What is Shame?

Shame has been defined as “a spiritual consequence of sin”.  Oxford defines shame as “the feelings of sadness, embarrassment, and guilt that you have when you know that something you have done is wrong or stupid.” None of them quite plumb the depths of the biblical definition.  Irrespective, it is always viewed as unpleasant, and the world’s definition often focuses on one’s self-perception and self-worth. 

Less so, a spiritual consequence of sin because He could experience that consequence … of our sin, not His own … but then, is that really *experiencing* shame?  Or just receiving someone else’s punishment?

But He was pierced for our transgressions,
He was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on Him,
and by His wounds we are healed.
(Isaiah 53:5)

You may have heard the strange phrase “whipping boy.”  Do you know where that comes from?

“It seems an odd notion to us now that a royal court would have kept a child for the purpose of beating him when the crown prince did wrong. That’s just what did happen though. Whipping Boy was an established position at the English court during the Tudor and Stuart monarchies of the 15th and 16th centuries.”    The saying ‘Whipping boy’ – meaning and origin. (phrases.org.uk) 

Did the crown prince receive the ability never to do wrong again by the whipping boy being whipped?  Would punishment still come to the whipping boy if the crown prince failed and did wrong again?  As any actual “moral agency” or intrinsic power over behavior resided within the crown prince, the whipping boy didn’t stand a chance of escaping another beating.

Now, let’s turn to what it means to experience something.

While the crown prince may have suffered the emotions of seeing someone whom he cared about being whipped, did the crown prince suffer in the same way (e.g., personally, individually, emotionally, or physically) as that of the “whipping boy” who felt every blow in his entire being?

Do you see where I’m headed?

We’ll get there but for now let’s just agree that Jesus was no mere whipping boy, punished instead of us.  Read Romans 3:20-26 (verses 20-22 below).

Romans 3:20 Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.  21 But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.  22 This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.

Before dismissing the question, “Did Jesus Experience Shame?” with an offended “Of course not!”, one must ask if Jesus was truly human and to what degree is shame part of our human condition? 

“He had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that He might make atonement for the sins of the people. (Hebrews 2:17)

And if Jesus didn’t experience it, was He truly tempted in every way as we are (Hebrews 4:15)?  Was He made to be sin for us so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Cor. 5:21)?  Was Jesus a superhuman and not really like the rest of us?  But the mirror response of “Of course He did!” leaves open a quagmire of theological problems.

What is shame anyway? 

I’ve been quiet for a while, overwhelmed by life in general, trying to cling to my faith in the midst, toiling away with manual labor, being nourished by somewhat weak sermons that only left me hungry, and resorting to chewing on my own thoughts. 

This question, “Did Jesus Experience Shame?” has proven to be a rich for theological ideas to be mined.  There is an opportunity to go deep into shame–something we all experience to one degree or another– and a series is born in which we will explore whether Jesus, as fully-human-fully-divine, ever experienced shame.

The Storm is Upon Us

The wind whips us with forty lashes minus one.

The rain pelts in wave upon wave of needle pricks.

The air turns cold as the feeder bands come,

one after the other, in a relentless parade of persecution.

The storm is upon us, and there is no mistaking it.

Go to the inner room.

To the place of seclusion and safety.

Rest there in the stillness.

It is dark, windowless to the raging all around us.

The storm is upon us, and there is no mistaking it.

But God, You are our refuge.

You are the Master of the storm and the Stiller of the seas.

You silence the wind and shut the door to the storehouses of hail.

You govern the rain and the tides.

You set limits and seasons, and for that, Lord, we praise You.

The storm is upon us, but there is eternal safety for the righteous.

It’s a Passover of wrath in the quiet place of the heart.

In the heart secure in Christ.

His hand shields us as destruction befalls the wicked.

In Christ’s sanctuary of the soul,

We are at peace and rest,

And faith reigns unchallenged.

For our God is completely trustworthy.

The storm may be upon us, but there is eternal safety for the righteous.

(Isaiah 26:3-4)
Amen and amen.

Which brings me now to the final word I want to offer and why I began this sidebar on abortion and the New Covenant world at the outset.  It’s not going to be as simple as turning back the clock.  It’s not going to be as simple as going to a state that has laws as you believe.  There will be interstate complications of a national interest.  Interjurisdictional issues that will be for lawyers and lawmakers to resolve. 

Christians must be prepared to offer a Gospel solution…with neither freedom at the expense of life … nor life at the expense of freedom.  We must be prepared, not to take up arms in the looming “abortion wars”, but to speak peace and redemption.

