It’s amazingly easy to make people feel guilty and afraid. Say to a child, "Dad wants to talk to you about something!" and immediately a worried look will come across the child’s face as he begins to comb through his memory for something he may have done wrong. The same thing happens when a student is told, "You have to go to the principal’s office." When an adult hears, "The boss wants you in his office right now!" rarely do we anticipate a bonus or a pat on the back. Instead, the first thought that crosses our minds usually is a question: "What did I do this time?"

People tend naturally to feel guilty. Whether we have actually done anything to be guilty of or not doesn’t matter all that much. Our predisposition to guilt is the result of our imperfection, our sin. We know that we aren’t …