Leeds Vineyard

The Gospel conquers Shame – Romans 1:16

Romans 1:16
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.
 
Romans 10:11
As Scripture says, ‘Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.’
 
In this message we are going to think about how personal shame creates a space between us and God, between us and our ownership of the gospel message. And how the gospel conquers shame.
 
My conclusion will be that the gospel conquers shame when we surrender our lives unconditionally and completely to the love of Jesus. Perhaps there has never been a time in your life when you have completely and unconditionally surrendered your life to the love of Jesus? If so you may wish to think about whether this would be a good time to do so. We’ll come back to that.
 

WHAT DOES SHAME DO?

I was walking in a park in South Wales the other day in a reflective mood and talking to God about my adult life and my regrets and shame for things that I hadn’t done or had done poorly. Mistakes I had made. Things I had said.
 
I realised that I allowed a gap to emerge between Him and me. I was holding back because of the shame I attached to not having achieved what I wanted and for the things I had done which I felt had squandered some of my calling and opportunities.
 
I asked Him what He thought about that and how could I put it right. He just said (not in an audible voice, I just sensed the words in my head), “I love you”. That’s meaningful for me because overt expressions of emotion are not natural territory for me.
 
The walk in the park turned into a bit of a metaphor for me because it was a huge golf course and I got lost on the wrong side of a wood and valley and could only see where I was meant to be because of the hotel’s flags flying high above the trees a mile or so away. I had allowed blockages and barriers to create a big space between the hotel and me. Eventually, I found my way back.
 
The issue is this space that materialises between God and us when we experience shame. It appears between other people and us, how much more between God and us.
 
Have you ever driven along minding your own business and all of a sudden noticed a police car in your rear-view mirror? How did you react? My heart immediately starts beating faster. I break out in a little cold sweat. I look guiltily at my speedo to check I am within the speed limit. I remind myself that my insurance is in force and my tax disc up to date. Is one of my lights not working? Then I think back – how have I been driving for the last mile?
 
I look back in my mirror and see the police car turn off and disappear down another road. I relax. 

  • Why that reaction?

Have you ever settled down to watch a film at home with your mother-in-law or your housegroup leader and found that the film suddenly descends into soft porn or really bad language? Have you squirmed on the settee trying to work out whether you need to grab the remote and switch channels?

  • Why that reaction?

I remember going to see my bank manager. I know that dates me – I once had a bank manager who I could go and see. In fact to date it even more it was the Midland Bank (now the HSBC) just up the road in Headingley. We had only been married a couple of years and were already in bother with a loan and a credit card. I hated going into see him. As it was he was delighted and sold me another loan to consolidate! Maybe that sort of bank manager wasn’t such a good idea after all.

  • Why did I hate going into his office?

The other day I was listening to an interview with girl A on the radio. Girl A was a victim of grooming in Rochdale. The perpetrators have just been jailed. She describes how she felt, “At first I felt really bad and dirty and ashamed, but after a while I didn’t feel anything anymore.”
 
Although she wasn’t guilty she was the one who felt ashamed.
 
She is known as Girl A (she has just released a book of her story) because it wouldn’t be safe for her to be identified but also because of the shame attached to what happened to her. So the desire to keep her identity hidden - shame.
 
We are all familiar with a sense of shame. Whether we have done things wrong - or whether wrong has been done to us. And it deeply affects our relationship with Jesus and our trust in the gospel.


 
You find yourself in a situation where you are talking with someone about Jesus’ love for you and how he can forgive sins and set people free. Or maybe you are just praying for someone. And that shame thought pops into your head, “Who do you think you are to be doing this – if only they knew what you have done, what you are really like.”

That sense of shame immediately creates a space between you and the person you are talking to.

How can I be praying for this guy about his struggle with porn when I allowed my gaze to rest on that girl for a moment too long on my way here?

Or you are trying to worship or pray and stand in front of Jesus and you just feel naked and ashamed. You daren’t spend time with him.

Watching those police programmes – Traffic Cop etc. You know that once the policeman starts his friendly chat, you are in trouble, eventually he is going to dig out the sordid truth. The more time you spend with him the more he will uncover.

We think God is like that – the longer we spend with him, the closer we get, the more of our rubbish is going to appear. It eventually dawns on us that He knows everything about us and so we shut up, take a step back, hide. And a space appears.
 
Genesis 2:25 says that, before things went wrong in creation, “the man and woman were both naked, and they felt no shame.”
 
No shame with each other and no shame with God. They talked and walked him.
 
But after they had disobeyed him they realised they were naked and made fig leaves to cover themselves (and later on God made them clothes) and went and hid in the bushes when God came looking for them.
 