Roe v Wade, for all the bad policy it is, and for all the damage it has done to our culture, it did serve one positive purpose.  By finding in the Commerce Clause a “right” to abortion and nationalizing it, Roe v Wade served as a lock on a Pandora’s Box of Interjurisdictional Troubles.

To be sure, that was never enough good to make bad policy into good.  When it is overturned which will happen eventually as the science and technology surrounding childbirth catch up with the law, we must be prepared for what comes next.

Christians must be able to speak the New Covenant’s grace
into the coming abortion wars and political chaos.
We are called to be peacemakers.

Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.  Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.  Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.  Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.  Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.  Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.  Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.  Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone.  If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Romans 12:9-18

I will raise these issues as questions with the understanding that I don’t have the answers.  But we need to think about them and be prepared to address the issues that Roe’s imperfect thinking kept in a Pandora’s box.  Issues of State vs. State.  Person vs. State.  Commerce vs. State.  Healthcare vs. State.  Insurance vs. State. 

They’re not insurmountable or without some degree of parallel
(such as interjurisdictional issues with marijuana legalization and drinking age
and physician assisted suicide, etc.).
In fact, the parallels ought to give us hope
that the abortion wars won’t end in mutual destruction.

What if a woman crosses state lines to get an abortion?  Which state’s laws apply and is it based upon residency or where the service is performed?  How does insurance pay for it as healthcare if the employer or healthcare insurer are located in a state where abortion is not legal but are willing to pay for it in a state where it is?  Will there be financial penalties for a company’s assisting a woman across state lines?  With a national insurer, how will medical reimbursement work?  What about national corporations with locations in numerous states with different laws?  Can a physician offering abortion services be prosecuted for doing legal work in their home state if it’s illegal in another?  What about licensure or professional credentialing by national organizations?

These are among the many questions which will need to be addressed state by state.  It can be done as other interjurisdictional issues have been without nationalizing a solution. 

Thank you for hearing me out.  I know this topic is a hard one.  Let’s be prayerful and peacemakers and show the way of grace that leads straight to the Gospel in a New Covenant world.

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The Series on Roe v. Wade includes:
Http://seminarygal.com/ruminations-on-roe-v-wade
Http://seminarygal.com/life-and-freedom-as-old-as-eden
Http://seminarygal.com/freedom-at-the-expense-of-life
Http://seminarygal.com/no-doomsday-future
Http://seminarygal.com/no-consequence-chauvinism-of-abortion
Http://seminarygal.com/life-at-the-expense-of-the-gospel
Http://seminarygal.com/roe-v-wade-pandoras-box-of-interjurisdictional-troubles

I know the passage of Scripture below doesn’t occur in the earliest manuscripts.  I wish it was in all of them, plus all 4 Gospels, plus expounded upon by every writer of the New Testament.  Its singular lesson about the Gospel and the person and work of Jesus Christ is just that important.

Let us not become a nation of first-stone-throwers
and condemn people who have engaged in sin. 
Let us be more Christlike with the Spirit that gives life. 

This is what we should seek as Roe v Wade is being considered for overturning.

John 8:2 At dawn [Jesus] appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. 3 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4 and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” 6 They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. 7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”  8 Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.  9 At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there.

10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” 11 “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.” (John. 8:2-11). 

Life and Freedom.  Do you see them both?

The two are upheld in beautiful tension and displayed in Christ Himself, in both His life and His death.  In this instance, Jesus was sinless and had every right to throw the first stone. But His focus was the Spirit that gives life not the law that brings death (2 Corinthians 3).

Christians should be mindful of both Life and Freedom as we prepare to minister tough topics in this New Covenant world. Let us not be a nation of first-stone-throwers and focus so much on the humanity of the unborn that we lose the humanity of the woman. Let us not focus so much on the law that we lose the Gospel and the witness. When God gives us opportunities like this, let’s display His heart and live the Gospel of grace and redemption to a watching world.

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The Series on Roe v. Wade includes:
Http://seminarygal.com/ruminations-on-roe-v-wade
Http://seminarygal.com/life-and-freedom-as-old-as-eden
Http://seminarygal.com/freedom-at-the-expense-of-life
Http://seminarygal.com/no-doomsday-future
Http://seminarygal.com/no-consequence-chauvinism-of-abortion
Http://seminarygal.com/life-at-the-expense-of-the-gospel
Http://seminarygal.com/not-a-nation-of-first-stone-throwers

Lest you think I’m only hard on the pro-Roe movement, here’s my biblical worldview aimed straight at the pro-life movement.  Over the past few weeks, I’ve watched dismayed as some in the pro-life movement—even friends—seem to be spiking the football over the possibility that Roe v Wade gets overturned. 

