Shame,Aristotle and God
Psychologists treat shame as the problem in itself, but they are wrong. They do a great disservice to mankind, teaching people to sin without shame. Shame on them! Shame is not the problem; sin is! Shame comes from sin, and sin must be repented of if there is to be forgiveness. Their false teaching only insures the judgment of God upon the unashamed and unrepentant. "Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore they shall fall among them that fall: at the time that I visit them they shall be cast down, saith the LORD" (Jeremiah 6:15). "Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore shall they fall among them that fall: in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down, saith the LORD" (Jeremiah 8:12). When the godly Ezra prayed confessing the sins of his nation, he said: "I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee" (Ezra 9:6). No shame? No repentance? No forgiveness! No salvation! No revival!
Barnhouse wrote:
"Proper shame...is a part of repentance. When there is no shame for sin, there can be neither acknowledgment of the sin nor repentance. When Adam fled from God in the garden of Eden, he was forced to acknowledge the reason - he was afraid. We are told that there was no shame in the state of innocence (Gen. 2:25). With the loss of innocence there came a shame that brought fear. It was only then that God spoke to them and made the promise of grace which would make salvation possible for them and all the human race.
"Those who will not bow before God will be brought to the place where they will be bowed in spite of themselves. In that day, the nakedness of men's hearts will be made manifest. Those who have had their sins blotted out by the atonement provided through the death of Jesus Christ will be able to stand boldly before God in that day, while those who have refused to acknowledge their need of Him and to confess Him as their Savior will be brought to open shame and confusion...
" ...There are scores of verses in which God states that He will put to shame those who have not acknowledged Him. It will be well to quote some of these verses. "They shall be turned back and utterly put to shame, who trust in graven images, who say to molten images, You are our gods" (Isa. 42:17). "All who make idols are nothing, and the things they delight in do not profit; their witnesses neither see nor know, that they may be put to shame. Who fashions a god or casts an image that is profitable for nothing? Behold, all his fellows shall be put to shame, and the craftsmen are but men; let them all assemble, let them stand forth; they shall be terrified, they shall be put to shame together" (Isa. 44:9-11). "Wherefore thus says the Lord God: behold, my servants shall eat but you shall be hungry; behold my servants shall drink but you shall be thirsty; behold my servants shall rejoice but you shall be put to shame" (Isa. 65:13).
"There is here the revelation of the judgment in which men shall be brought to acknowledge what they are in themselves and to stand divested of all the pretense in which they have clothed themselves. The world lives in an artificial state of self-deception, but the judgment will come and remove all this."
Donald G. Barnhouse, Romans, vol. IV, pags. 78-80
