Last week at the Mission Conference, Nard Pugyao talked about his experiences growing up. He grew up in the jungles of the northern Philippines without a knowledge of God. One of the stories he told was of the time when the witch doctor came to their house because his sister was sick. The witch doctor came because the understanding of that culture was that you had to make some kind of a sacrifice to appease the gods in the hopes that they would help you. In such a culture, there is a constant fear of what could happen and whether or not you are OK with the gods. Even the directions of the witch doctor never gave confidence because, as Nard experienced, his sister still died. Therefore fear is an ever present reality. He also mentioned that when you walked in the forest, you always had to listen for the omen bird. The culture in which he grew up was a fear based culture. Their relationship to the gods and their dealing with sin revolved around fear.
Last weekend I also visited with one of the missionaries who had set up a display. She was a missionary to people of Arab descent and we talked about the way in which people from that culture look at things. She mentioned that one reason suicide bombers are willing to kill themselves is because it is a way of saving face. Being thought well of is very important to them, it is the highest value. Their relationship to God and their response to sin are processed through this value of how others look at them. It is a shame/honor culture.
Our culture is a guilt/righteousness culture and we process our relationship with God and our response to sin through those values, but these two stories illustrate that there are actually three types of cultural understandings of sin and a relationship to God – that is fear based, shame based and guilt based. Yet it isn’t only a matter of different cultural understandings. It is also helpful for all of us to understand these things, for in some ways, all people face these three different ways of relating to sin and to God. When we sin, we have done wrong and we feel guilty. When we sin, we have disgraced ourselves and we feel ashamed. When we sin, we have crossed a boundary and we fear punishment. The wonderful thing is that the gospel answers each of these and in Romans 5:1-11, there is a description of how the death of Christ on the cross answers our guilt, our shame and our fear.
A few weeks ago I was helping my son put together some cabinets that they plan to have installed in their house. One of the pieces was the countertop, which was nicely wrapped up in cardboard. Jonathan wanted to see what the countertop looked like since it had been quite a while since they ordered it. I took out my knife and tried to cut a hole in the cardboard to take a look. I tried to be very careful so as not to scratch the top, but as soon as I opened the cardboard, I realized that I had not been careful enough. I had scratched the countertop. I felt awful. I felt guilty for making such a mistake. My immediate thoughts were, how can this be made right again? I had several options. I could ignore it and blame the factory or the installer, I could see if there was some paint or filler that would cover up the scratch or I could pay to have a new countertop made. That is what I chose. The only acceptable option was to replace the piece so they would have a nice new kitchen. This option is going to cost me.
That is how guilt works. We do something wrong and life is spoiled. There is a mark, a scratch in our life and we begin to try to find a way to deal with it. Sometimes we are tempted to ignore it and blame someone else. Sometimes we try to cover it up, but until it is properly dealt with, we feel guilty. There is a sense in which we cannot rest until it is dealt with.
The gospel has an answer for our guilt. If you look at Romans 5:1,9, you will see that they are almost parallel passages, which speak about that answer. Romans 5:1 says, “Since we have been made right through faithfulness…” Romans 5:9 says, “Since we have been made right by His blood…”
Both of these verses use the word “since” which means that they refer back to what has already been said. These are important statements which tell us that guilt has been dealt with. We have already noticed that in chapter 3:9 it says that we are “all under sin.” We looked previously at how those without the Law are guilty because they reject God and those who have the law are guilty because they do not keep the law. We all sin and we are all guilty and suffer from feelings of guilt.
But we have also already noticed that God has done something through Jesus Christ to remove our guilt thus making us right with God. The scratch has been fully repaired. There is nothing wrong any more. This “being made right” has happened because Jesus was fully faithful to God. He kept the law. He did not do anything wrong and so when He died, He died not for His sins, but for ours. By trusting Him, we are also made right with God.
How can God do that? Romans 5:9 tells us that being made right happened “by His blood.” Fixing a mistake does not happen without a cost. Just as I had to pay to have the countertop replaced, there is a price that must be paid to make things right again. The price that has been paid is the blood of Jesus.