The Supreme Court should never have that kind of power based on a majority.  The Constitution should be our secondary guide, not the whims of culture or swings of a pendulum.  Our first guide as Christians should be God Himself.

Personally, I am troubled seeing fellow Christians gleefully seeking to declare it murder
and the women who seek abortion to be murderers. 
Why? Because there are other life-giving solutions which preach the Gospel
and don’t point the accusatory and judgmental finger.

Hunting down pregnant women and forcing them to give birth or be prosecuted as murderers is NOT the Gospel way.  It does not promote godliness or enhance the culture in any way.  In fact, when ammunition like that is given to the world, it only exacerbates the problems and trashes the Gospel underfoot.  It’s not about power or control.  It’s about freedom and it’s about life.  It’s about the Gospel giving both freedom and life …plus the joy we can know when we understand what it means to be a sinner forgiven by grace.

People who are spiking the football like that are not acting in a biblical way.  Period.

Let’s promote wise use of both life and freedom because we are living in a New Covenant world in which the Gospel is paramount. 

2 Corinthians 3:6 “He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant– not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.”

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The Series on Roe v. Wade includes:
Http://seminarygal.com/ruminations-on-roe-v-wade
Http://seminarygal.com/life-and-freedom-as-old-as-eden
Http://seminarygal.com/freedom-at-the-expense-of-life
Http://seminarygal.com/no-doomsday-future
Http://seminarygal.com/no-consequence-chauvinism-of-abortion
Http://seminarygal.com/life-at-the-expense-of-the-gospel

Continuing my sidebar of the New Covenant world and the topic of abortion, yes, God gave us life.  And yes, God-given freedom is meant to be used to do good.

Sexual freedom may feel like liberation to women who have bought the “have-it-all” assertions of feminism, but in reality, it’s destructive to culture…to the family…and to women. 

Contrary to popular belief, abortion does not empower women. It empowers men. 

It’s a lie of the highest order and assumes all women are stupid enough to believe Roe v Wade has a woman’s true best interests at heart.  I hear young women protesting, decrying the patriarchy and how men in robes will be telling them to give birth.  Do they not hear themselves? 

Abortion doesn’t liberate anyone but men.  It’s a wolf of chauvinism in the fleece of rights that women think they can feel good about.  But abortion does not elevate women to the status of men, it brings women down below a man’s status and denies women their higher role as the primary builders and stabilizers of culture. 

Women, primarily by virtue of marriage and family, have a unique and powerful contribution to an enduring population and enhancement of culture. 

“One flesh” (that’s marriage). “Be fruitful and multiply” that’s reproduction and family.  That was God’s best for men and women.

I am particularly grieved by men who support Roe v Wade.  Why do they?  I’d argue that at its core, you’ll find chauvinism disguised.  Dig to the root and maybe it’s: (1) So they can sow wild oats as often as they please and there’s no shotgun marriage to force them to live with the consequences of their actions. (2) They profit from abortion in some way, maybe through research grants on fetal tissue or at big pharma or through having a workforce of women who don’t take time off for family.  (3) They think it will score them political points with women when otherwise these men have little in their favor. 

I don’t know.  Boil it all down and the answers are probably what they always are:
Money, Sex, and Politics.

Sexual freedom only exists in the male form because only men can walk away post-pregnancy. Birth control prevents motherhood, but abortion is used only when motherhood was not prevented.  For the woman who chose abortion, make no mistake, there is no true freedom.  Deep down, her mind, perhaps even her body, will always know that she was once—however briefly—a mother. 

Since 1973, men can ignore their role, get out of marriage, have all the sex they want, and go on living, financially free, out of sight, out of mind, moving on to the next woman. 

That is not feminism.  That is not empowering women.  
Women need to be done with that deception and playing the fool. 
Women deserve love and commitment that represents God’s best.

Peter reminds us to “Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil;” (1 Peter 2:16).

