Guilt: “Have you eaten from the tree

of which I commanded you that you should not eat?” (Genesis 3:11). Guilt is different from shame.  Shame says “there is something wrong with me.” Guilt says “I did something wrong.” Our culture tries to pretend there's no such thing as right and wrong.  But you know wrong when it done to you! And we all have this inbred sense of justice. When we see discrimination or abuse, we instinctively feel that something should be done about it. It's part of being created in the image of God,  for God is a God of justice (Isaiah 30:18).

I said last day, that Adam's thinking was messed up. Much of our own thinking is messed up too, especially when we want to do what we want to do. Psychology calls it rationalization, the Bible calls it suppressing the truth in unrighteousness (Romans 1:18). Our culture  does this in spades! The Bible puts it this way “Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set to do evil.” In fact our culture calls evil good, and good evil.  And those who do evil encourage others to do evil too (Ecclesiastes  8:11; Isaiah 5:20; Romans 1:32).

God could have struck Adam and Eve down the moment they had sinned. And He would have been justified in doing so.  Many people think God is like that,  just waiting for us to mess up so He can condemn us. But He's not like that. In fact He is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9).

God took a great risk in giving us free will.  But the ability to choose makes no sense if there's no possibility of saying no! He does not want heaven to be inhabited by robots,  rather He wants those who choose to love Him.  Heaven would be hell for those who hate God. And in God's eyes love and obedience,  and hate and disobedience,  are closely linked (John 14:15).

God had a problems with our fallen human nature, inherited from Adam. We all seem to have this negative response to rules. We see “wet paint, do not touch,” and what do we want to do?   God has to be just, it is His nature. He has to punish sin. But He is also merciful and has provided the way through repentance and faith to be just,  and the justifier of those who put their faith in Jesus (Romans 3:26). To be justified is to be put right with God,  and to be at peace with Him (Romans 5:1).  I don't know if any of us fully understands how this works, but some have called it the divine exchange, Jesus takes our sin, and in exchange gives us His righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Father, Your laws cannot be broken. If we try to break the law of gravity it will break us, likewise with the moral law. But  moral laws are more like agricultural laws than the immediacy of physical laws. We reap what we sow, bad choices have bad consequences (Galatians 6:7).  But the reaping only becomes obvious with time. Only after I was broken by my sin did I come to my senses, and turn to You in repentance (Luke 15:17). You could then be just to take away my guilt,  and to forgive my sin (1 John 1:9; 2:2). For this and many other things,  I give You thanks and praise in Jesus Name Amen