Shame Off You

There is an enemy who wants you to live in shame.  There is an enemy who delights in your shame.  His goal is to keep you chained up with it.

And he is clever.  So he doesn't tell you plainly this is what he is doing.  He just offers you ways of escape that he knows will keep you chained to it.

Shame comes from your conscience.  You know what is right and wrong.  When you do wrong, you feel it.  Sometimes you can't sleep because of it.  Sometimes old wrongs come back up into your mind to plague you.  You feel like you can't be totally honest with anyone about who you are and what you have done.  You worry that someone will find out.

Your enemy offers ways out: 

1. Justify your wrongs.  Adopt arguments that what you know is wrong really isn't.  Then feel enlightened that you have silenced that silly conscience with the shining light of reason.  Just don't examine those reasons too closely, and keep doing those things if you can.  You are truly a champion, you don't really do bad things, you are a defender of rights.  When that conscience speaks up in a quiet moment,  just stuff it back down, surely it is wrong. 

2. Glory in your shame.  Shout it from the rooftops and from hashtags.  Announce to yourself and the world that you are proud of what your conscience smites you for.  That will silence that silly conscience.  That will stuff that bothersome shame.  Surely feelings of shame are part of some warped collective consciousness, or some antiquated thing you were taught.  Just don't think about that too long.  Don't entertain other possibilities.  Don't imagine your conscience is a divine guide to goodness.  Why would a divine guide to goodness ever want you to feel bad about yourself.  Only people who do bad things should feel bad about it.  Surely I don't do bad things.

These are dead ends.  They will not silence your conscience.  They will not cover your shame.  They will keep you locked down in it until the day you die and go to answer to the one who gave you your conscience.  At best they will blunt the voice of your conscience so that it becomes merely a faint nagging feeling in the back of your heart.  But there is a Friend who wants you to be free from shame.  There is a Friend who delights in removing your shame forever and giving you the glorious gift of a truly clean conscience.  

He offers a way out.

1. An atoning sacrifice.  A true Friend came and acknowledged the depth of your wrongdoing and shame.  He looked into the darkest corners of your heart, knew what you have done and desired, and then he looked you in the face and told you he loves you.  And then he asked you to see how much he loves you, and he took the blame for all your wrongdoing on himself.  He took all your shame like a coat and put it on and went out into public with it where he was mocked, spit on, and killed for what you had done.  He took it all into the grave, left it there, and rose to new life.

2. Faith and repentance.  He says this is yours if you believe him.  Your shame and guilt can be gone, and your conscience can be delightfully clean, as clean as if you had never done a thing wrong.  You don't have to slay your conscience in order to silence the shame.  The shame has been owned and worn, punished, and is dead.  We come to experience this through repentance from our wrongdoing.  This means admitting it, all the way down to the bottom, throwing away all the excuses and self-justifications for why it really wasn't that bad in your circumstances, and calling evil what it is, even when you find it in yourself.  And then you turn away from it, telling God you hate it and don't want it anymore, and asking for his help to be free from it.  Faith and repentance:  Admit your wrongs, tell God sorry, believe that he loves you still, and that Jesus wore all your shame and there is none left for you, and then walk in freedom and gladness.

This is not a dead end.  This is the path to eternal life and joy.  Jesus will cover your shame and give you a clean conscience.  Repent and believe, and be saved.