The Shame of Sin

Reflection

I have had a few embarrassing moments in my time. Like having a split seam in the bottom of my outfit and not realizing it until I went to the restroom. By that time I had already walked past people, completely unaware of what they might have seen. Lipstick on the teeth, a smudge on the face, toilet paper stuck to a shoe, a price tag dangling from a shirt. All of these things go unnoticed until we know they are there. Once we realize it, the embarrassment sets in.

In the garden, Adam and Eve lived without shame. They were free from guilt, fear, and self-consciousness. But when sin entered, their eyes were opened to their nakedness and they hid. That first moment of awareness brought shame, and it has been part of humanity ever since. The shame of sin changes how we see ourselves, others, and even God. It also clouds our viewpoint. I cannot imagine being created upright, without sin at all, and then in a moment having that shame lay so heavily on them, never to leave. Sometimes our shame feels like a grey cloud over our heads, one that others will not let us shake off and sometimes one we refuse to release ourselves.

Yet Christ has come to remove that shame. Through His forgiveness, we are restored to walk openly before God again. The shame of sin no longer has the final word because Jesus bore it on the cross. As Paul reminds us in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”