Unashamed of the Gospel and Myself

While growing up in the faith, I learned at a very early age that sin produces guilt, and being guilty and feeling guilty, we are led to repent of the sin which is bothering us, and receive forgiveness for the sin we have committed.
In many eastern cultures, being shamed or losing face is about the worst thing that can happen to a person. Keeping one’s reputation intact is extremely important while building relationships with people from China, Japan, and other south east Asian countries.
This concept of shame is not nearly as prevalent in America, where while we may worry what others think of us, it’s not very often that people who think low of us are forthright and straightforward enough to say it to our face, to make us feel bad or shame us.

But oftentimes I find there are many people who are of the attitude that they would prefer greatly that if you have a problem with me, say it to my face, let me know, right here, right now, don’t go gossiping behind my back.
This is not the case in many other places, southeast Asia I know in particular. Confrontation is not a good thing to many people.
It seems to me that in my life. When I sin, I not only feel guilt, which motivates me to repent, I also sometimes feel shame. I just feel so awful for what I have done, that it makes me reluctant to repent because I don’t feel like I deserve or can even ask for forgiveness, from God or from another person.
Some people have tried to mesh guilt and shame together saying they’re essentially the same thing when dealing with sin, but I will say flat out that not only do I disagree, but that is just plain incorrect.
And here’s why:

Reference: Romans 1:8-17

We’re going to be dealing with verses 16 and 17 in particular “I am not ashamed of the Gospel because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the Gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: ‘The righteous will live by faith.”’
When I sin, the law that is written in my mind and on my heart makes me feel guilty, but it does not make me feel ashamed. What makes me feel ashamed, I believe, is a misapplication of God’s law, and a missed opportunity for God’s Gospel.
I believe guilt is the result of a correct application of the Law, when somebody does not feel guilty for their sin.
I believe shame is the result of a misapplication of the law when a person already feels guilty for their sin.

This is most often done to me by myself. I sin and my mind knows the sin and my heart feels the guilt and my mind bashes my heart again, saying you should have known better, you’re a terrible person for thinking that, for doing that, for saying that.

Or I hear the law from a Christian brother or sister who cares deeply for me and knows I am ignoring the beginnings of guilt and the law takes root and I feel guilt.

I feel shame when I’ve heard the Law from any number of sources repeatedly that I am a terrible person, that I am worthless, that I am not worthy of God’s righteousness, nor will I ever be. I hear all that, with no hint of the Gospel to interrupt, to give me life, to restore my soul.

And when I feel shame, it blocks the Gospel. Shame makes my ears numb to the gospel. It no longer has the same effect it would have if applied before the law could smash me deeper into my hurt.

For an example of this you can watch a clip from the movie X-Men, the first movie of the trilogy. These movies are about a group of humans who has mutated and gained superpowers, it’s based on a series of comic books.
In these two scenes, you’ll see a girl named Rogue, whose power is to steal other people’s energy, in the case of mutants, their powers. You’ll also see the most famous X-Men, Wolverine, who has an impenetrable metal running through his body, Adamantium and also the power to heal extremely quickly. His dark past causes him to have nightmares, one of which he is having in the first scene.
You’ll see what happens, and the aftermath…

Watch X-Men from 38:30-40:34
Watch X-Men from 44:08-45:20

So this young boy Bobby (well it's really Mystique posing as Bobby) makes Rogue feel even worse for what she had done. She felt terrible already, and he drove her even further down to the point of self-loathing and great personal shame.

Paul says “I am not ashamed of the gospel” so let’s take that a few steps further, therefore I am not ashamed that my sins are forgiven, therefore I am not ashamed of the sins I have committed in the past, as the Lord says through the prophet Jeremiah, “I will remember their sins no more.” We should not wallow in sin that has been forgiven.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, God does not call us to shame, he calls us to forgiveness, as Paul continues, “for in the gospel, a righteousness from God is revealed.” A righteousness from God is revealed and placed upon us as children of God “from first to last”

If we remain ashamed of our past sin, we are in great danger of being ashamed of the Gospel. We are in great danger of being ashamed of who we are as children of God, redeemed and restored by Christ on Calvary.

There are people out there, truly suffering, truly hurting inside from previous mistakes. They know their fault, they know their sin. And what do they receive? Very often they receive the Law. They receive dirty looks and a general segregation from society. We look down our noses at them, thinking that they are despicable people for their past conduct. We look at them Ashamed of the Gospel. We look at them hoping to make them feel worse for their actions instead of sharing with them the awesome power of the knowledge we have that Jesus Christ DIED FOR their sins and TOOK THEM AWAY!

Dear friends, this world is filled with people who are broken and hurting. It is filled with plenty of people who could care less about their sin, but it is filled also with people who know their sin and know no escape from it.

We perhaps wish to boil it down to if they are secure in their sin, then use the law, if they are broken in their sin, use the gospel.

