+DEV+ Hearts of Shame

Date: November 7, 2012 9:25 PM
Topic: +DEV+  Hearts of Shame

Hearts of Shame

"As the Scripture says, 'Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame.'"  (Romans 10:11)
Scripture Focus: Genesis 3:1-13, 21

Adam and Eve had a truly perfect relationship with God. Daily, God approached them in the garden and spoke to them. What lovely Spirit-to-spirit fellowship that must have been.

We're all too familiar with what happened next. The tempter made tasting a forbidden piece of fruit seem impossible to turn down. He made God's command seem irrelevant. Adam and Eve - and all of creation - would taste and know sin and shame. They pushed God out of His rightful place, filling their hearts with the shame of sinful rebellion. It was not necessarily in their physical nakedness that their shame lay, but in their sudden knowledge that they had sinned against their holy Creator. And it was too much to bear.

By making animal skin garments for them, God provided atonement for them through a blood sacrifice. God has also provided the perfect Atonement for us - we who are burdened with sin's shame. We can trust Jesus' blood to remove our sin, and to wash the shame and guilt from our hearts.

Insight: Out of my shameful failure and loss; Jesus i come, Jesus i come; Into the glorious gain of Thy cross; Jesus I come to Thee. (William T. Sleeper, 1887)