Genesis 3:6-10 says, "When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then, they eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as He was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, 'where are you?' He answered, 'I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.'"
Guilt and shame were brought into the world with sin. Before Adam and Eve ate from the tree that God had commanded them not to eat from, they were not ashamed of being naked. They were unaware that it was something to be ashamed of until they ate. They did not know guilt until they ate from the tree, disobeying the one thing that God had told them not to do.
Guilt is when we feel bad about something that we did or something that we did not do. Shame is when we feel bad about who we are. These emotions were not present in the world until sin came in. Now, humanity struggles with guild for their sins and shame for being a sinner. These emotions do not let up either.
The world tells us one of two things, either: 1) "if anyone knew you, no one would love you," or 2) "you have nothing to be ashamed of. You did nothing wrong." Both of these are false. We are sinners, so we are not blameless; but there is someone who will love you for who you are, even though you have done some messed up things. He will be closer to you than a friend and He will never leave you or stop loving you. This man is Jesus.
It is because of the love of Jesus that we are able to escape guilt and shame. Because of what Jesus did, we are able to be wiped clean of our sins. We can be cleaned by Him. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, "God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God." It is because of Jesus sacrificing Himself on the cross that we can be redeemed. Jesus Christ died on the cross so that our sins could be forgiven and that we could be freed from them. Not only that, but on top of Jesus taking on our sins, He also gave us His righteousness. That means, that when we allow Christ into our lives, He takes away our sins and gives us the righteousness of the blameless man who knew no sin.
When Jesus was baptized, God spoke directly to everyone around, releasing the Holy Spirit into Jesus and saying from Heaven, "This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased." (Matthew 3:17; Mark 1:11) When we allow Jesus to take our sins away, He takes away the guilt and shame and gives us His righteousness so that God takes this stance about you now. It does not matter what sin you were doing, God says that you are His beloved child in whom He is well pleased. God gets rid of guilt and shame.
God does not love you by how you perform. He does not care if you can play every sport while getting straight A's, or even play half of the sports while getting straight B's. He cares about you. He loves you for you and not your performance. He does not care how well you do or not, He loves you for who you are on the inside; and that is His beloved child.
If we could gain His love by our performance, we would be serving a sick and twisted God. If all it took to counter all of our sins was some manual labor, then sin would not be such a big deal in His eyes. If all it took was rituals and ceremonies to completely get rid of sin, God would be a twisted God for sacrificing His one and only son on the cross for us. God could not care about our performance. He sent His son to cover our sins because He loves us, not what we do. He knew that we could not be perfect on our own, so He sent His son to destroy our sins. Because of Christ and what He did, we can not be freed from our sins and our baggage. We no longer have to be guilty or shameful.
Our God is a God who loves to restore His people. He is not ashamed of us. He is not forced to love us. In fact, He actually likes us, and He loves to love us. He wants to free you from your sins so that you no longer suffer from guilt and shame. All He asks is that you let Him do the work while you sit back and enjoy the peace and joy that He will give you. Romans 5:8 says, "but God demonstrates His own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." God did not wait for us to meet a standard or perform better. In fact, He came while we were at our lowest to show us His best. He did not wait for people to get into a church, or get dressed up, or do some rituals. He came while they were hating Him.
All it takes is asking God to be in our hearts. We cannot make the same mistake as Adam and Eve, running to our hands to try to cover our guilt and shame, when we serve a God who knows all. We must run to God for forgiveness and freedom. He will grant it to us. In fact, it is why He died on the cross for us. He wants us to be free, and it is all possible once you want to be free and ask God for that freedom. All it takes is asking Him to be your Lord and Savior and letting what He did on the cross be real for you. He died for you and wants you to be cleansed and made new. He does not want to watch His people suffer in guilt and sin. He wants freedom for you, and He has paid the pride so that you can have it.
"Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." (Hebrews 4:16)
-D
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