Shame

August 23, 2022 Jim Musser

Shame is often viewed in a negatively light in our modern culture. Yet shame is often used by the Lord to lead us to repentance. However, like almost all godly things, Satan is waiting in the wings to exploit it for his own purposes.

For example, say a young person becomes pregnant and secretly has an abortion. She had been involved in a church growing up, but now feels ashamed of what she’s done. This presents her with a choice. She can cry out to the Lord, ask forgiveness, and repent. By doing so, she will openly acknowledge her need for his mercy and will be set free from her past. As the Lord is quoted in Isaiah, her sin will become white as snow (1:18), or as is said in Psalm 103:11-12, her sin will be cast away as far as the east is from the west. There will be no condemnation of her (Romans 8:1)

However, the Enemy will tempt her pride, although it is rarely identified as that. He will seek to convince her she is undeserving of God’s mercy and forgiveness. He will want her to become depressed over her unworthiness. He might tempt her with alcohol and drugs in order to medicate her emotional pain. She may give in to this and live trapped in addiction for many years. Or she may reject that way of life and take another way, once again approved by the devil—perfectionism. She will try to prove her worth by seeking to excel in her life’s pursuits. She will crave approval from those closest to her, and often fear she will not receive it. She might even attempt to be an upright Christian.

Do you see Satan’s attempt to take advantage of her pride? He homes in on her belief that she should be worthy of God’s mercy. So, she spends her life’s energy trying to prove her worth or in the opposite direction, but on the same field of play, will give up trying to prove it because she doesn’t believe she can even though she is convinced that is what is needed.

One synonym for pride is vanity-focusing on oneself. This is exactly the temptation Satan is offering my fictitious woman. Whether it is her defeatist attitude or her perfectionistic one, both are prideful because they are focused on her. As a result, neither will provide the freedom from guilt she is seeking.

Her huge mistake, and often ours as well, is to think God loves us because of what we do. Do good, we’re in his favor. Do bad, and we’re not. Then, we either give up that he will ever truly love us, or we strive all the more to ensure that he does.

What we forget is this:

There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. (Romans 3:22-24)

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9)

No one is worthy, regardless of the quality of their righteousness or their sinfulness. We are TOTALLY dependent on God’s grace and mercy. This explains Satan’s strategies I noted above. Anything apart from crying out to the Lord for forgiveness after we sin is evidence of our pride, and Satan desperately appeals to it to lead us away from freedom.

Shame is the Lord’s way to convict us to turn back to him. Satan wants to use it to keep us separated from him. Though tainted by the one of this world, God intends shame to lead to freedom rather than despair.