the meal-offering, that they not bring them forth into the outer court, to sanctify the peopl
Their heart is divided. Now they shall be found guilty. He will smite their altars. He will destroy their pillars.
That which the palmer-worm has left the locust has eaten, and that which the locust has left the canker-worm has eaten, and that which the canker-worm has left the caterpillar has eaten.
I have smitten you with blasting and mildew. The multitude of your gardens and your vineyards and your fig trees and your olive trees the palmer-worm has devoured. Yet ye have not returned to me, says LORD.
Then they shall cry to LORD, but he will not answer them. Yea, he will hide his face from them at that time, according as they have wrought evil in their doings.
Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying, I will shake the heavens and the earth.
And he said to me, What do thou see? And I answered, I see a flying roll. The length of it is twenty cubits, and the breadth of it ten cubits.
Then he began to upbraid the cities in which most of his mighty works occurred, because they did not repent.
but he who did not know, and did things worthy of blows, will be beaten little. And to every man to whom much was given, much will be required from him. And to whom they entrust much, they will ask him more abundantly.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, so that every man who believes in him would not perish, but have eternal life.
Jesus said to them, If ye were blind, ye would have no sin, but now ye say, We see, therefore your sin remains.
No man takes it from me, but I lay it down by myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. I received this commandment from my Father.
If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have had sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.
If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have had sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.
If I had not done among them the works that no other man has done, they would not have had sin, but now they have both seen and hated both me and my Father.
If I had not done among them the works that no other man has done, they would not have had sin, but now they have both seen and hated both me and my Father.
Because from works of law no flesh will be made right before him, for through law is knowledge of sin.
But God commends his love toward us, that, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
For until law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law.
What will we say then? The law is sin? May it not happen! Yet I did not know sin except through law. For likewise I would not have known lust, if the law did not say, Thou shall not covet.
For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, having been sold under sin.
Consequently nothing is condemnation now to those in Christ Jesus, who walk not according to flesh but according to Spirit.
But ye are not in flesh but in Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if any man does not have the Spirit of Christ, this man is not of him.
For the flesh desires against the Spirit, and the Spirit is against the flesh. For these are hostile to each other, so that whatever these things are ye may want, ye may not do.
Among whom we also all once behaved in the lusts of our flesh, doing the intentions of the flesh and of the thoughts, and were by nature children of wrath as also the others.
Because of which the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience,
and to await his Son from the heavens whom he raised from the dead--Jesus--who rescues us from the coming wrath.
Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles so that they might be saved, in order to fill up their sins always. But wrath came upon them finally.
how will we escape, having neglected so great a salvation? Which first, having taken to be spoken by the Lord, was verified for us by those who heard;
For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and who tasted of the heavenly gift, and who became partakers of Holy Spirit,
By how much worse punishment do ye think he will deserve who has trampled the Son of God, and who considered profane the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and who treated the Spirit of grace contemptuously?
Who himself took up our sins in his body upon the tree, so that we, having died to sins, might live to the righteousness of him from whose wound ye were healed.
And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous: seven agents having seven plagues, the last, because in them the wrath of God is ended.