In Genesis 3:10 Adam said, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.” Shame.

WE NEED TO UNDERSTAND WHAT SHAME IS.
Guilt follows from truth
Shame follows from identity

  • Truth says, “You did something bad.”
  • Shame says, “You are something bad.” 
     
  • Truth says, “You have failed.”
  • Shame says, “You are a failure.”

When we repent and receive forgiveness for the sin in our lives, we deal with our guilt – we understand that Jesus died to save us from our sins, that in his great love for us he took the punishment for our disobedience.
 
Sometimes we don’t grasp our new identity. We think there is something unacceptable about me at the core. We still think we are something bad, we are a failure. Rather than grapple with the shame we tend to pretend, beat around the bush, hide.
 
When we looked at Romans 6 a few weeks ago we realised that we aren’t sinners because we sin, we sin because we are sinners.
 
In other words, our sinful nature, who we are, leads us into sinful behaviour.
It’s not that the things we do wrong make us into a bad person.
 
So the solution to the shame we feel is not to remember the wrong things but to remember who we now are. Our new identity.
 
Romans 7:15
A great passage with which we can all identify when Paul groans, “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.”
 
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, “the animal within me licking the chops of memory.”
 
We all struggle with our behaviour. Sometimes the truth about our guilt is obvious - but Paul says he is not ashamed. He asserts, “The one who trusts in Jesus will never be put to shame.”
 
Paul had plenty of reason for being ashamed. He had spent many years killing Christians. I am pretty sure that very few people listening to this have ever deliberately killed Christians. And yet he says he will never be put to shame.
 


When you have unconditionally and completely surrendered your life to the love of Jesus the bible says you are made into a new creation, you are given a new identity. Shame no longer has any rights over you.
 
Where there was guilt, forgiveness has redeemed you.
But unless you surrender your life to Jesus your identity is tied up in shame.
 
Once you have been saved your identity changes and shame has no hold on you.
 
Listen to what Paul says a bit later in Romans 8:
Verses 1,2: “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.”
 
Verses 15,16: “The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship (daughter). And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.”
 
Do you see – not just forgiveness but a new identity – filled with the Spirit we become His children. Loved, cared for, drawn close.
 
I do sin, even though I don’t need to, even though I try so hard not to.
But there is no condemnation because of what Jesus did for me.
I am now filled with the Holy Spirit, my identity is as a son/daughter of God.
And I need know no shame.
 
Shame attaches itself to the present and lingers. It hangs around like a bad smell. Often the shame does more damage and causes more pain than the original cause of the shame.
 

  • Truth says “Your marriage is struggling.”
  • Shame says, “There’s nothing you can do about it.”
     
  • Truth says “Your relationship with the Lord is weak and distant.”
  • Shame says “It will always be that way.”

 
Shame separates you, drives you apart.
 
Some of you are watching porn, getting further into debt, cheating on your wife, letting anger rule your mouth – and shame is coming between you and God.
 
Some of you have been lied to, bullied, abused and mistreated and you have taken the shame on you – and it’s coming between you and God.
 
You are saying to me, but David you have no idea what I have done or what has been done to me.
No, I don’t but that’s not the point.

I don’t know what you have done – but I do know who you are.

You are a child of God, you are deeply loved by him, you have been saved through his sacrifice for you, your sins are forgiven, you have new life and shame has no place or power to come between you and him and each other.
 
2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: the old has gone, the new is here!”
 
Do you live in a place of shame – feeling that there is something unacceptable about you at the core? Often alongside that shame goes a deep conviction that you have to earn your way out.
 

The gospel conquers shame

Do you want to this to change? Do you want to be able to say, “I am not ashamed”? Do you want to allow the gospel to conquer your shame?
 
Then I invite you to choose to completely and unconditionally surrender your life to the love of Jesus. And that means doing two things:
 

1. Get honest with God

Go to him and admit what you have done or what has been done. He teams up with you and helps you turn around. He forgives you. It’s the biggest deal of your life. Don’t live in denial, don’t separate yourself off. Get honest with God.

2. Know who you are

The Spirit speaks truth to you first but then He speaks grace to you and says, “you are now God’s child”. Don’t allow shame to get a grip, know who you are, a child of God, forgiven, washed clean, loved.
 
This is the power of the gospel. The gospel speaks truth and grace and conquers shame.
 
The gospel truth says, “You have done something bad”.
 
But unlike shame, the gospel grace then says, “You are loved, forgiven and will never be put to shame.”

David Flowers, 26/10/2013