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Guilt always haunts us more than anything else. In the Bible, the word ‘iniquity’ is typically used to describe our modern day notion of ‘feeling guilty’. Observe:

Psalms 66:18 – If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:

Psalms 119:133 – Order my steps in thy word: and let not any iniquity have dominion over me.

Proverbs 16:6 – By mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and by the fear of the LORD men depart from evil.

Iniquity is many things, but one thing it most certainly is, is guilt.

Guilt is the result of one of two things, or a combination of both:

1. Something you did wrong and never got caught at.
2. Something that was done to you that you never told anyone about or dealt with.

Both of these will cause guilt. Victim’s guilt is the direct result of punishing themselves for what happened to them, or feeling that somehow, someway, they are to blame for the terrible things that happened to them. A foster care mother told me that many foster children believe that if they hadn’t screamed, hadn’t wet the bed, hadn’t gotten scared, ate all their food, they would still be with their parents. Yet the parents were alcoholics, drug addicts, abusers, and so forth. Yet the children carry the guilt and blame.

The other source of guilt comes from getting away with something wrong. Not being caught means you’ve never had to deal with the wrong. Instead, you retain the guilt of what you did wrong. If you think about it, the things that haunt you the most are likely the things that you succeeded in getting away with, but now regret doing. You still hide what happened. No one really knows what you did, and you still feel the need, years later, to hide it. That is iniquity. That is guilt.

Guilt is like an infection. It poisons your mind, your thinking, and most certainly your relationships. Many of the marital problems that I counsel have their roots in a childhood emotional trauma that resulted in guilt. They’ve never successfully dealt with the guilt.

In order to deal with the guilt correctly, it needs to be exposed, brought out, and dealt with. Until it is, it has dominion in your heart and mind. It colors many of your actions and is the source of many of your fears.

I can’t count the number of times someone has come to me for help and when it is determined that there is hidden guilt, hidden iniquity that we must draw out, that they say, “I’ve never told this to anyone.” I hear that a lot from people haunted by past mistakes and past emotional injuries that have never healed.

The healing process comes when we can purge, throw out, and get out, the infection, the guilt, and the iniquity.

1 John 1:9 – If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

The unrighteousness spoken of here in the Bible is the guilt, the infection, and iniquity that is the direct result of sin or a wrong. Nine other times the Greek word ‘unrighteousness’ is also translated as ‘iniquity’ in the New Testament. Here is an example:

Acts 8:23 For I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity.

Thus the healing and the cleansing that must take place begin with the confession, the exposure of that which previously was hidden. If you want freedom from your guilt, you are going to have to tell someone. You are going to have to begin the healing process by purging the guilt.

Until the infection is gone from a wound, it can’t or won’t heal. It will only continue to get worse.