From the Cross: Shame

by David Chadwick

Shame is the negative feeling of worthlessness. It fuels thoughts like, “I am of no value. I am worthless. I am a bad person. I will never amount to anything.”

First, let’s take note of the difference between guilt and shame. Guilt, yesterday’s topic, believes, “I have done something wrong.” Shame believes, “I AM wrong.” If guilt wants to plague you because of your actions, shame wants to destroy your entire identity. You could even think of it like this: guilt provides the building blocks with which shame can build the house.

Once you find yourself living in shame, you will find that depression, despair, anxiety and so many other strongholds can walk right through the door and reside in your heart!

Shame is one of the first negative emotions mentioned in the Bible (Genesis 3:7). It came right after Adam’s and Eve’s fall. They felt guilty, but that quickly turned to shame as they became aware of their nakedness and felt the urgent need to cover themselves with animal skins. Did you know that “covered up” is actually the Hebrew word for atonement? Before the concept of atonement was fully realized, they killed an animal and used its skin to cover themselves, foreshadowing the need for the shedding of blood for the remission of sins (Hebrews 9:22). I find it absolutely fascinating that long before Jesus ever came into this world, Adam and Eve immediately felt the need for atonement following their act of sin.

Jesus came and shed his blood, not only to forgive your sins, but also to give you a new identity. His life, death and resurrection came to heal not only our actions and behaviors, but our entire personhood! His salvation covers both sins of omission and commission. The evil things that we do intentionally and the good things we fail to do.

Jesus can release you from all shame, making you a brand new person. He adopts you into his family, where you become an inheritor of all he owns. Upon salvation, his perfect blood now pulsates through your royal veins! Your inheritance is now to live in HIS house, his dwelling place, forever. He is preparing that place for you right now for eternity.

Shame wants you to forget this truth! Its purpose is to cripple your life. Satan uses shame to render you ineffective for ministry and to keep you shackled to your former life and ways.

Jesus came to set us free (Galatians 5:1). He wants to crush the enemy’s lies (John 8:44) so that we are fully able to give our lives away (Mark 10:45).

Dear friends, don’t live in shame. Walk in your new identity, new purpose, new hope! It’s the only way to live! It’s the only path to freedom.

From the Cross: Guilt

by David Chadwick

Guilt is a stronghold that many people bring to the foot of the cross. Guilt is the stomach churning feeling that you have done something wrong.

Christian apologists deduce that this negative emotion is one of the main emotions that helps to prove the existence of God. In order for there to be guilt, there must be a moral law within a human being that he or she thinks has been broken. “Conscience” is another word people use to describe this tension that exists between guilt and innocence. And everyone worldwide possesses this conscience at some level or another.

Paul actually talks about moral law in Romans 1 in the context of the existence of God. Paul emphasizes that where there is a moral law - decisive commitments to what is right and wrong -  there must be a moral law giver, God himself.

Guilt comes as a result of the Fall in Genesis 3. No guilt existed in the Garden of Eden pre-Genesis 3. Adam and Eve operated in perfect union with God. They always obeyed God and followed his will. They were instructed to eat from the tree of life, but to stay away from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God warned Adam and Eve that if they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they would be deviating from God’s moral law.

Adam’s and Eve’s intentional, willful, and sinful decision to eat of this tree sent mankind on a terrible trajectory bent toward making decisions based on personal desires and will rather than God’s will. At that moment, all of humanity assumed the responsibility for determining what was good and evil. This is a responsibility we were never supposed to have! Adam’s and Eve’s decision took them away from the true life that God originally offered them. Because of this, God said they would surely die - both physically and spiritually.

Guilt is one of the strongest evidences of the spiritual death that entered our world through sin. Without Jesus, mankind lives under permanent condemnation, especially from the devil. Even for Christ followers, Satan loves to taunt us with jeers that God could never love someone like us. He reminds us repeatedly of how worthless we are for rebelling against God and leaves us soaking in one thing: guilt.

How can we untangle ourselves from this guilt? Go to Jesus! He came to earth to pay for our sins, but also to eradicate and eliminate guilt from our hearts. Jesus absorbed all of our guilt on the cross. We are now forever forgiven!

Did you know there is now NO condemnation for those in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1)? Jesus washes your sins away and will never come back and remind you of them. When you feel guilt and condemnation as a follower of Jesus, it’s never coming from Jesus! It’s from the enemy.

When guilt tries to sneak up on you, use it to your advantage. Let it drive you to the cross where your guilt is replaced by Jesus’s grace.

And be set free!

From the Cross: Selfishness

by David Chadwick

Selfishness is engrained in the heart of every human being. We are all selfish in one way or another. Isn’t selfishness at the heart of all sin? A bent toward self. A desire to want what we want when we want it.

What happened in Genesis 3, when Adam and Eve rebelled against God and his authority, was rooted in selfishness. I tend to think selfishness and pride are synonymous. A need to be #1. Always needing to be right. A belief that the world revolves around me. It is a mindset that leads to destruction!

The solution to selfishness is this: You must be born again (John 3:3). That is what Jesus said so clearly. You are incapable of experiencing the bounty and beauty of the kingdom of God unless you have been born again. Your selfishness must die and be crucified on the cross with Jesus. Then, and only then, can you be raised to a new life that commands a pursuit of living a life that is bent toward serving Jesus and others. It is a supernatural event. It’s something that only the Holy Spirit can do. But it CAN be done. It really IS possible.

The journey toward SELFLESSNESS is a process. Remember, dying on the cross took several days. Sometimes we forget that everything is not a quick fix. But as we daily choose to die to self and daily choose to live for Christ, our self becomes weaker and Jesus becomes stronger in us. Selfishness dies and serving rises!

That’s what Paul meant when he said in 2 Corinthians 5:17 that when we are in Christ, we are a new creation. This means we have been born again in the Spirit! The old has passed away. It’s dead. Crucified with Jesus on the cross. And the new has come! Jesus’s resurrection life is now inside of us and has made us new. This new life changes our hearts, gives us a new vision for God’s kingdom, and invites us to play a significant role in his story as a new creation!

God’s antidote to selfishness is being born again! And when the entire created order has been born again, the kingdom of God will have come back to earth from heaven! It will happen one day! Begin to prepare yourself now for the new heavens and the new earth by ridding your life of selfishness!

From selfish to servant. Free from self to serve.

That is the result of the gospel of Jesus Christ.