Is Shame and Guilt the Way?

Jesus, speaking to Nicodemus at night, said this in John 3:17, "For God did not send His Son in to the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved." Okay, we want to be more like Jesus each day, so why then do we think it is our Christian or pastoral or devotional writing duty to condemn someone or our self? Ah, never caught yourself doing that to yourself? I have so many times that it isn't funny anymore. Then, I read one of the devotionals I receive each morning doing that very thing to me this morning. If Jesus didn't come to condemn the world, why then do we think it is our job as Christians to do that very thing?

If you grew up in the past century or so, you probably experienced the use of shame and guilt in your training or raising or whatever. Boot camps and boot camp wannabe's are good at this sort of thing. Shame and guilt are piled on to make the recruit into what the service or other organization needs to fit their particular mold. That may be fine for a limited term of service, but what happens when a relentless perfectionism is driven so deep into the mind and heart that shame and guilt become our way of living day to day?

Is there a way to become a saint without Christ? Yes, Jesus gave that way in the Sermon on the Mount, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." Take that little verse out of context (Matt 5:48, if you want to look it up) and you seem to have a way to get to Heaven. All you have to do is be perfect like God! However, this instruction comes at the end of the first part of the Sermon on the Mount. The key word is 'therefore', in other words if you and me include all those instructions and qualities Jesus listed up to verse 48 then we shall be perfect. Is this then the way to become like God? Yes and no.

You and I can never be God. Anything created by the Creator cannot become the Creator. What we seek is the bottom line, the way to Heaven. Interesting that we should want that. The word translated as 'perfect' is the Greek word teleios, and the first definition in my Bible dictionary is: brought to its end, finished. We use 'perfect' because the text means to be finished to God's standard. But what does that remind you of? What Jesus said on the cross maybe? Our Lord said, "It is finished!" and died for our sins. The word Jesus used was teleo: to bring to a close, to finish, to end. So it seems to me that the way to become finished is the Way we have read all along: Jesus. We can pile shame and guilt upon ourselves because we cannot in our own strength meet the standard of finishing Jesus set down in His great sermon, or we can seek out the Way who does not condemn us, but saves us. We can attempt in our meager strength to live up to the Law of Moses and be beaten down when we fail, or we can come to the Way who removes the condemnation of the Law and sets us free. Who is this Way? John 14:6, Jesus said, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No man comes to the Father except through Me."

God's love and blessing go with you on this day, live in peace!
Bucky