Guilt and conscience

²⁰ Even if our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts, and He knows all things.

²¹ Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God,

²² and we will receive from Him whatever we ask, because we keep His commandments and do what is pleasing in His sight.

Then they said to one another, “Surely we are being punished because of our brother. We saw his anguish when he pleaded with us, but we would not listen. That is why this distress has come upon us.”

¹ O LORD, do not rebuke me in Your anger or discipline me in Your wrath.

² For Your arrows have pierced me deeply, and Your hand has pressed down on me.

³ There is no soundness in my body because of Your anger; there is no rest in my bones because of my sin.

⁴ For my iniquities have overwhelmed me; they are a burden too heavy to bear.

⁵ My wounds are foul and festering because of my sinful folly.

¹ Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.

² Blessed is the man whose iniquity the LORD does not count against him, in whose spirit there is no deceit.

³ When I kept silent, my bones became brittle from my groaning all day long.

⁴ For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was drained as in the summer heat. Selah

⁵ Then I acknowledged my sin to You and did not hide my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,” and You forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah

⁷ Then Nathan said to David, “You are that man! This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul.

⁸ I gave your master’s house to you and your master’s wives into your arms. I gave you the house of Israel and Judah, and if that was not enough, I would have given you even more.

⁹ Why then have you despised the command of the LORD by doing evil in His sight? You put Uriah the Hittite to the sword and took his wife as your own, for you have slain him with the sword of the Ammonites.

¹² You have acted in secret, but I will do this thing in broad daylight before all Israel.’”

¹³ Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.” “The LORD has taken away your sin,” Nathan replied. “You will not die.

After David had numbered the troops, his conscience was stricken and he said to the LORD, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done. Now, O LORD, I beg You to take away the iniquity of Your servant, for I have acted very foolishly.”

¹³ When you were dead in your trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our trespasses,

¹⁴ having canceled the debt ascribed to us in the decrees that stood against us. He took it away, nailing it to the cross!

O LORD, God of Israel, You are righteous! For we remain this day as a remnant. Here we are before You in our guilt, though because of it no one can stand before You.”

¹³ For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that their bodies are clean,

¹⁴ how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself unblemished to God, purify our consciences from works of death, so that we may serve the living God!

“Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her forced labor has been completed; her iniquity has been pardoned. For she has received from the hand of the LORD double for all her sins.”

And I will cleanse them from all the iniquity they have committed against Me, and will forgive all their sins of rebellion against Me.

He will again have compassion on us; He will vanquish our iniquities. You will cast out all our sins into the depths of the sea.

Yes, I confess my iniquity; I am troubled by my sin.

When iniquities prevail against me, You atone for our transgressions.

You know my folly, O God, and my guilt is not hidden from You.

We have sinned like our fathers; we have done wrong and acted wickedly.

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

So the angel said to those standing before him, “Take off his filthy clothes!” Then he said to Joshua, “See, I have removed your iniquity, and I will clothe you with splendid robes.”

Then David said to God, “I have sinned greatly because I have done this thing. Now I beg You to take away the iniquity of Your servant, for I have acted very foolishly.”

³ When Judas, who had betrayed Him, saw that Jesus was condemned, he was filled with remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders.

⁴ “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood,” he said. “What is that to us?” they replied. “You bear the responsibility.”

⁵ So Judas threw the silver into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself.

¹¹ “Who told you that you were naked?” asked the LORD God. “Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”

¹² And the man answered, “The woman whom You gave me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”

¹³ Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” “The serpent deceived me,” she replied, “and I ate.”

And Reuben responded, “Didn’t I tell you not to sin against the boy? But you would not listen. Now we must account for his blood!”

¹⁴ When Judah and his brothers arrived at Joseph’s house, he was still there, and they fell to the ground before him.

¹⁵ “What is this deed you have done?” Joseph declared. “Do you not know that a man like me can surely divine the truth?”

¹⁶ “What can we say to my lord?” Judah replied. “How can we plead? How can we justify ourselves? God has exposed the iniquity of your servants. We are now my lord’s slaves—both we and the one who was found with the cup.”

Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”

¹⁷ Finally he came to his senses and said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have plenty of food? But here I am, starving to death!

¹⁸ I will get up and go back to my father and say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.

And he went outside and wept bitterly.

²² “Do not be enraged, my lord,” Aaron replied. “You yourself know that the people are intent on evil.

²³ They told me, ‘Make us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him!’

²⁴ So I said to them, ‘Whoever has gold, let him take it off,’ and they gave it to me. And when I threw it into the fire, out came this calf!”

And the LORD said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” “I do not know!” he answered. “Am I my brother’s keeper?”

¹⁵ When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “What if Joseph bears a grudge? Then he will surely repay us for all the evil that we did to him.”

¹⁶ So they sent word to Joseph, saying, “Before he died, your father commanded,

¹⁷ ‘This is what you are to say to Joseph: I beg you, please forgive the transgression and sin of your brothers, for they did you wrong.’ So now, Joseph, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father.” When their message came to him, Joseph wept.

⁴¹ “Two men were debtors to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty.

⁴² When they were unable to repay him, he forgave both of them. Which one, then, will love him more?”

The son declared, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’

As he began the settlements, a debtor was brought to him owing ten thousand talents.

Then Peter remembered the word that Jesus had spoken: “Before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.” And he went outside and wept bitterly.

And immediately the rooster crowed a second time. Then Peter remembered the word that Jesus had spoken to him: “Before the rooster crows twice, you will deny Me three times.” And he broke down and wept.

Now Joshua was dressed in filthy garments as he stood before the angel.

“You must not bring the captives here,” they said, “for you are proposing to bring guilt upon us from the LORD and to add to our sins and our guilt. For our guilt is great, and fierce anger is upon Israel.”

When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and asked Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”

And when the blood of Your witness Stephen was shed, I stood there giving my approval and watching over the garments of those who killed him.’

From the days of our fathers to this day, our guilt has been great. Because of our iniquities, we and our kings and priests have been delivered into the hands of the kings of the earth and put to the sword and captivity, to pillage and humiliation, as we are this day.