As a pastor, I am fascinated to discover what makes people behave the way they do. Why? Because I know that if I can uncover the primary driver of a person’s behaviour, everything else will fall into place.
It is worth noting that Jesus spent more time addressing people’s motives and attitudes than their actual behaviour. For example, in one particularly testy exchange, Jesus said to the scribes and Pharisees, “You outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness” (Mat 23.28).
Moreover, he called them ‘hypocrites,’ a term used in the Greek world to denote a theatrical performer or role-player who pretended to be something that they were not. And he upbraided the Pharisees for honouring God with their lips, when in fact their hearts were far from Him (Mat 15.8).
Clearly, Jesus was more concerned with what was in people’s hearts than with their words and actions (Mat 12.34). As John observed, “He did not need anyone to tell him what people were like: he understood human nature” (John 2.25).
The beginning of human nature as we know it
Genesis is often called ‘the book of beginnings.’ It recounts the beginning of creation and the beginning of redemption. Sadly, it also recounts the beginning of human nature as we now know it.
The apostle Paul declared that “through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin” (Rom 5.12). God created Adam in righteousness — that is, in perfect right standing with Himself, without any sense of guilt, fear or unworthiness. However, through Adam’s disobedience, sin ‘entered’ the world. Human nature was corrupted; humankind became alienated from the life of God (Eph 4.18,22). This seminal event is referred to as ‘the Fall.’
Following their act of disobedience, Adam and Eve became acutely aware of the change in their spiritual state and their natural constitution. For the first time in their lives, they experienced the emotions of fear, guilt, and shame. “The eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked” (Gen 3.7).
In the Scriptures, the term ‘nakedness’ is used to denote a state of apostasy (Ezek 16.36-39; Hos 2.2-3) — in other words, the abandonment of faith and trust in the living God and the embracing of pseudo deities. In the Book of Revelation, Jesus accused the church of Laodicea of being “wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked” due to their materialistic lifestyle (Rev 3.17).
Were Adam and Eve guilty of apostasy? Did they commit spiritual adultery? In a sense, yes. Rather than trusting in the Lord with all their hearts, they chose to lean on their own understanding and do what was right in their own eyes (Prov 3.5). By eating the forbidden fruit, they chose the path of independence and self-rule (Gen 3.5). In effect, they made for themselves gods and chose to worship the work of their own hands (Isa 2.8; Jer 2.26-28).
From that moment on, Adam and Eve’s behaviour was driven by fear, guilt, and shame. Motivated by shame, they sewed fig leaves together to make loincloths to cover their nakedness. Motivated by fear, they hid themselves among the trees when they heard the Lord walking in the garden. Motivated by guilt, Adam sought to blame Eve, and Eve sought to blame the serpent for the calamity that had taken place.
The unbearable burden of a guilty conscience
Around 384, Ambrose, the Bishop of Milan, wrote two books entitled ‘Concerning Repentance’, in which he refuted the heretical teaching of the Novatians regarding the restoration of those who had fallen into grievous sin. In the second book, Ambrose addresses the age-old issue of guilt and the necessity of repentance:
“But nothing causes such exceeding grief as when anyone, lying under the captivity of sin, calls to mind from where he has fallen, because he turned aside to carnal and earthly things, instead of directing his mind in the beautiful ways of the knowledge of God. So you find Adam concealing himself, when he knew that God was present and wishing to be hidden when called by God with that voice which wounded the soul of him yourself? Why are you concealed? Why do you avoid Him Whom you once longed to see? A guilty conscience is so burdensome that it punishes itself without a judge, and wishes for covering, and yet is bare before God.”
The “guilty conscience that punishes itself without a judge” as St. Ambrose puts it, manifests itself in various ways. On one occasion, I was asked to pray for a woman who had suffered for many years from chronic depression and had made several attempts to take her own life. As I talked with this woman, I discovered that she had become pregnant when she was a teenager and had decided to have an abortion.
This poor, demented woman had lived with the consequences of her actions for almost 40 years. The innate desire to ‘atone’ for her sins had led her to commit unspeakable deeds of self-harm. In her mind, she had destroyed the only pure and innocent thing that had ever existed in her life, and for that reason she too had to suffer and die.