Do you really think it is that simple for any one human being, that they can be labeled as secure or broken in their sin. All of us undoubtedly have some mixture of security and brokenness, but you can’t just look at a person and know that mixture. It takes a relationship, it takes time, it takes listening, not just “you’re a sinner” or “Jesus loves you”

Both are true statements, but letting somebody know that they are not mutually exclusive is very important. Yes you are a sinner, and yes Jesus loves you. As Paul writes in Romans 5, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Delivered May 29, 2008

Come Back to Me and Say My Land is Best

Reference: Joel 2:12-19

I will be focusing on three main words from that lesson, “Return to Me.” The Lord calls for us to return to him when we have gone astray and he will receive us with steadfast love. We hear much of this from the Gospel of John when Jesus refers to himself as the good shepherd, who lays down his life for the sheep.

Now I don’t know about you, but when I imagine what the voice of the LORD sounds like, I think about the Charlton Heston movie the 10 commandments with the voice of the Lord being deep, full, rich and slow. “Moses, Moses…” and when I think about that type of a voice I think about Treebeard…Treebeard is as many of you know from the magical land of Middle Earth, a land that JRR Tolkien writes about in his famed The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Treebeard is an Ent. An ent is a type of shepherd for trees, ents can walk and talk and do all sorts of things. They are strong, powerful, wise, and never hasty.

Now Treebeard appears in the second part of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy and he is surprisingly quite the poet. We get a taste of one of his compositions in the movie, but not the whole thing, This composition tells of how the ents, all males, have lost the entwives, all females.
So keeping that in mind, here is the entire poem.

An excerpt from " The Two Towers: Being the Second Part of The Lord of the Rings" by J.R.R. Tolkien

ENT: When Spring unfolds the beechen leaf, and sap is in the bough; When light is on the wild-wood stream, and wind is on the brow; When stride is long, and breath is deep, and keen the mountain-air, Come back to me! Come back to me, and say my land is fair!
ENTWIFE.: When Spring is come to garth and field, and corn is in the blade; When blossom like a shining snow is on the orchard laid; When shower and Sun upon the Earth with fragrance fill the air, I’ll linger here, and will not come, because my land is fair.

ENT.: When Summer lies upon the world, and in a noon of gold Beneath the roof of sleeping leaves the dreams of trees unfold; When woodland halls are green and cool, and wind is in the West, Come back to me! Come back to me, and say my land is best!
ENTWIFE. : When Summer warms the hanging fruit and burns the berry brown; When straw is gold, and ear is white, and harvest comes to town; When honey spills, and apple swells, though wind be in the West, I’ll linger here beneath the Sun, because my land is best!

ENT.: When Winter comes, the winter wild that hill and wood shall slay; When trees shall fall and starless night devour the sunless day; When wind is in the deadly East, then in the bitter rain I’ll look for thee, and call to thee; I’ll come to thee again!
ENTWIFE : When Winter comes, and singing ends; when darkness falls at last; When broken is the barren bough, and light and labour past; I’ll look for thee, and wait for thee, until we meet again: Together we will take the road beneath the bitter rain!

BOTH : Together we will take the road that leads into the West, And far away will find a land where both our hearts may rest.

Now doesn’t that sound an awful lot like us? And I don’t mean our typical male/female romantic relationships, but rather a relationship we are all involved in together.
We know from Scripture that Christ is the bridegroom and we the church are the bride, so let’s pretend like Christ is the Ent and we are the Entwife.

Christ is calling us back, back to his land to his ways which are best. And we stand and argue saying “No thanks Jesus, I like where I am at here without you.” And we’re good through the Springs and Summers of life, until the winters of life come, the bitter wind, rain and cold. And in that time when we are in peril, before we call out for help or even realize we need help, Jesus is already on the lookout for us. Coming to us in our sin, coming to us in our stubbornness, and he finds us. As Paul says in Romans 5:8, “But God demonstrates his love for us in this, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
While we were still stubborn in our ways, loving our earthly things, God sent Christ into the world to take on sin, and sin’s punishment of death and Christ conquered them both and was raised from the dead.

Paul reflects on this firsthand on how it effected his life in 1 Timothy.

Reference: 1 Timothy 1:12-17

How beautiful. “But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.”
How true, Christ as bridegroom shows his perfect patience to us his imperfect and ever impatient bride. And He comes after us, enters our world and saves us from the peril that most certainly would await us.

So how appropriate that we speak of this so near to the day of St. Valentine, who according to some was known for marrying people who weren’t supposed to get married for whatever reason.

And how fitting for us. There is no reason God should have chosen us, the church, to be Christ’s bride. We are so far below what Christ would deserve from a bride, and yet God decides to unite us in perfect union by the blood of our bridegroom, Jesus Christ.

This can be shown in another of Paul’s writings.

Reference: Colossians 1:17-23

And all that brings us back to the reading from the Prophet Joel, “Let the priests, the ministers of the LORD weep and say Spare your people O LORD and make not your heritage a reproach, a byword among the nations”

And indeed through Christ we are above reproach and we are at peace with God through Christ’s blood.

Delivered February 15, 2008