So the good news of the gospel is that our sins are covered, our guilt has been taken away and we are free. As a result, rather than suffer under the weight of our guilt, we can have peace. Most translations say, “we have peace with God,” but if you look at the footnote, in most Bibles, you will notice that another translation is “let us” have peace with God. That is a wonderful thought. Because we have been made right, rather than feeling guilty, we are encouraged to have peace and to live in and rejoice in that peace. We do not need to live under guilt any more. We are set free from guilt, therefore, let us be at peace.
We understand this perspective. It is how our culture is wired and for most people in our culture, we know what it is to do wrong, to feel guilt and to desire freedom from that guilt. But it isn’t the only thing that happens when we do wrong, or the only way of looking at what God has done in Christ.
There are cultures in our world, there are people in our midst and there are times in our life when the issue which causes us distress isn’t that we are guilty, but that we are ashamed. A shame/honor way of looking at things is quite different than a guilt/righteousness way. I have to confess that I have a hard time fully understanding this myself, but let me try to make it clear.
The following chart has helped me understand it a little more.
| | | | Others Think I Am | | |
| | | Guilty | | Not Guilty | |
| | Guilty | I am guilty and am punished | | I should feel guilty regardless | |
| I Think I Am | | | | | Guilt/Righteousness Society |
| | Not Guilty | I protest my innocence and fight the accusation. | | No Problem | |
| | Guilty | I am guilty and am punished | | No one knows so I am not ashamed | |
| I Think I Am | | | | | Shame/Honor Society |
| | Not Guilty | I am ashamed and dishonored by their belief | | No Problem | |
As you can see, there is a big difference between the two understandings. In a guilt culture, if I am guilty, even if no one knows it, I feel guilty and know that I need to deal with it. If, on the other hand, I am not guilty, but other people think that I am guilty, I will fight to prove my innocence. However, in a shame/honor culture, if I am guilty and no one knows I am guilty, I am not ashamed and do not do not have to deal with what I have done wrong. If I am not guilty, but everyone thinks I am guilty, I am shamed and dishonored and have to do whatever I can to save face and regain their respect.
From a guilt perspective, the important thing is right and wrong. From a shame perspective, the important thing is being disgraced and our relationship with other people. Although it is not strong in our culture, we can understand this. We know what it is like to be ashamed. If we embarrass ourselves, we can hardly face others. We blush, we would like to crawl under a rock, we gladly flee the room. That is what shame does to us. If we feel guilt, we feel that we have done wrong, but if we feel shame, we feel that we are wrong. We are diminished in the eyes of others.
From a guilt perspective, a person who does wrong is law violator. From a shame perspective, a person is seen by others not to have met an expectation. He has violated the norms of the group. John Toews says, “A person who sins by breaking a law is a violator, whereas a person who sins by not meeting an expectation is unworthy, unclean, dirty and thus excluded from the group.”
Along with the feelings of disgrace, shame also breaks relationship. When we have been disgraced, we cannot face others and as a result, we do not want to see them and we assume that they do not want to see us.
Through the gospel of Jesus Christ, it is not only that guilt has been taken away, God also takes away our shame and restores us to relationship. In Romans 5:1-11, there are a number of phrases which answer to shame.
The word boasting appears several times in this passage. It answers to the issue of shame. If you are ashamed, you have nothing to boast of, in fact you are inclined to hang your head. Of course, in Romans we have already noticed that there is bad boasting. For example, it is not appropriate to boast that you are good or to boast because you come from a certain culture. The Jews were boasting that they were children of Abraham and built walls excluding the Gentiles. All such boasting is not appropriate. However, in this passage, we read in 5: 2, that we can boast in the hope of the glory of God. NIV has “rejoice” but the Good News translation has the more accurate “boast.” Through Jesus, a fundamental shift has taken place which has taken away the shame, the hanging of our head and has allowed us to hold our head high and know that we will experience the glory of God.
