[PTC 301-Ed Welch] GUILT: final exam study guide - outline

1) Guilt
a) Brief Description
God’s unshakeable presence in our lives exposes the human heart to the universal problem of guilt when we have sinned or been shamefully sinned against. The shame or guilt we feel (or should feel) before God will shape our attitudes and actions to do our best to cover/hide/cleanse the shame. God’s good news is that Christ’s sacrifice has sufficiently dealt with human guilt so that we can be fully and enthusiastically accepted by Him, thus freed to live with a clear conscience and open hearts in a public way to the glory of God.

b) The Most important Question/Feature/Issue to consider:
• Legalism to deal with guilt of sin and uncleanness.
a) Why do you not believe God’s forgiveness in Christ is sufficient?
b) Why has God’s beautiful forgiveness become unattractive to you?

c) Issues you need to be particularly alert to in your relationship with the counselee:
• Privacy. A guilty person typically does not approach you with their guilt. They are ashamed to talk about it. Ask them to describe how they feel (e.g. depressed) in other words. Ask them to ask for forgiveness and trust He forgives according to His promise.
• Pride. Guilty people are struggling with some form of legalism.
• Purity. Sometimes guilt comes from being victimized, made shamefully unclean.
• Concience. Sometimes people don’t feel guilty about things they should be.

d) One significant biblical text relevant to the problem area, why the text is relevant.
A guilty person needs fresh appreciation of God’s surprising, incomparable forgiveness.
• Story of the Running Father (Luke 15) – a.k.a. The Prodigal Son.
• Gal 3, Gen 15 : The promise came before the law
(Unilateral covenant is humiliating.)
• Hosea & Gomer. “I am the one who pursues you in the midst of adultery.”
• Jesus touches/touched by the unclean (Mark 5:25). Great exchange. Jesus becomes unclean so that we might be healed.

e) Its biblical conceptualization (Causes? Roots?)
• Currently in unrepentant sin.
• Need to confess a past sin to God
• Consequences of the past
• Victim of sin.

Guilt is evidence that someone hasn’t come to terms with God’s complete, supreme forgiveness and cleansing in Christ. Guilty people inevitably try to manage their uncleanness, sin problem, or sin’s consequences apart from God’s covenant provision and promises. Legalism perpetuates guilt because it doesn’t have the power to remove guilt. It seeks to make atonement, to hide/cover shame, based upon our own man-made religion.

f) Two homework assignments showing awareness of uniqueness of the problem.
1) Ask someone to forgive you. Whom should you forgive?
2) Ask God to forgive you for trying to manage sin apart from Him.

g) Your basic method of approach
• First I would ask why a person feels guilty, to explain how guilt makes them feel. This will help determine whether guilt is the core issue or what form the guilt takes.
• Then I would try to discern any legalistic behaviors or attitudes that might be diminishing the glory of the gospel of forgiveness.
• Then I would want to encourage the person to recognize how God the Father has enthusiastically run to us in a “shameful” manner to accept us in His Son, so that they can move, in repentance and confession, from guilt to joy in God.

Ministry 101 Catch-22

How can I begin to minister to others when I need constant reminding of the gospel in its two glorious dimensions: accessible to infants and more profound than any human work of art, poetry, and philosophy?

final exam study nugget - on guilt

"Joy is the serious business of heaven." -- C.S. Lewis

Under the topic of guilt, Prof Ed Welch reminds us that confessing our sins should lead to joy. If it doesn't, we are legalistic, refusing to take to heart the attractive beauty of knowing and trusting God's forgiveness. For some crazy reason, we still cling on to being the judge of when/how/whether our sins shall be forgiven, rather than abandoning this to God's complete, surprising, and incomparable justice in Christ. We think there is something still we must do to earn His favor. Joy says to the world, "We get His ineffably enthusiatic forgiveness!"