No More Shame

Intro – Selected texts

And today, I want us to talk about and address from a biblical perspective where shame comes from. It may come from the result of a sin or wrongdoing that you have committed OR your shame could be coming from a sin or wrongdoing that was committed against you.

Either way, what we’re going to discover today is that you were never meant to live in…to walk in shame. It’s not how you were designed nor is it what God originally intended.

In fact, we see God’s original intent for our lives in the creation story in the very first book of the Bible. We were created to feel no shame. Do you remember?

God creates man and woman and puts them in the Garden of Eden together. And Genesis 2:25 – “And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.”

Genesis two comes BEFORE Genesis three and the “fall of man”…BEFORE the introduction of sin into the world. And before sin existed:

there was nothing to hide…

there was nothing to fear…

there was nothing to be ashamed of…

And then, sin enters the world due to disobedience by Adam and Eve and EVERYTHING changes. And we see for the first time the consequences of sin which seen and felt in the guilt and shame that follows.

Genesis 3:6-11 – “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. (Notice the shame – they attempt to cover themselves up!)8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” (This is what shame does – causes fear and makes us want to hide and not be found out! We’ll see in a moment that shame prevents vulnerability and transparency in our lives which godliness actually fuels!) 11 He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”

Guilt and shame. Now, I think it’s important as we get going this evening that we determine and define what we are talking about.

Probably the best definition of GUILT that I have found is this: inner awareness of wrongdoing. In our context an inner awareness of sin – either sin you have committed or a sin against you.

SHAME – a painful feeling of humiliation or distress caused by a strong sense of guilt.

It’s important to know that you can have guilt and NOT feel shame, but you can never feel shame and not have guilt. In fact, SHAME flows from guilt that is not dealt with in a healthy way.

SHAME flows from guilt when that guilt is NOT dealt with in a healthy way. And for our purposes as Christians, that healthy way that I refer to is the way that is suggested to us in the Bible.

Let me work it out this way and I’ll come back and talk through exactly what I’m talking about.

So, let’s talk this through. We are hard-wired for a relationship with God. Ecclesiastes 3:11b – “…he has put eternity into man’s heart…”

We were made for a relationship with the God who made us. But sin entered into the world and guilt came right along with it.

And so just a theological lesson here. We inherited from Adam and Eve – our great, great, great, great grandparents a sin nature. It’s called an imputed unrighteousness – it’s ours!

Paul put it like this in Romans 5:12 – “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.”

Now, ALL guilt is a result of sin. And it is the guilt over sin that weighs heavy upon us as humans.

God made it this way so that when we sin against him, there is this inner awareness of wrongdoing/sin while simultaneously an inner desire for that wrongdoing/sin to be absolved.

So, when we sin and guilt (the inner awareness of wrongdoing) comes with it, we will feel, hear and walk in one of two things: Either conviction or condemnation.