We all know honest people. I would venture to say we all know hundreds of honest people. By “honest” I mean if someone asked you if a particular person was trustworthy you would say, “yes.” You would not call the person a liar.

How many banks does a person need to rob to be a “bank robber”? The obvious answer is one. Now, how many lies does a person have to say to be a liar? Even the most honest person you know has told at least one lie in their lifetime, but none of us would call the most honest person we know a liar.

Guilt has nothing to do with how rare it is we do something, we become guilty as soon as we commit the crime, whether it be bank robbery or telling a simple lie.

Long story short, we are all guilty. We are all guilty of something. If we are honest with ourselves, we would admit we are all guilty of multiple sins.

The Bible tells us in various ways we are all guilty.

Romans 3:23 – “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.”

Isaiah 64:6 – “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.”

Psalm 53:3 – “Every one of them is gone back: they are altogether become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no not one.”

1 John 1:8 – “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”

There are many more verses, but I’m sure by now, you get the point. We are all guilty.

Just as the bank robber is punished by being sent to prison, God will punish the guilty; and we are all guilty.

The Bible is very clear on the subject of eternity, heaven, and hell. Revelation 21:8 gives a list of those who will spend their eternity in hell, and the list ends with, “and all liars.” We’ve all told a lie somewhere along the way. How many banks does one have to rob to be a bank robber?

You may be thinking, in your life the good outweighs the bad. Tipping the scale to the side of good is not the issue. The issue is guilty or not guilty. If there is any bad on the one side of the scale, regardless of how much the good outweighs the bad; there is still guilt. Do we acquit a heart surgeon if he kills someone in cold blood? He may have saved ten of thousands of lives, but if he’s guilty of one murder he is still guilty.

Some people, when they realize the situation of their sin before God, will attempt to turn over a new leaf. Here is the problem – if the bank robber never robs another bank, he is still a bank robber.

Never doing something ever again does not erase the wrongs of the past; the guilt is still there.

At this point, it appears that the entire human race has no hope. We are all guilty, and there is nothing we can do to erase our sins. However, God does come to the rescue.

Our sins can be erased. Hebrews 9:22 – “And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.”

It takes bloodshed to eliminate our sins; to erase them. It cannot be just any blood. Hebrews 10:4 – “For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.” Although done for centuries animal sacrifice did not erase sins.

The blood sacrifice that erases sins is the sacrifice of God’s Son, Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 1:18-19 – “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.”

Christ was God’s sacrifice for the sins of the world (1 John 2:2). The pardon, the eradication of our guilt is available, but you must receive the mercy.

Placing faith in what He did for your sins erases the guilt (John 3:16,18,36; Ephesians 2:8-9; Roman 10:9-17).

Through faith in His sacrifice, we go from being condemned because of our guilt to being not condemned. Jesus erases the sin by His blood through our faith. John 3:18 – “He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”