.
“The problem here is the case of those who are miserable or who are suffering from spiritual depression because of their past – either because of some particular sin in their past, or because of the particular form which sin happened to take in their case.
“I would say that in my experience of ministry extending now over many years there is no more common difficulty.”
– D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Spiritual Depression “That One Sin” (emph. mine)
As we grow older, not only do the number of our sins increase, but we grow in grace and sensitivity to sin, and we cry out: “Do not remember the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions.” (Psa 25:7)
All believers, with a tender conscience, struggle at times with the memory of their past, longing to be free of the memory of “sin and fear, guilt and shame” (see further here).
“The nearer a man gets to God the greater he sees his sin.” (Lloyd-Jones)
The irony is that, at the same time, we live in a society that increasingly denies the very existence of sin.
A Shameless Society Loves to Shame
I should qualify what I just said:
The society we live in increasingly denies the existence of sin in itself.
Instead it compensates by labelling as sin what it sees in others who disagree with them.
“Woe to those
– who call evil good, and good evil;
– who put darkness for light, and light for darkness;
– who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
“Woe to those
– who are wise in their own eyes,
– and prudent in their own sight!” (Isa 5:20-21)
When you deny personal responsibility for your own sin and shame, inevitably you see yourself as a victim, and focus instead on the sin and shame (real or imagined) of others.
This is not to deny that “others” can’t do some pretty horrible things.
But today, the shaming epidemic extends well beyond individual “others” to include all of the same skin colour, gender, religion or race.
Recently Brauer College in Warrnambool, Victoria, required all male students to stand and apologise to the female students for sexually abusive behaviour perpetrated by their gender.
Many of the boys were traumatised by the experience, as were their parents.
One mother (among many) wrote: “Wow, just wow… this is actually disgusting Brauer College… not at all impressed that you made my son apologise for something he’s never done nor considered doing.”
Another mother wrote of her son’s experience: “He wasn’t sure why, he just knows that he was told to get up and apologise for things he hadn’t done. He’s upset by it – he now has this misconception that everybody looks at him and males as predators or somebody wishing to do harm to someone in a sexualised manner – seriously, he’s 12.”
And one more: “They’ve singled out an entire gender – it’s so wrong.”
But in the aftermath, predictably the College refused to take responsibility for having done anything “so wrong” towards their students (and many of the female students were also distressed). The best they could do was to recognise that what they had done was “inappropriate”, but “well-intended”.
There is little hope for a society whose education system refuses to accept blame for its own sins, but pours blame on innocent victims because of their skin colour, gender, religion or race.
But that is the nature of the beast which is our current woke culture. It loves to focus on identifiable groups to blame for its ills.
Martyn Iles commented on the flak our Prime Minister is getting:
“He is not guilty. But that is not how woke guilt works. It imputes guilt by tribe, not by individual.
When the Women’s March for Justice said they were opposing the white, powerful, male establishment, they were not kidding. If white, male, able, powerful are the target, then Scott Morrison is the very archetype of those things in modern politics. The target is on his face…
This is an innocent man being diminished, attacked, and blamed, not because of anything he did, but because of the sins of a few white men he has probably never met, and whose behaviour he has already put to shame through his life and example.”
The irony in all this is that most, of all stripes, all agree and loudly condemn cyber bullying of the vulnerable. Yet they cannot see that trial by media of those at a disadvantage in being able to defend themselves is no different.
I am not defending those who are guilty here: if a man, or woman, is proven guilty then let it be known “that the rest also may fear”. I am certainly not opposed to cleaning up the cess pool that evidently pollutes at least corners of the corridors of power in our Parliament House, or elsewhere.
What I am against is the cyber bullying that is now rampant and entrenched in our culture. Whether it be by the press, or pressure groups, or celebrities like Harry and Meghan, using a position of power to shame the vulnerable who are at a disadvantage in being able to defend themselves is a cancer in our society.
Public shaming like this of the vulnerable, whether by cyber bullying or otherwise, always has devastating consequences for those being targeted.
In the case of Aspley school teachers, Ian Isaacs and Mary McMahon, it ruined their reputations.
In the case of Dolly Everett it contributed significantly to her suicide.
As Christians, too, we need to watch out for this.
It is hard enough that Christians are a prime target of the woke culture in which we live.
It is even sadder when Christians in power in the church use that power to target and shame vulnerable believers they disagree with, often over relatively minor issues.
Again let me stress, I am not excusing the guilty. If the person, especially a leader, is witnessed to be continuing in sin, then “rebuke him in the presence of all, that the rest also may fear.” (1 Tim 5:20).
But to publicly shame a brother or sister in Christ where reliable witnesses are lacking (1 Tim 5:19), or where their testimony has not been tested (Matt 26:59, Acts 6:13, Acts 24:5-6), and without allowing the accused himself to hear from, let alone examine, such witness, is shameful and no different from the ways of the fallen world around us.
