There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus;

Romans 8:1

But, there is condemnation for those who are not in Christ.  Jesus said,

He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.

Mark 16:16

Jesus said that those who do not believe in Him, the Son of Man who was God Himself, would be eternally condemned, bound in an eternal hell for Eternity.  Paul, writing later, said that it was on the six foundations of the Christian faith, without which, one could not move on to maturity (Hebrews 6:2).

Jesus was made sin with our sinfulness, and we are made righteous by His righteousness.

Jesus’ words were “Judge not, lest you be judged”. (Matthew 7:1).  He said, “In the same measure that you use, it will be measured unto you.”  (Matthew 7:2)  This is God’s righteous Truth, not ours.  This is not man’s words, but God’s.

The carnal Christian would like this to mean that we cannot point out another’s sin.  But, Paul said, the works of the flesh are obvious (Galatians 5:19), they do not need “judgement”.  Even with the woman caught in adultery, he judged her sins, not her.  It was immediately obvious to everyone involved that her adultery was sin, plain and simple.

When Jesus became sin for us, He bore our sins, our griefs, our sorrows, our transgressions, our iniquities, AND our shame.

When we sin, we experience shame for doing wrong.  Shame and guilt is to sin what pain is to a wound.  It is the right reaction to doing wrong.  When we experience shame, we want to hide, to cover ourselves, as Adam did in the garden.

Yet, just as with condemnation, the shame for sin is a RIGHT reaction.  Nothing can cover the shame, the weakness of sin, except for the blood of Jesus, except for His shame, His rejection.  And, this is right.  No amount of prayer apart from the cross can cover the guilt and shame.  No amount of giving or good works can ever do it.  Nothing in heaven nor earth can ever restore that sense of peace.  The joy and feelings of salvation are wonderful, but they can vary from person to person.  But, if there is no other feeling that should be universal in Christ, it is the peace of knowing that you are alright on the inside, of being free before Him, no matter what else comes.

But, there is no such release for the sinner.  There is no recourse, other than blanket suppression.  From the worst sinner on death row to the “highest” yogi in some foreign country, no matter how demonized, no matter how far they push into the demonic spiritual realm, no matter how much power, there is never any release, no peace, no freedom.  No matter how much darkness and occult forces someone can command to keep themselves away from it, there is one simple truth.  One day, they will stand before the Father of lights.  They will stand before Him in whom there is no shadow in turning.  And, in that light, as every layer is removed, and every hidden motivation is brought into light, there is no escape.  Every unclean thing is brought forward, and every demonic and selfish motivation exposed, and there is no one righteous, not even one.  There is not one.  We are all condemned alike under sin, under the law.

The shame on a sinner is deserved.  There is no escaping it.  You cannot be “nice” to a person, and remove it for them.  No ransom for a person is ever enough, except for Jesus.  They must stand in their own sin.  They must stand in their own judgement.  They, themselves, are condemned.

But, there is one good thing you can do to help them.  No one must live in shame.  No one must live in the weight of their sins, great or small.  Yet, there is only one remedy, without which, we would all be condemned.

“This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. “For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. “But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.”

John 3:19-21

When it comes to the cross, there is nothing you can do.  “It is finished”, and there is nothing we can do augment it, to approach it, to apprehend it, or lay hold of it, other than to believe it.  It is only faith in the cross and the name of Jesus, who He is, that His divine power separates us from the power of sin, shame, and death.

When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

Colossians 2:13-15

Through Jesus, the written code was cancelled.  Our sin, our shame, and our guilt is taken away, for the law, with our old flesh, was crucified with Christ, and is removed.  By this, and only this, is shame removed, and transferred to the cross.  As he was stripped naked (despite the politeness of scraps of cloth in depictions of the crucifixion), and humiliated, so that our shame, our nakedness, and our uncleanness, would be taken away.

The world will hate us for us being the light, because we make them conscious of their sin.  Yet, we do not do anything except lift the darkness, only in part, of what they already would know that day when they stood in the full light of God.  We do nothing, except, as John 3:18 says, point out their already apparent condemnation, for, without Jesus, they will be in hell forever in torment.  But, we stand as a light, showing the true Way, the true life, the true Truth, Jesus Christ.

For surely, He bore our shame, and, because of  His blood, His cleansing, His sacrifice, I am free.