The Cross Solution to our Sin Problem is Rooted in an Honour-shame Answer in Genesis

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Ken Ham of the organisation 'Answers in Genesis' has often stated how that all the issues of life have their answers rooted in Genesis 1-11

So when we might wonder what these issues of honour and shame are all about, or if they are critical to making disciples and having a right gospel understanding of salvation and sanctification, or if they might have a vital part to play in solving the problems of our world, we will not go wrong to look in Genesis.

We don't have to go far into that first book of the Bible to discover God's great honourable plan of creation, and then the entry of shameful sin into our world. And in the midst of the story we also begin to see the first glimpses of what would be required to provide a solution to the sin problem which damaged God's honourable creation.  Let me summarise in 3 points.

Honour in the beginning

1. In the beginning God…

- that's the first statement of honour….God's holy and honourable presence is the foundational setting for the entire universe, including us

2. God created…and it was good

- all that God created was good - God's good creation gives glory (honour) to God because it reflects Him and fulfils the creator's purpose and carries out His will

3. In His image

- God created human beings 'in his image'. Human beings were created with an honourable status above all other creation - of being in God's image. Human beings were the crowning glory of God displaying His glory. Humans were created in his glory for his glory.

4. Unashamed

The final word of chapter 2 is 'unashamed'. The final word of how God describes his pre-fall sin-free world in Scripture, is 'unashamed'. To be without shame is to be in a place of full honour. People were able to live as God created them with no barriers between them and God and between each other as humans. They were free to live in the honour in which they were created.

Shame enters the story

1. The Situation Changes

The serpent comes with the temptation to eat the fruit. Some will say it was a temptation of disobedience to God's command. And that certainly was part of it. But a temptation to disobey a command is just a result of something else happening prior to this…and that is a disregard or 'dishonouring' of the command-giver. 

Adam and Eve failed to enquire of the Lord first (in other words 'pray'), to think about God first in their situation. Honouring God as God, their Creator and life-giver somehow vanished from their radar.  In commenting on this another blogger noted that 'man doesn't account for God because he believes he doesn't need God'. So underneath the disobedience was a mind that aleady didn't adequately prioritise God or factor God in, and underneath that was a belief that God was not needed for and irrelevant to the situation. 

Now all this can happen in our mind and thinking in a fraction of a second, like it probably did for Adam and Eve.  But it happened because Eve had somehow been more pre-occupied with, and already moved closer to the tree that God had prohibited, rather than staying in what God had gifted. Without realising she had already increased her opportunity for temptation. 

Maybe she had already allowed the eyes of her heart to wander away from thankfulness (honouring) and satisfaction in the sufficiency that God would provide for her, to dishonouring God by elevating/honouring her own opinions/assessments which in turn fed thoughts of dis-satisfaction that God was with-holding something from her.  

I don't say this just from supposition, but also because in 2 Corinthians 11:3 Paul uses the context of Eve succumbing to the deceptive cunning of the serpent in the garden in Genesis to explain that we as Christians can be easily 'led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ'. He doesn't say anything about actions of disobedience but being 'corrupted' from a heart attitude of sincerity and purity in Christ. And that word 'corrupted' comes from the Greek phtheiró whose root meaning according to Helps Word Studies is a 'moving down from a higher level (quality, status) to a lower form'…in other words a loss of honour. Eve's problem, like ours, is a temptation to move away from God being the one to whom we give honour, and from whom we seek our honour.

Ken Ham in a message at an Easter conference in 2019 proposed what he calls the 'Genesis 3 Attack' and that Eve's problem was that she fell for the same temptation that we can all have to question the word of God. This I would suggest is simply another way of saying we have a temptation to not honour God and His Word as we should (Romans 1:21; 2 Thessalonians 3:1). So again, we have emerging in Genesis a context of 'dishonour' that enters the world and underlies the fruit of disobedience.

So by Genesis chapter 3 verse 10….just 10 verses later, Adam and Eve are in a vastly different situation. Honour is lost and shame enters.

Now, Adam and Eve are suddenly aware of something new (nakedness) they had never felt before. They felt vulnerable and exposed for the first time, and they instinctively wanted to cover themselves and hide in fear. No-one had yet explained why they felt this way…but it was such an overwhelming awareness and feeling that it dramatically changed how they acted toward God and his creation and toward each other. It was so powerful it consumed their focus and guided their decision making. 

