Years ago, a cartoon pictured a psychologist telling a patient, “Mr. Figby, I think I can explain your feelings of guilt. You’re guilty!” Like it or not, we’re all guilty. According to Romans 3:23, All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
We don’t need to refer to the Ten Commandments to know if a course of action, or even a thought, is wrong. God gave every person a conscience. That’s what was awakened in Adam and Eve when they ate of the forbidden fruit and then proceeded to lie about it and cast blame. We feel guilt the minute we violate our conscience. And that feeling is not a bad thing initially. But what we do with it, and how often we correctly or incorrectly handle it, determines the road we’ll travel in life.
Some of us think, “Yes, I messed up. But I’m basically a good person. I haven’t killed or stolen from anyone.” Shrugging off this warning from our conscience negates the guilt, stuffing it in the far recesses of our brain—making us more likely to harden our hearts in the future. James 1:21-22 describes this as the road to becoming a fool by darkening a senseless heart. Over time, this could lead to searing the conscience and a life without God. (Read James 1.)
Conversely, if we constantly focus on our guilt, dwelling on our wrongdoing or regretting actions we neglected to take, we become burdened. We start to see ourselves as chained to a particular bad habit, or worse, believe that we ourselves are inherently bad. In other words, we start to feel shame. We ignore the many verses declaring God’s forgiveness through Christ because we refuse to forgive ourselves.
I heard a sermon recently that defined guilt as the what–I DID something bad, while shame focuses on the who— I AM something bad. If we fall into the latter, it taints our view of life and of others, and leads to hopelessness rather than vision.
Yet God offers the solution for shame. The key is to shift our focus from what we’re not to who Christ is. Hebrews 12:2 describes it as, looking only at Jesus, the originator and perfecter of the faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Christ scorned the shame. When He declared, “It is finished!” that included defeating the power of shame.
On our own, we will never be enough. But Christ is enough. Romans 8:1 reminds us, There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And Col. 1:22 encourages us that Christ reconciled you in His body of flesh through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach. In Christ, we are holy and blameless in God’s sight.
So remind yourself of who God says you are. You are not hopeless, broken, or worthless, but valuable because of Jesus. You are not a slave, but a child of God. Fix your eyes on Jesus and you can walk away from shame.
Excellent, Carrie – thank you!