April 19
Decoupling Shame from Sin
For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. ––Galatians 5:1 ESV
The devil loves to link shame and sin in the mind of the believer. He convinces us that the two are inevitable reactions to our fallen nature. He whispers, “Sin followed by shame is as natural as gravity.”
And it’s a big, fat lie.
Let me demonstrate how this toxic cycle works: we sin, feel remorse, repent, and then feel shame when we sin again. And the cycle repeats itself.
It’s the equivalent of shooting rats rooting around in garbage: unless we remove the garbage, the rats will just come back. The “garbage” is the lie that the devil tells us: “You are not worthy of God’s love because you continue to commit the same sins.” That lie generates the fuel that powers the engine of shame, and it’s based on “sin management.” In other words, the lie is that the more efficient we are at reducing the amount of sin in our life, the more worthy we are of God’s love.
It sounds natural, doesn’t it? But it’s wrong and totally unbiblical. Thankfully, we worship a Savior who smashed the natural order; He disrupted the gravitational pull of the sin-shame cycle, and destroyed the enemy’s ability to keep us locked in the lie.
Man of God, you are no longer subject to Satan’s cycle of sin-shame because Jesus destroyed it and replaced it with the supernatural power of grace. When we get this through our heads and actually begin to believe it, something miraculous happens: the Holy Spirit transforms our minds, heals our hearts, and helps us to fully walk in our true identity in Christ.
While Satan links sin with shame, our Father does not. As children of God saved by grace, we wield the sword of the Spirit to cleave this mindset and reject the lie. And when we decouple sin from shame, it robs the devil of his ability to use shame to drive us into our sin cycle again.
Instead, when we stumble, we soak ourselves in the truth of His Word that reminds us over and over that we are loved, forgiven, and free to live without shame.
Lord, I reject the lie that shame is a natural part of the Christian’s life. I replace that lie with the truth of Your love, grace, and mercy.