Genesis 2:18-25; Hebrews 2:1-13; Mark 10:2-16
Telling
someone “You ought to be ashamed of yourself” is often a wasted effort. Chances
are, if you have to tell someone that he should feel some shame over something
he’s said or done it isn't going to make a difference. Some people have no
shame. And, it seems, more and more people in our culture have no shame over
their behavior, language, appearance, and values.
The
problem with a lack of shame is that it leads people into deeper and deeper
vices. Shame actually works to hold back perverse and profane behavior and
speech. Without shame, people do whatever they think is okay and say whatever
they feel like saying with no regard for how it harms other people, disrupts
harmony in a community, or tramples over God’s Word and will. The acceptance of
values and behaviors that were once considered shameful has substantially
contributed to the pervasive pornography, open sexuality, profane language, and
increasing vile behavior that are part and parcel of our society. Without shame
to control people, we've degraded into a rude and crass people.
However,
there is a positive aspect of being without shame. It’s experienced when a
person has no reason to have shame because he has nothing to be ashamed about.
The Bible’s first reference to shame is just such an instance. In Genesis 2:25,
God’s Word summarizes how Adam and Eve lived in perfect harmony with God,
creation, and one another because there was no sin in the world by describing
them as having no shame.
Unlike
Adam and Eve at the dawn of creation, we don’t live in a perfect world.
Instead, we live in a fallen world that has been corrupted by sin through and
through. Worse than that, we ourselves have been thoroughly corrupted by sin.
We do, say, and think all sorts of things that are shameful. But we are without
shame. We are not without shame in the negative way that the people of the
world are. No, we are without shame because the shame of our sinful thoughts,
words, and actions have been removed from us through the Cross of Jesus. We
should not be ashamed of ourselves because He took our shame upon Himself and
put it to an end — put it to death. Now “Jesus is not ashamed to call” us His
brothers and sisters. By His grace, we truly have no shame.
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