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The Series on Roe v. Wade includes:
Http://seminarygal.com/ruminations-on-roe-v-wade
Http://seminarygal.com/life-and-freedom-as-old-as-eden
Http://seminarygal.com/freedom-at-the-expense-of-life
Http://seminarygal.com/no-doomsday-future
Http://seminarygal.com/no-consequence-chauvinism-of-abortion

The pro-Roe movement wants a choice and if Roe is headed back to the purview of the States, there will be more than one State to let women freely choose.  There’s no need for doomsday scenarios, terrible logic, or waving coat hangers wildly at the Supreme Court by young women who are as uninformed as they are afraid because they feel like it’s their right.  That freedom isn’t going away anytime soon. 

This chart illustrates why.  https://www.axios.com/2022/05/14/abortion-state-laws-bans-roe-supreme-court

According to the Guttmacher Institute (which is a friend to abortion, btw), “23 states have laws that could be used to restrict the legal status of abortion” (not eliminate, restrict) and “16 states and the District of Columbia have laws that protect the right to abortion” with four states and DC having no restrictions whatsoever.  I’m not sure what they did with other 11 states (including Indiana, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania among others), but we’ll ignore that for the moment and just say you’ve got plenty of choices.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has declared Chicago will be an “oasis” for abortion…an odd term for sure. Oh ye, young women with coat hangers!  Have no fear!  Come to Chicago or DC or NY or California and you might even get your employer to pay for the travel.  Cue “Midnight at the Oasis” so you can get back to work in the morning. 

Now, for those in the pro-life movement, it’s not a doomsday scenario if some states still allow abortions.  A fifty percent restriction, for example, still saves lives of children whose vulnerability and innocence make them the first victim of abortion. 
Every life saved is worth celebrating. 
With every life saved and cared for, it destroys the false argument
that pro-life people don’t care about babies after they’re born.  
Take care of the first ones and maybe the world will trust you with more.

There have been countless “first victims”—a far cry from the “safe, legal, and rare” mantra that made access easy.  But there are other victims too.  The ones the pro-Roe advocates can no longer silence in a world of social media.

Stories like this one from Luana tell of the secondary victims and the lives impacted forever by freedom at the expense of life.  This photo series appeared on Telegram and yeah, she’s white as are most of the women protesting. 

“I had to tell my husband because of bad choices I made
he would never have his own biological children.”

Infertility is real.  Now think back to the racially skewed abortion services in our last segment.  Pro-Roe architects condition minority women to get rid of their fetuses of color through a procedure that renders many moms infertile. 

Take a moment to ponder the ethical problems of racially skewed infertility. Contrast with sterilization, genocide, depopulation. Now look at all those young white women protesting to keep abortion on demand, as easy as Netflix.
Ethnically skewed infertility for another race doesn’t seem so noble, does it?

Luana’s story continues, “Every day I live with the reality that the only children I will ever bear I killed.”  She experienced both the painful reality of infertility but also the redemption that is available to every woman who has had an abortion.

If there is one take-home message I want through this study of the New Covenant world and how it speaks to the abortion debate, it’s this: History cannot be undone, but you’re not a slave to your history. There is a freedom that doesn’t also come at the expense of life. And it’s the freedom of finding life in Christ that will result in life elsewhere in a far more effective way than legislation.

“If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.   32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.. if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. (John 8:31-36)

Today’s principle: The truth will set you free
and Jesus stands ready
to give you the freedom that is not at the expense of life.

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The Series on Roe v. Wade includes:
Http://seminarygal.com/ruminations-on-roe-v-wade
Http://seminarygal.com/life-and-freedom-as-old-as-eden
Http://seminarygal.com/freedom-at-the-expense-of-life
Http://seminarygal.com/no-doomsday-future

To those in the pro-Roe movement, Roe v Wade represents freedom (specifically reproductive freedom and sexual “liberation” for women), but to those in the pro-life movement that freedom is at the expense of life for the baby who can’t be seen except with a pregnancy test and a high-powered microscope.

But God sees. 

Someday we will see as He does, and every day, science—in honest assessment—
gets a little closer to this biblical reality. 

“I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.  My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.  Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. (Psalm 139:14-16)

To the pro-Roe movement, it’s just a choice, freedom.  But any honest discussion must recognize the way language has been used to create and control public opinion. How often do you see abortion presented as the race issue it is or ascribe hate crimes to the white collars promoting, or the white coats performing, abortions?

