Is all shame bad? Not many people would want all their thoughts to be public. It’s not just because we don’t want to deal with opposition. It’s because we know that some thoughts are not worthy of being seen by others. It’s a healthy thing to be able to recognize unworthy thoughts.
But where did shame come from? Does each generation or dominant group establish what will be worthy and what will not?
Shame started at the beginning. The first man and woman were naked. The Bible specifically says that “they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed” (Genesis 2:25). They were given a wonderful environment and unbroken fellowship with God and had nothing to be ashamed of. They were given only one “don’t.”
When they disobeyed, the first man and woman did two things: they tried to clothe themselves and they tried to hide from God. Two things that started that day have never stopped: shame and fear.
But God didn’t leave them ashamed and afraid. He clothed them with tunics of animal skins. It meant that something died to remove their shame.
Some societal shaming is wrong. Most people have felt shame because they couldn’t do what others in the group could do, they didn’t look like the more status-endowed people looked, or just because they always got picked last. The pain caused by that unjust shaming usually becomes anger with the passing of time.
But some shame is like that felt by Adam and Eve. They really had disobeyed God, and their nakedness left them unworthy to be in His presence.
When Jesus was arrested, the Roman soldiers took His clothes. They divided them up among themselves. Jesus was naked at the cross. The New Testament says that Jesus “endured the cross, despising the shame” (Hebrews 12:2). The animals that died so that God could clothe Adam and Eve were to picture what Jesus would do. He “bore our sins in His own body on the tree” (I Peter 2:24).
Not being ashamed is an important part of getting better. Not by denying that we’ve sinned, but by receiving by faith the tunic to clothe us that God provides.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.