Matins Devotion: January 21, 2025
Shame, in a Biblical sense, can mean a few different things. While guilt is more a legal term indicating your status before God on account of your sins, shame can be more the inward feeling of regret you experience over your sins. Likewise, there are times when guilt more so refers to the sorrow you feel over your sin, while shame refers to the sorrow you feel from enduring the sins of others. But in all of this, there’s always an element of humiliation to shame, a sense of feeling low and worthless and pathetic.
And so, in Romans chapter 10, that’s what St. Paul is promising us we don’t have to endure anymore through the salvation of Jesus. Everyone who believes in Christ will not be put to shame. Everyone. No matter what.
So if you’re filled with shame because of the sins you’ve committed, because of the nakedness you’ve exposed to the world and to your God like Adam and Eve, be at peace. Christ has forgiven you. With the same authoritative speech that brought the world into existence, He has spoken your sins out of existence. Even if you remember them down to the marrow in your bones, God does not remember them. Through the blood of Christ, your sins are no more. So let your shame die and rot before the pierced feet of Jesus Christ.
If you’re filled with shame because you’ve been buried underneath the sins of others, look to those same feet. And you will see that your Savior destroyed the sins that made you feel low and worthless, just as He has covered you in the honor of God, in the righteousness that makes you perfect and glorious and eternally welcome in the arms of your Father. So once again, let your shame die and rot before the pierced feet of Jesus Christ.
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