A critical element in the warfare we now see within the US is the business of shaming. It’s used as a bludgeon. The obvious answer to this to be a ghost who cannot be struck: Have no shame.
It’s not as if we can avoid the very human sense of regret, so that we humbly ask God for pardon from our sins. But shame is not a healthy ingredient in all of this. Shame is the sense that we have something to hide from the morally superior, while regret is trying to clean up the mess. As one of my friends says, you need to be ready to expose the skeletons in your closet before someone else does.
But the assurance of God’s forgiveness should never be in doubt. This is where faith comes into the equation; by faith we can gain that sense of assurance that we can still be used by God. He uses broken vessels because there aren’t any other kind, but only those who submit to Him.
To be a fallible human is not a sin, but it is because of sin nature that we are creatures of flesh. This is not what God had in mind; we weren’t designed for this. Our fleshly existence is the penalty for choosing to ignore divine revelation. Someday this will all go away and all things will be restored to God’s original concept.
Hell is not the prison; this fallen existence is the prison. Hell is facing God without a covenant relationship that makes us family. It means serving your time in prison without repentance. It means standing before God with the full guilt for rejecting Him, and the full assurance there is no longer any remedy offered.
Don’t accept the shame thrown at you by others. We who have been redeemed gladly admit to being mortal, yet without wallowing in it. We can see clearly in the mirror of the Word that we are corrupt and perverted, but we also see the power of God to cleanse and deliver. Granted, there’s no need to provocatively yell in public all our sins. Rather, we admit to the truth when it becomes pertinent.
So handle it well with the Lord in prayer before facing the enemy and his millions of flaming darts. Don’t be a target for false shaming. No one is any better, so they have no standing to accuse. Only Christ can point out your sins, because He was the innocent Lamb of God who died for those sins.
“Yep, I’m as racist as you are.” Just change the word “racist” to whatever false accusation is being hurled at you. The only difference is that we have knelt at the foot of the Cross and repented. “Show me your repentance,” is another good reply.
Excellent post. Exactly the way I feel; you put that feeling into words. No one is guiltless; Christ died for that purpose. May we glory in His Sacrifice and be ever grateful for it.
An author I follow does something similar on Twitter. He asks people accusing him of something if they would confess that Jesus is Lord, else they are labelled a witch. It’s meant half seriously, but it’s a reflection of the accuser’s same attitude.