We all know the sting of shame. It drives some to despair, others to extravagant attempts to prove their worth to themselves or others. Some try to erase shame by denying their words or actions, pretending it never happened, or at least not in the way others think. Others move to a new place looking to start over with some past disgrace hopefully left behind.
Feelings of shame and/or inferiority leads to all kinds of dysfunctional behavior. Paradoxically, shame over some past experience may even drive a person to more self-destructive choices.
At the heart
of Christianity is the promise of forgiveness and restoration, that we need no
longer hide our failures or pretend that we are better than what we know of
ourselves. In Christ’s love shame can be erased! The Scriptures says “I have
been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The
life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me
and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if
righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!” (Galatians
2)
The word ‘righteousness’ is not part of our everyday vocabulary so we may
miss the assurance found there. God says that Jesus was crucified, hanging
there on the Cross in shame, so that we can, through faith, become ‘right,’
without guilty shame in the Presence of a Holy God. He became ‘sin,’ bore our
shame, so that we can not just be forgiven, but pardoned and justified!
There is a story in John’s Gospel that reveals the old way of religion that increases shame with the New Way of Christ that removes the terrible curse. "The religion scholars and Pharisees led in a woman who had been caught in an act of adultery. They stood her in plain sight of everyone and said, "Teacher, this woman was caught red-handed in the act of adultery. Moses, in the Law, gives orders to stone such persons. What do you say?"
As those men shamed that woman Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger in the dirt. It seemed like He was ignoring her pain while they kept badgering him. Finally, He straightened up and said, "The sinless one among you, go first: Throw the stone." Bending down again, he wrote some more in the dirt. Hearing that, they walked away, one after another, beginning with the oldest. The woman was left alone. Jesus stood up and spoke to her. "Woman, where are they? Does no one condemn you?" "No one, Master." "Neither do I," said Jesus. "Go on your way. From now on, don’t sin." (John 8:3-11, The Message)
He neither denied the reality of her failure, nor did He heap guilty shame on her. He gave forgiveness and pointed to a new way of life. Can you imagine what she felt at that moment? At one moment an outcast, publicly humiliated; in the next, a person of worth, shown great grace and deep love!
And this is the same Jesus who loves you and me! As we begin the New Year, let’s not be driven to religious perfectionism or attempt to hide our own sense of shame by pointing out the flaws of others. Instead, let’s be loved to life and become those who offer amazing grace to those who live in shame.
Remember the whole story of the Good News of Jesus. He calls us to live the potential life of the Spirit, seeing through His eyes who we can become in Him. We cannot perfect ourselves, but we can be ‘made righteous’ by His gift of love. The Cross is for us both a symbol of terrible shame and tremendous glory, for there the worst of sin met the amazing grace of God.
Let the word from the Word today occupy your thoughts throughout the day - "You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross." (Colossians 2:13-15, NLT)
Are you
living in shame? There is no need to stay there any longer.
The One who
knows you best, loves you most!
______________________
Video of this blog at this link- https://www.youtube.com/@JerScott55
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