Satan, the Ultimate Cyber Bully, Loves to Shame
Satan is the ultimate “Cyber Bully”.
He is the one behind the woke culture’s attacks on skin colour, gender, race. And especially, on Christianity.
He uses any and all means to discourage you with a sense of sin and shame.
Those who use their power to shame the innocent and vulnerable are doing the devil’s work.
But, of course, Satan does not limit his attacks to the vulnerable in their (relative) innocence, like Job (Job 1:8).
He has a whole arsenal of weapons with which to attack the believer, berating him with the memory of his very real sins and failings from the past, with the accompanying very real sense of shame.
It does not matter that the believer has repented of such long ago, found forgiveness in Christ and taken all reasonable measures to put matters right with those offended. Satan still attacks.
He is the Accuser of the Brethren (Rev 12:10). His name is Diabolos, the Devil – literally: “the one who hurls accusations, slander.” He loves to accuse, to bring down the believer in despair.
Martyn Lloyd Jones notes: “From the moment we become Christians we become the special objects of the attention of the devil… While he cannot rob us of our salvation he can make us miserable. He can, if we are foolish enough to listen to him, seriously limit our enjoyment of our salvation.”
Christian and Hopeful fell easy prey to Giant Despair, and Satan finds easy pickings in the despair of the discouraged Christian today.
In this regard I have observed that, his attacks upon my soul are especially vicious in my devotions, early on the Lord’s day, before I come to worship. And, even more so if I am about to preach.
“Who are you to preach to others? You are such a disgrace. How could God use you, you who are worse than any other? How can you even come before Him to worship Him?”
Oh, how shall I, whose native sphere
Is dark, whose mind is dim,
Before th’ Ineffable appear,
And on my natural spirit bear
The uncreated beam?
– Thomas Binney
Many of God’s saints have endured times when Satan has attacked their assurance of salvation by the memory of past sins.
Those like David Brainerd and John Newton come readily to mind.
Such times are not outside of God’s all-wise providence, or beyond His fatherly oversight. The Westminster Confession reminds us that one reason “true believers may have the assurance of their salvation divers ways shaken, diminished, and intermitted” is “by God’s withdrawing the light of His countenance and suffering even such as fear Him to walk in darkness and to have no light.” (WCF Ch 18, §6)
Though, like Jesus, we be “led into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil”, yet we need to remember that even that “leading” is under the oversight of “the Spirit” (Matt 4:1). So we entrust ourselves to the all-wise providence of God.
But still, such times are painful, even if “afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” (Heb 12:11)
And, with David, we cry: “Do not remember the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions.”
How to Respond to Reminders of “Sin and Fear, Guilt and Shame”
Begin, as Christian did in Pilgrim’s Progress, when he cried out in the castle of Giant Despair:
“What a fool am I, thus to lie in a stinking dungeon, when I may as well walk at liberty! I have a key in my bosom, called Promise, that will, I am persuaded, open any lock in Doubting Castle.”
Flee to God’s promise of the forgiveness of sin:
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 Joh 1:9)
There is a way for man to rise
To that sublime Abode;
An Offering and a Sacrifice,
A Holy Spirit’s energies,
An Advocate with God:
“If anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins” (1 Joh 2:1-2)
When Satan tempts me to despair,
And tells me of the guilt within,
Upward I look, and see Him there
Who made an end of all my sin.
– Charitie Bancroft
From a previous post:
If you could have anything you wanted in the world, anything at all:
– Either: health, wealth, live wherever you want, the best possible job, marriage to the perfect wife/husband, the most wonderful children, travel wherever you want whenever you want…
– Or: a clear conscience and sins forgiven…
Which would you choose?
Only a fool would choose the first.
Our chief joy is that our sins are forgiven. Praise God!
That is how the apostle Paul handled the memory of his past sins: “I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man,” (1 Tim 1:13).
He praised God. He used the memory of his past sins, now forgiven, as an opportunity to give thanks, to revel in the mercy of God:
“But I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant, with faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.” (vv 13-14)
Martyn Lloyd-Jones comments: “You and I must never look at any sin in our past life in any way except that which leads us to praise God and to magnify His grace in Christ Jesus.”
Paul also used this memory to encourage the worst of sinners, like you and me, that we too can obtain mercy, and rejoice in the grace of God:
“This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. However, for this reason I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering, as a pattern to those who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life.” (vv 15-16)
Again, Lloyd-Jones: “The Lord Jesus Christ saved him in order to set him up as a model for those people who feel that their particular sin somehow or another passes the limit of grace and the mercy of God.”
“As there is no sin so small but it deserves damnation; so there is no sin so great that it can bring damnation upon those who truly repent.” (WCF Ch 15 §4)
And now, “the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” (Gal 2:20)
He loved me!
And gave Himself for me!
My sin – oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, o my soul!
– Horatio Spafford