Lesson 6: Dealing with Sin and Guilt

Lesson 6 takes up what doesn't go away even after the verdict is settled. Many new Christians find that even after they've believed the gospel and received forgiveness, something still lingers — a flinch the verdict alone doesn't seem to reach. That gap, this lesson argues, is the difference between being forgiven and being healed, and the two are handled in two different places. Guilt is forgiven vertically, at the cross, where 1 John 1:7 promises that the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin. Shame is healed horizontally, in the company of people who know the worst and don't pull away — the practice James 5:16 points to when it tells us to confess our sins to one another so that we may be healed. The shape of a maturing Christian's life isn't sinlessness; it's a shorter return trip — back into the light, back into the company that can pray you through, every time the thing happens again.