Unashamed

 August 9, 2020

Three preachers this morning spoke to their respective congregations from Romans 10, with the focus on verse 11—“For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.”” Three different sermons from the same text; it would be interesting to compare notes. 

I was one of those three preachers, and am all too familiar with shame. Two incidents came to mind. The first was when I was about ten, and was caught stealing strawberries. Until I looked up at at the policeman towering over me, it hadn’t occurred to me why my friend and I were crawling our way on our bellies into the strawberry patch. I was definitely ashamed when he brought me home to face my mother. And then there was the time as a new Christian I tried witnessing to my friend and he laughed at me. The shame I felt dug so deeply into my soul that I still struggle with sharing my faith. In the first instance, I felt shame for what I had done; in the second, I was shamed by another. There are plenty of other instances I can recall, but these two will suffice.

Shame in the first instance was internal—the result of my own behavior. In the second instance, the shame was external—imposed upon me by someone else. Both kinds of shame have the same effect. They serve to disconnect us from others. We are isolated as if a spotlight were focused on us and us alone. We get defensive, rationalizing our behavior. And we are defeated by it; shame has a way of deflating our confidence in life.

There is a third kind of shame: Internal, External, and Eternal. If we allow ourselves to focus on our sin, eventually it robs us of life itself. Paul says “Whoever believes on him will not be put to shame.” The problem with shame is it is narcissistic. It focuses on me; what I have or have not done. The Gospel always directs us away from self to the Cross where Jesus took our shame upon himself so we could be free from it. Unfortunately, too many of us continue to believe our feelings instead of Jesus Christ. We feel the accusations of our conscience and of the devil (“the accuser of the brethren”) and begin to take those feelings as gospel when instead we should be believing the real Gospel that says if we place our trust in Christ and what he did for us on the Cross, we have no reason to be ashamed. Our sins are forgiven and forgotten by God. When we truly believe that, shame ceases to be eternal, and for this I am deeply grateful tonight.