2. Alienation and fearful Separation emerges in place of Fellowship and Joyful Togetherness

What was joyful open relationship with God suddenly altered and they felt pulled away from the freedom of walking with God. We can only imagine what it must have felt like to suddenly sense shameful separation after only knowing the joy and honour of full fellowship with God.

3. Human efforts to cover our shame don't work 

- Rev Clive  …. the preacher at St Andrew's Cathedral in Sydney last week (as I watched online), interestingly did not emphasise guilt in this Genesis story, but repeatedly emphasised shame. Maybe his Indian ethnic background and ministry focus helps him to recognise the presence and significance of shame in the 'Fall' story, and makes him less vulnerable to the Western presumptions of guilt as the main factor. His observation, I would suggest is 'spot-on'. The issue is primarily about shame. 

Shame makes us want to hide and to cover. We can feel shame long before we understand any guilt-law association. Evidence of a law-breaking is helpful not because it is the critical factor, but because it reveals to us what God already knows before we know it, and shows us what we need to know. Disobeying a law simply reveals a heart that had moved to a place of dishonouring the law-giver. Adam and Eve ate the fruit because they first listened to and believed the lie of the tempter that it might be nice to have the honour of becoming what they were told was 'wise'. They were attracted to an idea that they could be 'more' or 'greater', and thus made a choice to try to access that potential higher status and power. But of course the lie only brought the opposite of honour….and they suddenly felt shame.

Salvation's picture presented

Genesis goes on to show us more of the honour-shame context of sin, and its remedy:

1. Only God Can Cover Our Shame

After his statement that 'human effort to cover our shame just won't work', Rev Clive in his sermon also then said 'human religion never works, God himself must cover our shame'.. 

there are two interesting issues to note here…

a. he insightfully equates 'human religion' with 'human effort to cover our shame'. 

Let's think about this a little more….

Whatever the 'brand' or 'style' or 'cultural requirements', at the heart he recognises that any human religious effort is an effort to find a way to overcome, or outweigh, or cover-up or hide from our shame. Whether that is finding fig-leaves, or re-defining adultery to just being 'consensual sex' or denying that homosexuality is outside of God's plan, or lying to protect a risk of shame to our reputation, or avoiding showing up at a food van or homeless shelter even though we need help because we feel ashamed, or committing suicide rather than go home and face the family after being fired from a job, we are seeking ways to avoid or deny or rid ourselves of shame. 

Religion in its various forms offers ways to join a group or embrace an ideology or do good works or find absolution or redefine what is shameful and not shameful…and becomes a 'way' in which we follow and try to find peace, acceptance, and welcome for our hearts that at the deepest level are aware of some kind of inadequacy - a 'falling short'.

b. The skin's covering was to cover shame

Rev Clive then read chapter 3 verse 21: 'the Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them', and pointed out that God got the 'skin' from somewhere and it wasn't like animal skins were just lying around. The skin had to come from an animal. This is something that most Christians are fully aware of, but we often don't make the honour-shame connection. He goes on to unhesitantly say that 'the first sacrifice in the bible is actually performed by God, to cover the sin of humanity, to cover our shame'. He then later points out that this was just a small glimpse of the eternal plan of God to 'send His only Son Jesus to be the perfect sacrifice to cover the sins of the whole world'.

He said:

 'God's ways are higher than our ways, our ways are to grasp at being like God and to blame others to justify ourselves and try to cover our shame, but when the Son of God came into the world, he didn't grasp at being equal with God but humbled himself and made himself nothing'…'he didn't blame others but instead died to take the blame for all of our sins and cover our shame'

2.The Curse Foretells a Coming Honour Restoration 

The curse given to the snake - of permanently travelling on his belly down in the dust, and the promise given that the woman's seed would have his heel bruised but Satan would have his head bruised (Genesis 3:14-15) are also a picture of a future hope of punishment and remedy for our sin-shame condition. Satan would not get away with his deception, but shame would be his lot, and ultimate victory honour would belong to a Saviour to come, who would conquer Satan. Satan may have thought he succeeded in messing up God's design and succeeded in separating humans from God and from each other and having them ejected and rejected from the garden. But in another garden the Saviour said 'not my will but yours be done' and became our shame-bearer, and then in yet another garden he rose victorious over the final shame-separation of death….so that we could join him in honour in a new garden one day in a new heavens and earth (Revelation 21:1; 22:2).

