Guilt can be a good thing if we respond to it, and that is what God hopes we do. There is nothing we can do to change our act; however, we can learn from it and attempt to correct the view others have of us. This is what God would want.
On the other hand guilt can be an over bearing burden on someone that is carrying vast amounts. It is heavy and cumbersome. It tires us mentally, fatiguing our relationships with others, especially those that may have been affected by our actions. This is not what God wants to occur, but it is how God made it work; and the Holy Spirit is relentless in making sure that the Father's will is met. Many shrug off guilt by passing off their acts as being in the past and there being no way to right them. In some ways there is truth to this, we can't right our wrongs; but we can right our hearts.
Adam wronged God by allowing himself to be deceived and eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. He knew he had disobeyed his Father, and as many children do, he ran and hid. Symbolically, God came looking for Adam, found him hiding, and asked him why. With all the guilt on his shoulders, Adam blamed Eve, and Eve, the serpent.
Likewise Jacob, the younger brother of Esau, deceived his own father into giving him his blessing. By the help of his mother, he presented himself as someone he wasn't to a man that was old and could not distinguish between Esau's hairy arms and lambs wool placed on Jacob's arms. Isaac asked "Who is this?" and Jacob responded he was Esau, his eldest son. With the additional guilt of swindling his brother's birthright from him, Jacob had to deal with his own actions for years as he and his brother separated and lived in different regions. Jacob lived a life of fear of his brother, wondering how and when his brother would come to take revenge.
David, a man after God's own heart, saw a woman that he wanted. He did not care whose wife she was, he just wanted her. He took her, and attempted to cover his tracks using deception. When this attempt failed and his guilt was about to be exposed, David resorted to murder to cover his wrong. Guilt builds, it is embarrassing, and it makes us weak.
The Samaritan woman that listened to Jesus at Jacob's Well, listened intently as Jesus shared His living water with her. As Jesus asked her to get her husband, she confessed there was a man in her life, but he wasn't her legal husband. Jesus let her know that He knew all along by pointing out the five other men that used to be her partners. No condemnation, just the release of guilt and shame of her actions.
As for Jacob, he and Esau matured with time and they began to come together; but just before meeting Esau, God wants Jacob to realize who he is and what he has done. He wrestles with God and at the end, God asks him, "who are you?" He replies, "Jacob." The previous time we read of Jacob being asked who he was, he had replied "Esau." Jacob realizes he is: a liar, a deceiving thief, and a man of ill-gotten wealth. With this revelation, Jacob becomes Israel and a father of the chosen people of God.
David's best friend confronts him about his sin, and David confesses and is set free to once again seek God and to worship him. David can once again draw near to God.
That doesn't mean that all is made in the world, only spiritually. None of the wrongs are corrected physically. Esau still doesn't have his father's blessing. Uriah, Bathsheba's husband, is still dead. The woman's intimacy with multiple men still occurred. Each of these will carry the scars and they live with the affects of what they did, but the confession of sin allowed each of these to sleep peacefully that night. God created guilt, and it is a burden when we try to carry it. God sent his Son to carry that baggage for us. If we are willing to confess that we have the load and release it to the only One that can take it off us, we too can sleep in peace tonight.
