Wonder Of Advent #24

Healed, Delivered, Free

Read: Revelation 12

It has come at last—salvation and power and the Kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ.

Revelation 12:10

THE HUMAN SPIRIT IS CRUSHED WITH SHAME. Perhaps you don’t know that. You may chalk the burden of shame up to a lack of confidence or a chronic sense of falling short. Maybe you compensate for it so well with pride and self-sufficiency that you no longer notice the underlying sickness. But deep down inside, the human spirit is desperately insecure, constantly seeking honor to make up for the shame, and thoroughly unconvinced of its own worth. We crave unconditional acceptance, significance, and love.

And we have that. We were meant to be free—as secure as an extravagantly adored child who has nothing to prove and everything to enjoy. The cosmic battle in Revelation 12, full of both Advent and apocalyptic imagery, has won that victory. It was the last-gasp effort of shame to enslave the human race, and shame lost because Jesus overcame it. The Accuser was cast away from the throne of God, never to condemn again. Only those who don’t know about this victory think the battle rages on. But it doesn’t have to. The child of heaven won.

The power of shame is now undone; let the healing of the soul’s deepest wounds begin. The child of God, born of a woman, entered into human flesh for this reason. We needed only one human being to win this victory over guilt and shame, and we looked in vain for centuries to find that person. But when Jesus lived without sin, he removed the stigma of our entire fallen world. He represented us perfectly, leaving the Accuser with no rough surface for his slanders to grip. Christ lived up to the rightness and truth of God’s character. He accomplished all we needed him to accomplish.

Do not waste this freedom. In Christ, it is your birthright. You did not earn it, but neither should you squander it by holding on to guilt and shame. It was given in love as spoils in the cosmic victory. You are completely clean, thanks to the perfect life that entered this world in Bethlehem and grew up to do battle with evil. The deceiver has been cast down. The truth he long obscured is now written in the brightest of lights. You are an adored child of God, completely free.

Prayer

Jesus, thank you for delivering me from guilt and shame, the cancers of the soul. Grant me to walk in absolute freedom, bathed in your love and acceptance, full of your joy. Amen.

REFLECTION

Are there any areas of life in which you feel lingering shame? In what ways do you feel unworthy? How might those feelings underestimate the gift of Jesus’ worthiness on your behalf?

Further reading: Zechariah 3:1-5; Romans 8:1

No more let sins and sorrows grow,

nor thorns infest the ground.

“JOY TO THE WORLD,” ISAAC WATTS