To Conclude…..

Verses like Romans 4:7 remind us that the gospel is not just about lawless deeds being forgiven but about sins being covered, so that as we are told in Romans 9:33 'whoever believes in Him will not be put to shame'.

Romans 8:21,30 and Colossians 1:27 remind us that the gospel is about restoring glory that was lost.

The gospel is the 'honour' answer to the 'shame' problem. It is the grace given to us in Christ - the second Adam (the one who would bruise the head of Satan and provide the perfect covering for sin) that provides undeserved honour in place of the shame (that began with the first Adam in the Garden of Eden).

Sin is inherently a shame problem. 

Guilt is not meant to be the core of the story, guilt from disobedience is just the signpost that reveals and points us to the deeper issue, the deeper need and the deeper remedy. 

Once again Genesis shows us the foundation of what we need to know….don't miss it!

Unpacking Honour

As I was teaching in a Highest Honour Discipleship Training workshop the past two weeks, I thought I would share more widely some of the material that was taught. It is my prayer and hope that it might enable others to also more fully grasp, in greater measure, the greatness and implications of understanding 'honour'.

In addition to training trainers in the workshop, how to teach through the Highest Honour book, and introducing to them as children's ministry leaders from across Southern Africa) the draft sampler of the 'Highest Honour for Kids' edition, we also further explored some of the dynamics of honour and shame…going beyond what we had covered in the first introductory stage in our 'Unlocking' brochure, to then going into the 'Unpacking' stage.

There are various ways of looking at the expansive concept of honour which can help us grow in our knowledge of the glory of the Lord (Habakkuk 2:14)

Here is some of what we talked about in the 'Unpacking' stage, to help begin - in a very brief way - to widen and deepen the understanding of how honour and shame function in Scripture, in our world and in our hearts. We covered 10 points as two sets of 5 - like 5 fingers each on our two hands……and had a volunteer draw their hands on the paper at the front for visual connection….(as in the photo above)….

Hand 1

There are 5 basic underlying factors we have to recognise about honour and shame that may seem obvious but overlooking them can hinder our understanding of how honour functions….. 

1.     Honour originates with God. It is not a human construct, but is firstly inherent internally within God Himself and then externalised by God.

2.     Honour is two sided in two ways

a.     The other side of honour is lack of or loss of honour which = shame

-        We crave honour and fear shame

b.     There is received honour and given honour

3.     Honour is an umbrella word – and various words in the 'honour family' of words can carry varying weight, impact, nuance or perspectives

4.     Honour is 'graded glory'

a.     Glory of general creation, glory of mankind in God's image, and the glory of God himself are each different.

b.     1 Peter 2:17 'honour everyone, love the brethren, fear God, honour the king'. The way we appropriately honour the position of a king may be different from the right and appropriate honour we should give so as to reflect the value of every human being without partiality. 

c.      2 Cor 3:18 'And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. Our growth in grace will result in the degree to which there is growth in exhibited glory shining out through our life.

5.     Honour is an 'everywhere-everybody core issue' in sinful 'mis-placed' ways (by definition and degree), and needing to be 'replaced' in biblical ways. It is the core motivation of all we think and do.

 

Hand 2

Here are 5 ways (although there might be more), we can view and unpack the dimensions, scope and elements of honour in order to begin to better appreciate and appropriate them in our theology and practical living...

1.      IAAA Honour View

a.     Inherent – e.g. 'I am the Lord' Lev 25:38

b.     Ascribed – when inherent positional glory is recognised and conferred –  e.g.'Ascribe greatness to our God' Deut 32:3

c.      Achieved – e.g. 'I am the Lord... who brought you out of the Land of Egypt'

d.     Associated – e.g. 'If my people who are called by my name…' 2 Chron 7:14

-        Who you are, what you do, who you are with.