The National Library of Medicine has an article, “Perceiving and Addressing the Pervasive Racial Disparity in Abortion.“  In it, the authors write,

“Abortion has been euphemistically described as a “choice” or a human “right.” The undeniable objective reality, whatever one’s political persuasion or ideological posture, is that each abortion is a death. Death by abortion, however, has proven to be an inconvenient reality for many of our politicians and scientists alike. Mortality and fertility are 2 of the 3 principal determinants, along with migration, of the size and demographic composition of the U.S. population.  Given its high incidence and racially skewed distribution, abortion is unquestionably the most demographically consequential occurrence for the minority community.” 

“The most demographically consequential occurrence for the minority community.”  That statement should echo uncomfortably on the heart of anyone who loves a diverse America.  That’s not politics or mere stats.  It’s not inflammatory or anything other than honesty to point out that a third of African Americans are aborted every year at all stages of development, and to what degree is uncertain, the fetus’ parts are sold to research, according to The New York Times. The current administration lifted the ban on fetal tissue research last year and scientists formerly upset with the Trump-era policy are applauding.

I’m guessing the scientific community has been ethically compromised for quite a while,
well before NIH-funded biolabs, Wuhan research facilities, mandatory vaccinations, and promoting COVID mandates even for children like I saw on a TV ad last night.

How much does a doctor’s or scientist’s soul go for these days,
to sell out the lives of children for no imperative medical necessity?
Never forget, Josef Mengele was a doctor/scientist too.

Imagine if pro-Roe architects, politicians, scientific researchers, and yes, Hippocratic Oath doctors, etc. were to lift the veil and honestly describe early term abortion as dismembering a genetic human being (not a tomato or an earthworm, a trout or a puppy).  Predominantly minority human beings with wholly unique, fully human DNA.

It’d be like seeing the African American community, for example,
and erasing 1 of every 3 of them. That’s the population loss.

Self-destruction of their demographic future is the result of such freedom.  Women have been sold a bill of goods called “choice” but call it racially skewed depopulation and suddenly “safe, legal, and rare” doesn’t make it right.  Safe depopulation?  Legal depopulation?  Rare depopulation?  Does it make it “not depopulation” because minority women have been conditioned to do it to their own offspring? 

(Yes, this discussion should make all of us uncomfortable but it’s important for the soul of our nation and the value of black and brown lives who matter enough that Christ died for all of them. We will focus soon on how we can turn discussion to the beautiful redemption available to all in the New Covenant world. First, we must see things for what they are.)

Back to the National Library of Medicine article,
“Black women have been experiencing induced abortions at a rate nearly 4 times that of White women for at least 3 decades, and likely much longer. The impact in years of potential life lost, given abortion’s high incidence and racially skewed distribution, indicates that it is the most demographically consequential occurrence for the minority population. The science community has refused to engage on the subject and the popular media has essentially ignored it. In the current unfolding environment, there may be no better metric for the value of Black lives.” 

Today’s Principle: Each person by virtue of uniquely human DNA
is of value to God.    

Thank you for reading these thoughts as my attempt toward being a peacemaker in a New Covenant world. Any discussion must begin by acknowledging the truth on all sides and seeing neither side of this debate is without sin. All sides can experience redemption.

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The Series on Roe v. Wade includes:
Http://seminarygal.com/ruminations-on-roe-v-wade
Http://seminarygal.com/life-and-freedom-as-old-as-eden
Http://seminarygal.com/freedom-at-the-expense-of-life

Christians, such as I, see that we’re living in a New Covenant world.  One of grace, freedom, love, obedience to Christ, and proclamation of the Gospel.  They are all facets of the New Covenant world.

This New Covenant world has deep roots before the Old Covenant
and even back to Eden
when God gave Adam and Eve both life…and choice.

“And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” (Genesis 2:16-17)

Do you see?  It’s right there.  Life and freedom.  They are both God-given and held in near equal regard by Him.  God surely knew that with Freedom, some would not choose what brings Life. Adam and Eve did not. Importantly, God resolved the challenge of Life and Freedom–not by stripping Freedom to promote Life–but by sending Christ to die for our sins and give us Life eternal. That’s the New Covenant world in which we live.

Today’s principle is that God honors both Life and Freedom. He gave both in the beginning. Because He honors both, these are the ground rules from which we derive informed, biblical understanding of events and issues the Bible does not specifically address.

There is no simplistic world in which Roe is overturned and everyone moves on, but we can start with an informed baseline. Thank you for continuing to bear with me as God has laid this divisive topic on my heart and I am called to speak peace.

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The Series on Roe v. Wade includes:
Http://seminarygal.com/ruminations-on-roe-v-wade
Http://seminarygal.com/life-and-freedom-as-old-as-eden