“O LORD, to us belongs shame of face, to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, because we have sinned against You.” Daniel 9:8
The third way in which we humble ourselves before the LORD, says Boston, is that “We must see our guilt and filthiness in His sight, and that He afflicts us as sinners.” If we understood our guilt, we would not give in to the temptation to plead our cause before Him in our trials. In our fallen human nature, there is always the temptation to make excuses for ourselves, to paint ourselves in a better light, even when we have sinned but especially if we are suffering and aren’t sure why. The truth is that the more we understand our guilt before God in our very nature, the more we should realize that He has not dealt with us as our sins deserve, or as Boston puts it, “We would wonder that we suffer so little!” We are not as ashamed of our sins as we should be.
Biblical shame is a gift. In Daniel 9:8 Daniel is praying to God for forgiveness for the nation of Israel. Daniel understands the guilt of his people and the guilt he shares with them. He doesn’t make excuses. He acknowledges it and pleads with the Lord for mercy. Daniel is ashamed and that shame enables him to understand the great mercy of God. He ends his prayer in Daniel 9:18 where he says, “…we do not present our supplications because of our righteous deeds but because of Your great mercies.”
True humility is understanding that we bring nothing to our salvation but our sins, sins that we should be ashamed of. Apart from the amazing grace of God poured out on us who believe who were mercifully chosen by Him, we would be vile, guilty, unclean, eternally dead, and deservedly so. Rejoice, therefore, in the mercy of God that in Jesus Christ we are treasured by Him, pronounced innocent by Him, cleansed of our filthiness by Him, and made alive by Him! All because of his great love for us.
His mercy endures forever!
Pastor Flynn
Photo by Uwe Conrad