Freedom from Guilt & Shame
Freedom from Guilt and Shame Devotional
Grace James, Women’s Minister
Greetings Cornerstone Family! My name is Grace James and I have the privilege of serving as your women’s minister here at Cornerstone Church. As we are in observance of Holy Week, our focus this year for Easter is “Christ Sets Us Free”. Today, we’ll reflect on the freedom from guilt and shame. What is guilt? What is shame? In the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, guilt is defined as the fact of having committed a breach of conduct especially violating law and involving a penalty. Shame is the consciousness of guilt, shortcoming, or impropriety. Now if we look at guilt and shame in a biblical context, guilt is the conviction that we experience when we commit a sin against our Holy God by violating his laws and following the sin comes the consequences. Shame is the emotional response to our sin against our Holy God. It’s the response and feeling that we can’t even lift our face towards God after committing a sin. In Ezra 9:6, it says “O my God, I am too ashamed and disgraced to lift up my face to you, my God, because our sins are higher than our heads and our guilt has reached to the heavens.”
The account of Adam and Eve is a great example of guilt and shame. God had commanded Adam not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen 2:17) and when Eve was deceived by the serpent, they both ate from the tree (Gen 3:1-6). They immediately realized they were both naked and hid from God. When the Lord called to the man, “Where are you?” He answered, “I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.” (Gen 3:9-10)
The story of David and Bathsheba is another example of guilt and shame. David slept with the wife of one his mighty soldiers and to cover up the offense, he plotted to have him killed. (2 Samuel 1-27) He truly carried the heaviness of guilt and shame. David said in Psalm 38:4, “My guilt has overwhelmed me like a burden too heavy to bear.”
Paul, called the Apostle of Christ, is a prime example of someone who was guilty of persecuting the early church prior to his conversion. It says in Acts 22:4 “I persecuted the followers of the Way to their death, arresting both men and women and throwing them into prison” He often writes in his letters in the New Testament of how he is the LEAST of the apostles and undeserving. He says in 1 Corinthians 15:9 “For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.”
Have you ever done something in your life where you have been guilty and from that guilt, the shame of that guilt follows? I think about my older child, Jeremiah, who is 4 years old. He is such a sweet, loving, and caring child. Although I’d love to say that he is perfect and never lies, I would be deceiving you. It is our sinful tendencies that causes us to sin. Paul says in Romans 7:18 “I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful flesh.” Whenever my husband and I confront Jeremiah after catching him in a lie, the first thing he does is stick his fingers in his mouth and droop his head down avoiding eye contact because of the guilt and shame. What a picture of how we are respond to God when we sin against him.
Even as believers in Christ, we have a sinful flesh and although we are in the sanctification process, we are continually working towards holiness. This means that we still at times fall short of His glory where guilt and shame are present. But, as believers, we are freed from condemnation. In says in Romans 8:1 “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” In Christ, we are perfect in God’s eyes as promised in Hebrews 10:14 where it says “because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.” When we do fall short of the glory of God, it is a conviction that we feel from the Holy Spirit and a godly sorrow.
Guilt can come from two sources:
1. Godly sorrow: Guilt can be used as a way of discipline to get our attention to repent and turn away from a sin. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 7:10, “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret.” When David had sinned against God, he expressed in Psalm 32:5 “When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer.” It can be heavy and burdensome when it is an us unconfessed sin. So, what are we to do the moment we recognize the guilt? We must confess our sin to God. In 1 John 1:9 it says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
2. Devil’s scheme of guilt & shame: In Genesis 3:1 it says, “Now the serpent (meaning of the devil) was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made.” He is known as the father of lies found in John 8:44. and referred to as a great accuser in Revelation 12:10. Because of Satan’s character, he knows what our weaknesses are, and he will use the guilt to shame us and keep us feeling unworthy, unusable, unwanted, unlovable, you name it. The lies that he puts into our minds can be crippling and sometimes even paralyzing so that we are unable to function in life and live fully free as a child of God.
Family, I am here to tell you the good news! If you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, He has already set you free from this bondage of guilt and shame! He went on the cross and took on all our guilt and shame. His promises are found all throughout scripture as a reminder. Isaiah 6:7 says, “Your guilt is taken away and your sin is atoned for.” Romans 10:11 “Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame”. In Romans 5:5 “And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us”. Brothers and Sisters, we need to recognize these truths about our freedom in Christ. We must clothe ourselves in the Armor of God, so that when the day of evil (which means any moment of spiritual attack) comes, you may be able to stand firm with these truths about yourselves in Christ.
Friends, if you do not have a personal relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ and you want to be freed from the guilt and shame that has been weighing you down, don’t wait! We are all sinners in need of a Savior. I know I needed one badly when I was full of guilt and shame for the past relationship, I was involved in. With the grace of God, Jesus revealed himself to me and I accepted Him into my life as my Lord and Savior. I am now free from the guilt and shame I once carried. I can confidently live out Psalm 34:5 which says, “Those who look to him are radiant (with Joy); their faces are never covered in shame” He can do the same for you if you are willing! You just need to accept Him into your hearts!
I look forward to seeing you all on our Easter services so that we can celebrate together in the freedom we have in Christ!