Perfectly Lost

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A Natural Sense of Shame

   An Old Testament prophet wrote, “The unjust knows no shame” (Zephaniah 3:5).

   We’re living in a society very aware of psychology. Everywhere we turn, people are being told, “Don’t feel bad!” Popular opinion says, “Guilt is bad-its destructive.” Of course, there is some truth to that, but we ought to feel guilty when we are guilty. We shouldn’t feel good about doing bad. 

   The Lord wants us to feel guilt and conviction long enough and hard enough for it to motivate us to come to Him for forgiveness. He doesn’t want us to remain in a state of perpetual mourning, but we must become aware of our fallen condition before He can cleanse and restore us. And how can we ever be sorry for our sins if we do not recognize our wretched state? Once we do see our lowly state and fall to our knees for forgiveness, God can activate His power in our lives. “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and He will lift you up” (James 4:10).

   When Adam and Eve disobeyed God, the light that clothed them was extinguished. They were suddenly aware of their nakedness and felt a natural sense of shame (see Genesis 3:10). As we do when we sin, the fist pair tried to cover themselves to hide their guilt-in their case with fig leaves. But they soon realized that the fig leaves would not last.

   After the couple acknowledged their guilt to God, He gave them coats of skins.

    Did you catch that? Skins! Something had to die to cover their naked bodies, just as Jesus had to die to cover our sins.

   When the prodigal son returned home, acknowledging his failures, his father received him, embraced him, kissed him, and then covered his filth and nakedness with his own “best” robe. Likewise, Jesus is waiting to clothe us with His righteousness, but we must first come home as we are.

   After Jesus delivered the demoniac, we find that man sitting at Jesus’ feet, clothed, and in his right mind (see Luke 8:35). Author Malcolm Muggeridge said, “Psychiatrists require many sessions to relieve a patient from feelings of guilt which made him sick in body and mind; Jesus’ power of spiritual and moral persuasion was over overwhelming that he could produce the same effect by saying: ‘Thy sins be forgiven thee.’”

He fled from them naked.”  -Mark 14:52

Naked Retreat

   Each year the city of Pamplona, Spain, hosts the traditional “running of the bulls.” Many brave souls tempt fate at this dangerous festival, which results in many injuries and even some fatalities. Six bulls and six steers chase some two thousand people through the narrow, cobblestone streets.

   One year a news program broadcast video footage from the event of one bold fool who, in an apparent display of machismo bravado, ran directly toward a bull in an arena to taunt it. He soon found himself, quite literally, on the horns of a dilemma. The bull managed to hook the man’s pants and shook him as if he was nothing but a rag doll-until the fellow lost his pants and underwear! The closing shot showed the man fleeing away naked, no doubt ashamed, as the spectators roared with laughter. It is generally true that when we toy with Satan, we end up fleeing, naked and ashamed.

   The Bible shares a very interesting story in connection with the betrayal and arrest of Jesus. As the mob carried Him away, an unnamed man attempted to follow, to observe Jesus’ fate: “A certain young man followed Him, having a linen cloth thrown around his naked body. And the young man laid hold of him, and he left the linen cloth and fled from them naked” (Mark 14: 51,52). Many scholars believe this was Mark himself.

   This depicts the nature of Satan and sin, a deadly duo who will strip you and send you running in shame. After Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit and their luminous robes faded, they felt shame because of their nakedness. When God came looking for them, He found them trembling in the bushes (see Genesis 3: 7,8).

   A common practice in many ancient cultures was to strip captives taken in war and march them along the streets naked (see 2 Chronicles 28:15). In the same way, Satan wants to flaunt and humiliate his prisoners by stripping them of their dignity and parading their shame before heaven.

   The book of Acts tells of some young men who recklessly attempted to exorcise an evil spirit from a possessed person. Their attempt resulted in yet another naked retreat. “The man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, overpowered them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded” (Acts 19:16). The Bible records other instances that fit this pattern in which the devil disrobes the disobedient. For instance, Noah got drunk and then stumbled around naked (see Genesis 9:21), and when the children of Israel worshiped the golden calf, they were naked (see Exodus 32: 25, KJV).

“Nor did he live in a house but in the tombs.” –Luke 8:27

Sin Separates

   Even emotionally healthy people are prone to become eccentric when they don’t have the social interaction with others that helps to keep our thoughts balanced. The menacing evil spirits that possessed the demoniac plunged him into false perceptions of reality and frequently left him muttering incoherently-thus isolating him, like a leper, from family, friends, and Norman society. This only compounded his problems.

   A simple and dependable law in life is that love unites and sin separates. Isaiah wrote, “Your iniquities have separated between you and your God” (Isaiah 59: 2, KJV). Sin separates us from God. Just as light and darkness cannot exist coexist, sin automatically drives us from God. 

