Guilt and Forgiveness 罪与饶恕

[Dexu Xia]

They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts. Romans 2:15

In his book Human Universals, anthropologist Donald Brown lists more than four hundred behaviors that he considers common across humanity. He includes such things as toys, jokes, dances, and proverbs, wariness of snakes, and tying things with string! Likewise, he believes all cultures have concepts of right and wrong, where generosity is praised, promises are valued, and things like meanness and murder understood to be wrong. We all have a sense of conscience, wherever we’re from.

The apostle Paul made a similar point many centuries ago. While God gave the Jewish people the Ten Commandments to clarify right from wrong, Paul noted that since gentiles could do right by obeying their conscience, God’s laws were evidently written on their hearts (Romans 2:14–15). But that didn’t mean people always did what was right. The gentiles rebelled against their conscience (1:32), the Jews broke the Law (2:17–24), leaving both guilty. But through faith in Jesus, God removes the death penalty from all our rule-breaking (3:23–26; 6:23).

Since God created all humans with a sense of right and wrong, each of us will likely feel some guilt over a bad thing we’ve done or a good thing we failed to do. When we confess those sins, God wipes away the guilt like a whiteboard wiped clean. All we have to do is ask Him—whoever we are, wherever we’re from.

Where do you think humanity’s sense of right and wrong comes from? What guilt feelings are you wanting Jesus’ forgiveness for today?

Jesus, I’ve failed to do right and succeeded in doing wrong. Forgive me. Thank You for dying my death so I don’t have to.

这是显出律法的功用刻在他们心里。—罗马书2章15节

人类学家唐纳德 ‧ 布朗（Donald Brown）在他的著作《普世人性》（Human Universals）中，罗列了400多种人类共通的行为，包括玩游戏、讲笑话、跳舞、使用谚语、防范蛇类和用绳子系物等等。同样地，他相信所有的文化都有是非对错的观念，诸如褒奖慷慨、看重承诺，并认为卑鄙的行为和谋杀都是错的。显然地，不论我们来自什么文化或背景，我们每个人都有良知。

多个世纪以前，使徒保罗也提出了类似的观点。上帝向犹太人颁布十诫，以律法明定是非对错，而保罗指出，由于外邦人可以透过顺从良知做对的事，上帝的律法显然也刻在他们心里（罗马书2章14-15节）。但这却不代表人们就会做正确的事。外邦人违背良知（1章32节），犹太人违反律法（2章17-24节），两者皆有罪。然而藉着相信并接受耶稣，我们所有因犯罪当付的死亡代价都会被上帝除去（3章23-26节，6章23节）。

上帝创造人，使人具有明辨是非的良知，因此我们每个人都可能对自己曾做过的某件坏事，或为了未能做某件好事而感到内疚。当我们承认这些罪，上帝就会除去我们的罪，就像一块白板被擦拭干净一样。不论我们来自什么文化或背景，你我所要做的就是求祂的赦免。

你认为人类能明辨是非的良知是从何而来？
今天你要为哪些负罪感恳求耶稣的赦免呢？

主耶稣，我没做该做的事，甚至还做了不该做的事，
求祢饶恕我。谢谢祢为我死，使我得活