Genesis 3:6-7. 6So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 7Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.
Have you ever felt guilty? I’m sure you have? Maybe you did something wrong and you immediately felt bad about it. You knew you did wrong so you were sad or even mad at yourself. Maybe your feelings of guilt made you confess and tell the truth. Or maybe your feelings of guilt made you try to hide the truth.
Feeling guilty is no fun, but there’s something even worse than feeling guilty – feeling shame. Guilt is the feeling we have when we DO something bad. But shame is the feeling we have when we feel like we ARE bad. Shame is a feeling of unworthiness. It tells us that we are not enough.
We can see this shame at work in Genesis 3:6-7. In verse six Adam and Eve sin so they should feel guilty. But in verse seven it says that they suddenly know that they were naked and tried to cover it up. Now people running around naked may sound weird to you, but it is a picture of Adam and Eve’s love for each other and their complete honesty with each other, that is, before they sinned against God. This is how they were described in Genesis 2:
Genesis 2:25. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.
Look at Genesis 3:7 again. Notice it doesn’t say that they felt bad because they disobeyed God and ate the fruit. They don’t feel guilt for what they did, they feel shame for who they are. And that’s exactly what Satan wants you to feel. He wants your guilt to make you feel shame. He wants you to think that because you made a mistake, that now you are a mistake. In fact, Satan’s “shame-game” goes back to even before Eve sinned. Look at what he said to her right before she ate the forbidden fruit.
Genesis 3:5. [Satan said to Eve] God knows that when you eat of [the fruit] your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.
“Eve, you are not enough as you are. You need to be more. More like God than you already are.” Satan isn’t just deceiving her, he’s shaming her. He’s making her feel like she is bad, even before she ever sinned. And this shame causes her to drift away from trusting God.
Every single person lives with shame – a feeling that we are not good enough, that we have to do more and be better than everyone else (which just makes other people not like us). Worse yet, our shame can make us feel like God doesn’t love us or that we have to prove ourselves to him. But God doesn’t want us to live in shame. When Adam and Eve sinned, God did something extremely merciful and kind – he covered their shame.
Genesis 3:21. And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.
This is the first time an animal was sacrificed to cover up the sin and shame of people. Notice that God didn’t just forgive their sin, he also covered over their shame by covering up their nakedness with clothes. This is what Jesus does for us! He forgives all of our sin and guilt, but he also covers us up with his robes of righteousness. His “enoughness” covers our “not enoughness.” His honor covers our shame.
With Jesus in our hearts, we never have to stay in our shame again. He is worthy and now so are we!
Questions: Can you think of a time when you felt guilty? What about shame? How does the cross of Jesus make us good not bad, worthy not unworthy, and honored not shamed?
TLICfamily 