How Does Shame Enter Our Life? – Part 2

We must learn we can’t judge ourselves in accordance with the standards of self or others.  We need to judge ourselves by the standards of Christ.  In 2 Corinthians 10:12 (NLT), Paul says this:

“Oh, don’t worry; we wouldn’t dare say that we are as wonderful as these other men who tell you how important they are!  But they are only comparing themselves with each other, using themselves as the standard of measurement. How ignorant!”

God measures us through the standard of Jesus Christ when we come into a relationship with Him.  He doesn’t compare us to Jesus.  He sees Jesus righteousness when He looks upon us as His followers!

Our ability to comply with God’s system and standards doesn’t depend on our own effort, but on our relationship with Christ.  Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:21 (NLT), “God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.”  Through this transaction, we are made perfectly acceptable to God, no matter what we’ve done.  God’s system overrides all other systems and standards and is the only basis of Truth!

• Not dealing with our sin Biblically. We can feel the guilt and shame of what we’ve done as evidence that something within us is inherently wrong.  We often hang onto sin issues, feeling the need to continually be punished for the ways we’ve not lived up to a standard.  As children of God, we have already been forgiven.  The blood of Jesus took all our sins – past, present, and future – and paid the price to have them removed from our ledger.  But sadly, we can continue to live in the shame of that sin rather than in the freedom of God’s grace and forgiveness.  Several things can prevent us from being able to experience freedom from our past violations:
  • Guilt: A sense that we violated someone or something either by what we did or did not do.
  • Shame: A sense of worthlessness whereby we feel we are unacceptable to God and others.
  • Condemnation: A sense of being damaged, flawed, or rejected.

It stands in complete opposition to salvation. If we experience these, they are real issues we need to deal with.  The enemy tries to produce in us a sense of God’s judgment rather than God’s love and grace.  He will point out how unworthy we may be and try to bring us to a place where we hide from God in fear.  There is a tremendous difference between the enemy’s messages of guilt and shame, and the conviction of the Holy Spirit when we have issues in our life that really do need dealt with.

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