Not put to shame

As it is written: "Behold, I lay in Zion and stumbling stone and a rock of offense, and whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame." – Romans 9.33

I know I am a bit of an old fogey. In fact that word might be so old that people may not even know what it means today.  Dictionay.com defines it this way – ‘ an extremely fussy, old-fashioned, or conservative person.’

Anyway, I am surely going to come across as an old fogey today. But it seems to me like we live in a time that has lost all sense of shame. Now, before any historians get too upset with me I realise that every generation has felt the same way. But bear with me.

Today’s verse says that those who believe in Christ will not be put to shame. I understand that the primary meaning is that Christians will have no shame for eternity but will instead have confidence in their eternity with God.

But I think there is a practical application for today as well.

Nobody likes to be ashamed of themselves or their behaviour. We all like to think that we are okay. In order to achieve that ‘okayness’ we try different ways to make us feel good about ourselves. We try to put shame away by convincing ourselves that we really aren’t all that bad. We tell ourselves that we are not as bad as the next guy. We use our religion as a cover to hide our shame.

Even more common is to change the idea of what there is to be ashamed of. If we can just convince ourselves and the culture around us that things are not shameful then we can feel better about ourselves. ‘See, I’m not so bad! Everyone is doing it now so it must be okay!’

I can see that in my relatively short life time. It seems like nearly everything that was once shameful and embarrassing is now openly accepted and popular. What makes is hard is that not only are these things no longer shameful, but everyone is expected to accept the new shamelessness. When that happens everybody feels better about themselves and everything seems okay.

The truth is that it makes everybody feel better about themselves, but it doesn’t deal with the real problem. Sin is still sin no matter how society feels about it. Wrong is still wrong no matter what new laws and new policies say. Legislatures and governments can’t make wrong right by passing new laws.

And deep down shame is still there.

Yet there is freedom from shame. It comes with freedom from the power of sin. Sure, the believer still sins and will still be ashamed when they do but that shame has no power because it has truly been dealt with and not just legislated away.

Those who believe in Christ, who put their faith in Him find true freedom from shame. Praise God for that true freedom.