Guiltiness, carefully understood

A conviction of their guiltiness is another branch of the repentance which belongs to the children of God. But guiltiness after justification must be cautious. It must be understood carefully, and in a sense of its own.

For it is certain that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus and walk after the Spirit. They believe in him, and, in the power of that faith, they do not walk after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Yet they can no more bear the strict justice of God now than they could before they believed. That justice still pronounces them worthy of death, on all the accounts already named. And it would absolutely condemn them to death, were it not for the atoning blood. They are therefore thoroughly convinced that they still deserve punishment, although that punishment is turned aside from them.

Here there are extremes on either side, and few steer clear of both. Most people strike on one or the other. Either they think themselves condemned when they are not, or they think they deserve to be acquitted. The truth lies between. They still deserve, strictly speaking, only the damnation of hell. But what they deserve does not come upon them, because they have an Advocate with the Father. His life, and death, and intercession still stand between them and condemnation.