Through Jesus we can even boast in suffering. Suffering would normally be a cause of shame. John E. Toews says, “Suffering normally produces shame in an honor-shame culture, because the superior, the one holding honor, is humiliating the inferior.” However, because of hope and because suffering has purpose, we can boast in our sufferings and not be ashamed because of them.
So in the gospel, the disgrace has been removed. One way of looking at it is with the idea of “saving face.” When we are ashamed, we want to hide our face. To “save face” means that we are willing to show our face again. Because Jesus has died, shame is removed and honor is restored and we can show our face again.
Romans 5:5 describes how that has happened when it says that hope does not make us ashamed because God has come near through the Holy Spirit. He has not treated us as if we are shameful, but in fact has demonstrated a most amazing and powerful love towards us in which even when we were weak sinners, or we could say shameful, Christ died for us so that we no longer need to be ashamed. In other words, the shame has been taken away. We are not nothing, we are not disgraceful, we are worthy, and loved and have been shown love.
The other thing that God has done through the gospel is to restore the relationship. Shame breaks relationships, but God has come in order to reconcile us to Himself. In Romans 5:2, it says, “we have access into this grace in which we stand.” God’s love poured out has made us welcome.
Furthermore, three times in 5:10-11 we are told that we have been reconciled. No longer are we in a broken relationship because of embarrassment, but we are reconciled to God. Our shame is taken away. We are not worthless, but worthy to the one who has made friends with us.
We Have Been Saved From God’s Wrath
The third culture, or way of looking at things is the fear culture. I can’t imagine what it was like for Nard to grow up under the constant fear of the spirits, of life, of death, and of the unknown. Yet there are whole societies, like his, whose people are in constant fear. Their relationships to the gods are based on fear. We have a hard time understanding that.
However, we do know what it is like to fear because we have done wrong and need to be punished. We all know what it was like to come home from school on the day that the principle told us, “I will be phoning your parents.” Well, at least I know what that feels like. At our house it was very clear. If I got a strap at school, there was another one waiting for me at home. It only happened once, but I still remember the fear. We all understand the fear of what will happen when we drive through a red light camera intersection and it flashes. We fear what will come in the mail within a short time. Well, at least I understand that fear. We also know what it means to fear that death is the punishment that is ours because of our sin.
In Romans 5:1-11, this aspect of our approach to God is also discussed and the good news of the gospel is that our fear has also been removed.
Two parts of this passage particularly address fear. First of all, it is wonderful to know that God’s love has been poured out on us. In Romans 5:6-8, we have this amazing concept that Christ died for us while we were still sinners. God is not waiting for us to admit our fear and reluctantly come to Him. He has taken the initiative. We notice in these verses that there are three descriptions of what our relationship with God was. We were powerless (vs. 6); we were ungodly (vs. 6) and we were sinners (vs. 8). While we were in that situation, while we were without hope, Christ died. This is the demonstration of God’s love for us and because He has taken the initiative to relate to us in love, we do not need to fear Him.
Another phrase that answers to the fear we feel in the presence of God is found in verse 9. There it says that because we have been made right with God, we “shall be saved from God’s wrath through Him!” God’s anger was poured out on Jesus and so it will not be poured out on us. We are free from that anger and therefore do not need to live in fear. We are set free from fear and set free to live in a loving relationship with the one who has taken the initiative to reconcile us to Himself. Instead of pouring out His wrath, God has chosen to pour out His love on us. Fear is removed! We are free!
If we look at the gospel and understand it only from the point of view of guilt and forgiveness, we have not adequately understood all of what God has done for us in Christ. Romans 5:1-11 allows us to see this bigger picture, this more complete way of looking at salvation. Not only has our guilt been dealt with, we have also been reconciled because our shame is removed and we are also set free and given peace because the reason for fear has been removed.
To understand the fullness of the gospel in this way allows us to live in the fullness of a blessed relationship with God, which is His intention for us. We can know that we are loved, we can know that we are forgiven, we can know that we are set free. We can live in peace with God and with one another.
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