   Sin separates us from one another. The epidemic of divorce in our culture provides us with plenty of evidence for this. “Because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.” (Matthew 24:12, KJV).

    And ultimately, sin causes divisions within our own selves. The medicated masses, burdened by guilt springing largely from a low self-esteem, are evidence of this.

    Jesus came to end all this separation.  His love is the ladder, the link that bridges heaven and earth. It is His love that brings reconciliation to relationships broken by sin. “In Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been made near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of division between us” (Ephesians 2: 13, 14).

He was “bound with chains and shackles.” –Luke 8:29

Adorned With Chains

   In the Middle Ages, a blacksmith was imprisoned for a serious crime and was chained to prevent any attempt at escape. The blacksmith had made many chains himself, so he began to examine with anxious interest the one that bound him. His experiences taught him that chains form other blacksmiths made often were flawed, and he hoped to discover a flaw in the one that bound him. But suddenly his hope faded. Marks on the chain revealed that he had made it-and he had worked hard to earn the reputation of making flawless, unbreakable chains. He had no hope of ever breaking free.

   The shattered chains that adorned the hands and feet of the demoniac represent the sins that bind each sinner and his or her ability to resist. *  Like the blacksmith, most of us are bound with chains of our own forging. “His own iniquities entrap the wicked man, and he is caught in the cords of his sin” (Proverbs 5:22). Samuel Johnson echoed this proverb when he said, “The chains of a bad habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken.”*

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   *These chains also represent the approaching judgment that will cause Satan, his angels, and all who follow him to tremble. “The angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own habitation, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day” (Jude 6; see also 2 Peter 2:4).

   I have a radical theory. I think that God created all humans to be addicts. That’s right each of us is an addict, and God designed us that way! That is, the Creator made us to be addicted to Him. So, when people reject Him, they struggle in vain to fill that cavernous black hole with some other obsession. As a result, people become subject to a broad spectrum of addictions. Some become workaholics. Some become addicted to food, and suffer bulimia, anorexia, or obesity. Some choose alcohol, drugs, or cigarettes. For others, it is sex, or music. For still others, it is fashion and outward appearance; they consume themselves with materialism and vanity. There are also those who become addicted to other people in twisted, co-dependant relationships. 

   All these addictions are misguided attempts to fill a void designed for God. However, it is only in God’s love that we find true joy, peace, and satisfaction.

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   *I imagine that the ten cities of Decapolis might have had an ongoing contest to see who would capture and control the local madman. Those ten cities might be seen as a type of the Ten Commandments that the demoniac refused to keep. These commandments work like chains and fetters to restrain sinners from their wicked course. Like the demoniac, though, sinners stubbornly break those bands asunder. 

   A story in the Bible offers a great illustration of encouragement. The apostle Peter was hopelessly imprisoned held by two chains and bound for judgment. However, when he obeyed the simple instructions of an angel, the chains miraculously fell from his hands. The Bible records it like this:

   The night before Peter was to be placed on trial, he was asleep, chained between two soldiers, with others standing guard at the prison gate. Suddenly, there was a bright light in the cell, and an angel of the Lord stood before Peter. The angel tapped him on the side to awaken him and said, “Quick! Get up!” And the chains fell off his wrists (Acts 12: 6,7, NLT). 

   The beauty here is that God pursues us, meeting us where we are-with whatever chains bind us. As Jesus came to the demoniac’s cemetery and the angel came to Peter’s death-row cell, so the Spirit comes to us, held captive as we are by Satan. “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dealt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them a light has shined” (Isaiah 9:2).

   We see this gospel message when Peter was cleaning his dirty nets, when Matthew was counting his dirty money, and when Mary Magdalene was in the temple after being caught in a dirty act. Jesus meets us in our prison as He met Peter, Matthew, and Mary, and He invites us to leave our chains behind and follow Him-not by compulsion but as willing servants.

   On July 31, 1838, a large company of slaves gathered on a beach in Jamaica for a solemn yet joyous occasion. Slavery was to be abolished the next day. These slaves had constructed a large mahogany coffin and placed it next to a deep grave that they had dug. That evening, they placed symbols of their slavement in the coffin-chains, leg-irons, whips, and padlocks. A few minutes before midnight, they lowered the box into the grave. Then, as these slaves pushed sand into the hole, they joined their voices to sing the doxology: “Praise God from whom all blessings flow.” Now they are free. The next day, many of these returned to work in the fields or on the docks-but this time as free men and women.

   Similarly, people who accept Christ’s death are freed from their slavery to sin. And like those former slaves, when they are in heaven, they will be free from the very reminder and presence of sin. “God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness” (Romans 6: 17, 18).

He was “exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way.” –Matthew 8:28

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