Saturday, June 12, 2021

Jesus: The Lifter of our Guilt and Shame



The enemy of our souls is a master of shame. He uses it to crush us under the lie of worthlessness and makes our lives miserable. His favorite weapon with us, just as it was with Adam and Eve, is to first tempt us to sin and then to hurl accusations at us regarding our shame and guilt (Zech 3:1; Rev 12:10). In the Garden, Adam and Eve were so shamed that they hid from God, the very One who lovingly made them and walked with them in intimate communion as their Good Father (Genesis 3:8).

The great news is that if we are in Christ, God beckons us to come to him through Christ's atoning blood to receive his glory covering in place of our shame. The Bible says that "those who trust in him will never be put to shame" and that their "faces are never covered with shame" (Rom 10:11; Ps 34:5). This isn't, of course, because Christians are sinless, but because of the imputed righteousness of Christ credited to our account (Rom 5; 1 Jn 1:8). He promises that nothing can ever separate us from his love and that instead of being covered with shame and guilt he has covered us with his honored robe of Christ's very righteousness (Rom 8; Is 61:10). Theologians call this an alien righteousness since it does not originate with us but with Christ our Lord -- who is our "righteousness, holiness and redemption" (1 Cor 1:30). When we sin as his adopted and chosen children, instead of standing in the shame and guilt and soaking it in, we can go confidently (and quickly) before the throne of grace to "obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need" (Heb 4:16). Jesus assures us that he is at the Father's right hand interceding for us (Rom 8:34). And the Father through his living Word promises that we are eternally loved, accepted, chosen, adopted and forgiven (Eph 1). He also guarantees that he will not allow anything or anyone to take us from his sovereign hand if we have been joined to Christ through his gift of repentant faith (Jn 10:28). He has become our eternal glory covering and the lifter of our head (Ps 3:3), so that guilt and shame no longer have power to rule our lives. This truly is Good News worth soaking in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZDyMJhd4Bo