The question was asked this last week: are we preaching the ‘wrong Gospel for today’s world?’ The implication being that we are, and we should change it so that it is more appealing to today’s society. That is the question (or challenge) that Peter Crumpler, former Church of England communications director, asks in his most recent CT article and I’d like to propose an alternative answer if I may because, for a number of reasons, I don’t think we are.
Peter suggests that we should shift the emphasis from guilt to shame because today’s society would resonate better with that. Whereas in the past we spoke about the need to repent from our sins and seek forgiveness from Christ, now we should show people their true worth in Christ and turn them from shame. From one perspective it’s an attractive proposal. Telling people they are sinners is not attractive and telling them they should be freed from shame because they are worth it is a winning formula – just ask Joel Osteen! As the popular saying goes, Christ came to give us all our ‘best life now’. But is it the Gospel? Generally it is recognised that guilt is ‘I have done something bad’, whereas shame is ‘I am bad’. Guilt is the wound; shame is the scar and the Bible clearly addresses both. Jesus talks about people being guilty of sin (John 9:41), Isaiah indicates the need for our guilt to be taken away and our sin atoned for (Isaiah 6:7). The Good News of the Gospel is clearly tied up with the fact that we commit sins. That is why Jesus tells us that we are to ‘repent and believe the good news” (Mark 1:15). In fact, Jesus goes so far as to say that if we do not repent, we will all perish (Luke 13;3).
The Gospel message of the early Church included the command to repent and turn to God so that our sins may be wiped out (Acts 3:19). In fact, God now commands all people everywhere to repent (Acts 17:30) and I believe we cannot change that message because we think it will be unattractive to modern culture. Apart from the fact that it’s never been an attractive message in any culture, I’m afraid we just do not have the right to change the Gospel. It’s God’s good news – not ours. As 1 Corinthians 1 reminds us, it is through the foolishness of preaching the Cross, and not the wisdom of the world, that people are saved. Peter is right to bring up shame as the Bible does also speak clearly about this, for example in Psalms 4:2 – “How long will you people turn my glory into shame? How long will you love delusions and seek false gods?” But in my view, it is clear that shame is not divorced from sin but rather it is because of sin. It goes as far as to say that we make ourselves a stench and bring shame on ourselves (Proverbs 13:5). This is not the shame of status, or of what others think, or indeed of what others have done to us. It is the shame of who we are because of our own sin. Sobering words indeed. When Paul warned the Philippians about false teachers, he described them in this way: “Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things” (Philippians 3:19). He also tells us that God shames the wise and strong by choosing the weak and foolish (1 Corinthians 1:27), and that those who are condemned to the blackest darkness forever are those who “foam up their shame” (Jude 13).
Shame in the Bible is never passive; it is always tied in with the guilt of what we do. And what we do is because of what we are. Brene Brown gives a very different definition of shame – “believing that we are flawed and therefore unworthy of love and belonging.” The solution then is to “believe that we are worthy of love and belonging”. But this is a desperately sad, delusional and ultimately graceless message. The truth is that grace tells us we are not worthy, but that Christ is – and that he comes to save us, not to tell us how worthy we are.
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