“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth…” Romans 1:16

This is day two of our study of “not being ashamed” of the gospel of Christ.

As I have researched this topic, it is clear to me we are looking at the two side of a coins. One side of the coin has the word NOT ASHAMED OF and the other side has the word AM ASHAMED OF.

We have a choice what to put after that — Christ must go on one side of the coin and Sin must go on the other. It is up to each individual to literally “choose sides.”

I cannot be ashamed of Christ without embracing my sin. Likewise, If I am not ashamed of Christ I must be ashamed of my own sins.

I have some friends from College who have come back to Christ but often talk of the “Old days” of binge drinking with so much relish that I wonder if they are not “reenjoying” their sins all over again.

Let’s get on with today…

We are looking at the second part of the Definition from WordNet Search of the word
Ashamed – “feeling shame or guilt or embarrassment or remorse”

Day 2: Guilt.

In the Wikipedia, guilt is defined as

“In psychology and ordinary language, guilt is simply a negative affective state in which one experiences regret at having done something one believes one should not have done. Guilt and its causes, merits, and demerits is a common theme in psychology and psychiatry. It is often associated with depression.”

So here we see that Guilt is prevalent in our world and causes us great pain. Just a simple Google search of our news shows that current news mentions the word Guilt – 8,630 times.

So, why would anyone feel guilty being associated with Christ?

The Global Language Monitor named Merry Christmas as one of the Top Politically Incorrect words of 2005. Although I wasn’t taken with the name, we can’t even call it X-Mas because:

“In the word X-Mas, the Greek letter ‘Chi’ represented by the Roman X actually stands for the first two letters of the name Christ.”

So in using this analogy:

If one mentions Christ at Christmas, we are guilty of political incorrectness, although without the birth of Christ we wouldn’t have a Christmas to celebrate!

Here is what the Bible says about guilt:

John 16:8 (New International Version)

⁸When he [The Holy Spirit] comes, he will convict the world of guilt^[a] in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment:

Footnotes:

a. John 16:8 Or will expose the guilt of the world

James 2:10 (New International Version)

¹⁰For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.

Acts 10:43 (New International Version)

⁴³All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

Nahum 1:3 (New International Version)

³ The LORD is slow to anger and great in power;
the LORD will not leave the guilty unpunished.
His way is in the whirlwind and the storm,
and clouds are the dust of his feet.

So what can we learn from this today?

1. The reason that guilt is such a problem is that we are all convicted or “exposed” by the Holy Spirit as shown in John 16:8
2. We cannot be perfect (James 2:10) – the only way to have our guilt forgiven is through the acceptance of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ (Acts 10:43)
3. The guilty will be punished. (Nahum 1:3) The ultimate determination of our guilt is rejection of Jesus Christ.

I simply must requote the verse from yesterday that fits this whole discussion best:

Luke 9:26 (New International Version) ²⁶If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.

I was reading the blog He Lives and admist a very impressive article on the Critics of Intelligent Design, there is a quote about one of the leading critics, a Dr. Mereki:

“He [Dr. Meriki] signed the note “Doing my part (to upset) the religious right, Evil Dr. P.”

We saw in John 16:8 that the Holy Spirit will convict the world of sin. Wow! I ask myself — why didn’t he sign the note — “Righteous Dr. P” if he feels so right in his anti-intelligent design theory. Hmmm.

Ask yourself as you pray – what am I guilty of? Do I care more about the guilt of political correctness or the guilt of denying God?

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