In reference to the Pharisees and teachers of the law who chose to oppose him, Jesus said,
“If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin.
Whoever hates me hates my Father as well.
If I had not done among them the works no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. As it is, they have seen, and yet they have hated both me and my Father.” (John 15:22-24) (NIV)
Notice that Jesus lets even the hypocritical religious leaders of his day off the hook when it came to the sin of not believing in him — that is — up until they witnessed his works and heard what he said. As of that moment, all of their excuses were rendered null and void.
So we could say that to be guilty of sin is to have an answer come to our attention to where we know, or have enough evidence to know, how we could overcome a given temptation, but we keep on going, refusing to act on that knowledge.
