Jesus isn’t the originator of shame. He’s the answer to it. He isn’t a distant deity unacquainted with our disgrace but the embodiment of love, mercy, and grace. Never a harsh and unloving Father disgusted with our pain, God sent His Son to offer the great exchange of love for our shame-filled past and present.
In our quest for love and acceptance, the shackles of shame distort what is true of us. Shame finds us through rejection, abandonment, and approval that ebbs and flows based on our performance. Shame tells us we aren’t good enough, pretty enough, smart enough, skinny enough, or ever worthy of the love Christ gives for free. Shame is the very opposite of what our souls desire. Shame battles against the truths of love. Love is kind, compassionate, keeps no record of wrongs, endures, and hopes (1 Corinthians 13). Shame keeps records of our rejection and mistakes, fostering fear and isolation.
But here’s the good news: Our lovability and belonging aren’t based on what we do or don’t do. They are determined by the God who created us and calls us His own.
So in Christ Jesus, you are all children of God through faith for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:26-28 NIV)
Excerpted from the six-week Bible study Never Alone: 6 Encounters with Jesus to Heal Your Deepest Hurts, Tiffany Bluhm, Ó 2018 by Abingdon Press. All rights reserved.