2. Creation-Cross-Crown Honour View

a.     Creation – inherent honour, ascribed honour, value, as human beings created by God in His image.

b.     Cross – redemption honour restoring lost spiritual-life-glory  – as saints we have ascribed glory - in Christ, by association with the One (the Lord Jesus Christ) who first has it ascribed and has also achieved it.

c.      Crown – achieved and bringing future, reward yet to be received beyond the grave. Full and forever glory yet to be realised and experienced physically as well as spiritually/positionally.

3.     Sessions View (Sessions, W.L., 2007) - I call this the Sessions View because it was formulated by Mr W L Sessions.

a.     Conferred – 'regard, esteem or respect given…[& the] token of this regard – gifts, rewards, attention and the like'

b.     Recognition – 'publicly noticing and awarding due esteem for excellencies that merit or deserve such esteem' …recognise excellence and worth

c.      Positional – 'doing something that positions someone "above" others in the social group; it is relative to the others' accomplishments or status'

d.     Commitment – not person to person honour, but person to 'principles and propositions lodged in such speech-acts as promises, agreements or contracts.'

e.     Personal – honour as an achieved 'sense of honour' virtue of adhering loyally to a group's honour code – commitment to a code and a community…where an honour code is 'socially shared and publicly supported'.

4.     Love and Life View

a.     Love – honour and shame involve heart not just head, emotion/affection not just knowledge, in fact it is usually felt before it is cognitively understood.

b.     Life – it impacts all of life, and God wants our 'whole life' worship, love and honour. This is not just a 'section' of life, but impacts/directs all of life.

5.     Hierarchy of Honour (and opposite/contrast)...

1)     Acknowledgement        (to ignore, not look at or see)

2)     Consideration               (disinterest, disregard, forget someone)

3)     Appreciation                 (belittle, contempt, embarrass, disappoint)

4)     Invitation                      (banish, pass-over, disgrace, exclude)

5)     Acceptance                   (reject, separate, failure)

6)     Submission                   (rebellion, pride, self-promotion, stubbornness, resist)

7)     Obedience                    (disobedience)

8)     Approval                       (disapprove, disagree, criticise)

9)     Adoration                     (despise, abhor)

10)  Trust                            (betray, disloyal)

11)  Emulation                     (rebuke, attack, oppose)

12)  Allegiance                    (deny, destroy, forsake)

[As I have pondered honour and shame over the years, I realised that we can't take every form of honour on the same level as every other form of honour. Without realising it we function in life in accord with a kind of honour-hierarchy. So in the above 12 points/levels, 1) is the 'lowest' level and 12) is the 'highest' level. In other words, in the simplest form, acknowledgement is honour, but acknowledgement does not include allegiance, yet allegiance includes all points 1-11 before it. So to honour someone by inviting them to your birthday party, for example, you have already acknowledged them and considered them and appreciated them to some degree. But even just to appreciate someone for doing something for you doesn't necessarily or automatically mean they qualify to be invited to the birthday party. 

Hopefully this makes some sense as you observe the world of personal interactions around you.]

...And Spectrum of Shame View  (and opposite dynamic)

1)     Disappointment              (to be pleased)

2)     Embarrassment             (to be praised)

3)     Disapproval                   (to be welcomed)

4)     Humiliation                   (to be highly exalted)

5)     Rejection                        (to be chosen)

   6)     Death – Shame    (Life – glory/honour)

[Another way of looking at this variety of expression of shame and honour, is to look first at how shame is also more than one concept, but a range of emotion from 'lower' levels of disappointment to 'higher' levels of rejection and ultimate shame. We may not readily realise that 'disappointment' is on the shame-spectrum. But when we begin to realise these are part of the honour-shame dynamic we can begin to apply biblical truth related to honour-shame principles to these issues. Without this understanding, we miss the connection and stay blind to the truth of Scripture that God wants to use to transform our thinking and bring truth that sets us free from how Satan wants to use these things to keep us in bondage.]

 

Some of us primarily focus on avoiding shame that would undermine glory they already perceive they have, others seek glory to escape shame in which they see themselves, but we all do both in some way, and both are ultimately showing our hunger for honour and avoidance for what threatens honour.

Though this has been just a brief outline of each point, I pray you might find it helpful and encouraging in understanding yourself, your world and the wonderful truths in the pages of Scripture.