Indeed, the urge to ‘make amends,’ or ‘right perceived wrongs,’ or ‘balance the ledger’ is an intrinsic part of the human psyche. We often hear sports commentators describing athletes as ‘atoning for their mistakes’ or ‘redeeming themselves from earlier failures.’
In Guilt and Children (Elsevier Science, 1998), Dr Jane Bybee observed that “guilt has been associated with a number of internalising disorders, but most frequently with depression” and that “when guilt is chronic, it becomes closely linked with symptoms of mental illness.”
According to some medical experts, the remedy, at least in part, is confession. But the question is, confessing what, and to whom?
The catharsis of confession
We have probably all said at one time or another, “I am glad that I got that off my chest! The image is of a weight being lifted by means of confessing an offence, or owning up to a mistake, or taking responsibility for an inappropriate action.
Writing to the churches of Asia Minor, the apostle John affirmed: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1.9). The context makes it clear that we are to confess our sins to God, who is the only one who can truly forgive us and cleanse us from unrighteousness.
However, the apostle James takes it a step further, instructing believers to “confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed” (James 5.16).
Whether James means confessing our sins to the specific individuals we have sinned against as in Mat. 5.23-24, or confessing our sins to godly leaders and trusted counsellors as in James 5.14, or confessing our sins publicly before the local Christian community as in Acts 19.18, one thing is for certain: confession is good for the soul and the body!
In 1939, German pastor and theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, wrote a book entitled Life Together. (Bonhoeffer was later arrested by the Gestapo and eventually executed due to his involvement in a plot to overthrow Adolf Hitler). In the final chapter of the book, Bonhoeffer addresses the practice of confession of sin in the community of faith.
Citing the tendency to hide our sins from one another, Bonhoeffer asserts that “in confession the break-through to community takes place,” and describes the joy of the penitent one who “stands in the fellowship of sinners who live by the grace of God in the Cross of Jesus Christ.”
Furthermore, Bonhoeffer states, “A man who confesses his sins in the presence of a brother knows that he is no longer alone with himself; he experiences the presence of God in the reality of the other person.”
I experienced this firsthand during a men’s Bible study some years ago. There were approximately thirty to forty men present of various ages and backgrounds. As I was about to commence teaching, a young man near the back of the room stood up and asked if he could share a testimony.
He told the men that he had battled with an addiction to pornography for many years, and two weeks earlier he had gone forward for prayer during a Sunday church service. Since receiving the laying on of hands and prayer, he had not touched any pornographic material. For the first time in a long time, he felt clean and free!
Believe me, you could have heard a pin drop in the room! The power of this man’s raw and honest confession astonished and convicted the rest of us. Then to my surprise, others stood up and began to confess their secret sins and struggles. I thought to myself, “What on earth is going on?”
It was as though the Holy Spirit had taken over the meeting and was sovereignly orchestrating an outpouring of love, healing, and forgiveness. I felt like I was a spectator watching what God was doing, not the leader of the meeting!
Forgetting the shame of your youth
In the ancient world, the inability to bear children was considered a personal failure and proof of some secret sin and divine displeasure. As a result, a barren woman was often scorned and rejected by her community.
In the prophecy of Isaiah, God likens Israel in Babylonian captivity to a barren woman, forsaken and grieved in spirit:
“Sing, O barren, you who have not borne! Break forth into singing, and cry aloud, you who have not laboured with child … Do not fear, for you will not be ashamed; neither be disgraced, for you will not be put to shame; for you will forget the shame of your youth, and will not remember the reproach of your widowhood anymore.” (Isa 54.1,4)
Whilst this passage of Scripture foreshadows the restoration of Jerusalem under the Persian king, Darius I, it also points to the ministry of a Greater King, who “heals the broken-hearted” and “comforts those who mourn” (Isa 61.1-3; Luke 4.18-19).
In this most poignant of prophecies, God reveals himself as the redeemer of humankind and the rectifier of the effects of the Fall — indeed, the only one capable of meeting the fundamental needs of the human condition and addressing the primary drivers of human behaviour.
Fear. The Lord says, “Do not fear.”
Guilt. The Lord says, “You will not be disgraced.”
Shame. The Lord says, “You will not be put to shame.”
Why? Because “with great mercies I will gather you,” and “with everlasting kindness I will have mercy on you,” says the Lord, your Redeemer! (Isa 54.7-8)
He was then, and is now, the One who redeems us from (self) destruction.
Commentaires