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
See Verses Found in Dictionary
And Cain said unto the LORD, "My sin is greater, than that it may be forgiven.
Then they said one to another, "We have verily sinned against our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul when he besought us, and would not hear him: therefore is this trouble come upon us."
and keepest mercy in store for thousands, and forgivest wickedness, trespass and sin - for there is no man innocent before thee - and visitest the wickedness of the fathers upon the children and upon children's children, even unto the third and fourth generation."
When a soul hath sinned and heard the voice of cursing and is a witness: whether he hath seen or known of it, if he have not uttered it, he shall bear his sin.
"When a soul trespasseth and sinneth through ignorance in any of the holy things of the LORD, he shall bring for his trespass unto the LORD, a ram without blemish out of the flock valued at two sicles after the holy sicle, for a trespass offering.
or whatsoever it be about which he hath sworn falsely, he shall restore it again in the whole sum, and shall add the fifth part more thereto and give it unto him to whom it pertaineth, the same day that he offereth for his trespass,
And the goat shall bear upon him all their misdeeds unto the wilderness, and he shall let the goat go free in the wilderness.
Therefore I also will walk contrary unto them, and will bring them into the land of their enemies. And then at the least way their uncircumcised hearts shall be tamed, and then they shall make an atonement for their misdeeds.
"Speak unto the children of Israel, whether it be man or woman, 'When they have sinned any manner of sin which a man doeth wherewith a man trespasseth against the LORD, so that the soul hath done amiss:
They answered, "If you send the ark of the God of Israel home again, send it not empty: But reward it with a trespass offering; and then ye shall be whole, and it shall be known to you, why his hand departeth not from you."
And the LORD sent Nathan unto David. And he came unto him and said unto him, "There were two men in one city, a rich and a poor.
Howbeit, trespass money and sin money might not be brought into the house of the LORD, for it was the priests'.
The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that would understand and seek after God.
God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that would understand, or seek after God.
Let them be wiped out of the book of the living, and not be written among the righteous.
When sentence is given upon him, let him be condemned; and let his prayer be turned into sin.
And yet the LORD determined to bruise him with infirmities. His soul giving herself for trangression, he shall see seed of long continuance; and the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
Therefore I will give him his part in many, and the spoil of the rich he shall divide: because he gave his soul to death, and was numbered with the trespassers, and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for transgressors.
This, O LORD, have I learned of thee, and understand it, for thou hast showed me their imaginations.
Consider me, O LORD, and hear the voice of mine enemies!
But the LORD stood by me, like a mighty giant: therefore my persecutors fell, and could do nothing. They shall be sore confounded, for they have done unwisely, they shall have an everlasting shame.
In the door porch, there stood on either side two tables for the slaughtering; to slay the burnt offerings, sin offerings, and trespass offerings thereupon.
Then said he unto me, "The chambers toward the north and the south which stand before the back building: those be holy habitations, wherein the priests that do service before the LORD must eat the most holy offerings. And there must they lay the most holy offerings: meat offerings, sin offerings and the trespass offerings, for it is a holy place.
The meat offering, sin offering, and trespass offering shall they eat, and every dedicated thing in Israel shall be theirs.
Then said he unto me, "This is the place, where the priests shall seethe the trespass and sin offerings, and bake the meat offerings: that they need not bear them in to the outward court, and so to unhallow the people."
Their heart is divided, therefore will they be destroyed. The LORD shall break down their Images, he shall destroy their altars.
Look, what the caterpillar hath left, that hath the grasshopper eaten up; what the grasshopper left, that hath the locust eaten up; and what the locust hath left, that hath the blasting consumed.
'I have smitten you with drought and blasting: and look how many orchards, vineyards, fig trees, and olive trees ye had: the caterpillar hath eaten them up. But yet will ye not turn unto me,' sayeth the LORD.
Now the time shall come, that when they call unto the LORD, he shall not hear them, but hide his face from them, because that through their own Imaginations they have dealt so wickedly.
"Speak to Zerubbabel the prince of Judah, and say, 'I will shake both heaven and earth,
And he said unto me, 'What seest thou?' I answered, 'I see a flying book of twenty cubits long, and ten cubits broad.'
Then began he to upbraid the cities, in which most of his miracles were done, because they repented not:
But he that knew not, and yet did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whom much is given: of him shall be much required. And to whom men much commit, the more of him will they ask.
For God so loveth the world, that he hath given his only son, for the intent that none that believe in him should perish: But should have everlasting life.
Jesus said unto them, "If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, 'We see.' Therefore your sin remaineth."
No man taketh it from me: but I put it away of myself. I have power to put it from me, and power I have to take it again. This commandment have I received of my father."
If I had not come and spoken unto them, they should not have had sin: but now have they nothing to cloak their sin withal.
If I had not come and spoken unto them, they should not have had sin: but now have they nothing to cloak their sin withal.
If I had not done works among them which none other man did, they had not had sin. But now have they seen, and yet have hated both me and my father:
If I had not done works among them which none other man did, they had not had sin. But now have they seen, and yet have hated both me and my father:
because that by the deeds of the law, shall no flesh be justified in the sight of God. For by the law cometh the knowledge of sin.
But God setteth out his love that he hath to us; Seeing that while we were yet sinners; Christ died for us.
For even unto the time of the law was sin in the world: but sin was not regarded, as long as there was no law:
What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid: but I knew not what sin meant but by the law. For I had not known what lust had meant, except the law had said, "Thou shalt not lust."
For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin:
There is, then, no damnation to them which are in Christ Jesus: which walk not after the flesh but after the spirit:
But ye are not given to the flesh; But to the spirit: If so be that the spirit of God dwell in you. If there be any man that hath not the spirit of Christ, the same is none of his.
For the flesh lusteth contrary to the spirit, and the spirit contrary to the flesh. These are contrary one to the other, so that ye cannot do that which ye would.
among which we also had our conversation in time past, in the lusts of our flesh, and fulfilled the will of the flesh, and of the mind: and were naturally the children of wrath, even as well as others.
for which thing's sakes the wrath of God cometh on the children of unbelief.
and for to look for his son from heaven, whom he raised from death: I mean Jesus, which delivereth us from wrath to come.
and forbid us to preach unto the gentiles, that they might be saved, to fulfill their sins always: For the wrath of God is come on them, even to the utmost.
how shall we escape if we despise so great salvation? Which at the first began to be preached of the Lord himself, and afterward was confirmed unto us ward, by them that heard it;
For it is not possible that they which were once lighted, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were become partakers of the holy ghost,
Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be counted worthy, which treadeth underfoot the son of God: and counteth the blood of the testament as an unholy thing, wherewith he was sanctified, and doth dishonour to the spirit of grace.
which his own self bare our sins in his body on the tree, that we should be delivered from sin and should live in righteousness. By whose stripes ye were healed.
And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous, seven angels having the seven last plagues; for in them is fulfilled the wrath of God.