Completely Free

Reflect on God’s Word

Can you imagine being a prisoner, freed by presidential pardon, but still living in your small, dark cell? As a follower of Jesus, if you still live under a veil of shame, you can easily understand how that prisoner might feel.

As psychologist Anna I. Smith says, “Shame makes us feel small.”^* And when we feel small, we don’t feel like we can change. We can’t move forward. We’re bound by what we think we’ve done wrong.

Picture Jesus meeting the Gadarene man possessed by a legion of demons as told in Mark 5:1–4: “They went across the lake to the region of the Gerasenes. When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an impure spirit came from the tombs to meet him. This man lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain. For he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him.”

Alone, isolated, feared, condemned. That’s how shame makes you feel. Like you can’t be seen. Though he constantly broke out of his chains because of his great strength, the man’s soul was in complete bondage. “Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones” (Mark 5:5). Until Jesus set him free.

“As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged to go with him. Jesus did not let him, but said, ‘Go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.’ So the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed” (Mark 5:18–20).

Once the man had been freed of his possessing demons, he told everyone how he had been set free. He proclaimed Jesus throughout the area, and everyone was amazed.

Shame keeps you from living a life full of joy. It weighs you down and haunts your dreams. It causes you to doubt all you have been given in Christ. But you don’t have to live this way. Christ has freed you—completely.

Galatians 5:1 says, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” Paul was talking about the Galatians being guilted into being circumcised, to be slaves again to the law. Maybe you have felt shame heaped upon you because you were brought up in a legalistic church, made to believe that you had to follow all the rules. Paul is encouraging the Galatians, and you, to live in the freedom that Christ gave you when he died on the cross for your sins.

This freedom was not given so that you may do whatever you want (Galatians 5:13), but so that you wouldn’t let yourself be shackled to the chains of shame that come when others set expectations on you that God never intended.

Romans 6:20–23 is another beautiful passage about freedom: “When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

There is no joy in a jail cell, beaten and battered. Christ has set you free, so jump off that jail bed, push open that unlocked door, and leap into your freedom, proclaiming to all who will listen what Christ has done for you!

Release Your Shame

Take a deep breath and let it out slowly. Feel the tension release from your neck and shoulders. Open your arms wide, signifying that you have no shackles on your wrists. You have been set free.

John 8:36 says, “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”

Take a few more relaxing, peaceful, centering breaths. Get comfortable and settle into wherever you are. Become aware of God. Seek his presence, his freedom.

The Amplified Bible expands the meaning of Galatians 5:1 this way: “It was for this freedom that Christ set us free [completely liberating us]; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery [which you once removed].”

Wrap yourself in these two words: liberated and removed. See yourself as completely liberated with your chains removed. What does that look like in your life today? Tomorrow? Next year?

Guilt brings with it the purpose of repentance. Shame, however, only holds you down. And shame does not come from God. He identifies you as a child of the King of Kings through the lens of the cross. He has completely removed your sin and your identity as a sinner. Guilt calls you to go forward in a different direction. Shame keeps you cowering, unwilling to see or be seen.

If you find yourself replaying hurtful and wrong things you have done, struggling with feelings of guilt and shame, you are living as if you are still shackled to shame.

Luke 4:18 tells us that Jesus said, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free.”

Jesus lived and died so you could be free from the bonds of sin and shame, so don’t stay in those chains by rehashing what you have done or listening to the condemning voices of others. You are completely free.

Dear heavenly Father, sometimes feelings of shame crush me. When shame begins to define me, it binds me so I can’t move. But I know shame is not from you. Lift it from me. Release my chains of shame over things I’ve done or things that have been done to me. I know your death on the cross transferred my sin to you, and I know you consider me forgiven, pure, perfect, and righteous. I know it was for freedom that Christ set me free, completely liberating me. Help me to not be subject again to the heavy weight of sin that Jesus removed once and for always on the cross. Let me live with peace, rest, and joy. It’s in the name of Jesus that I pray, amen.

JOURNAL PROMPT: What word picture describes the freedom you have in Christ—the release of sin and your new identity in Christ? When did you first discover this new identity? And how do you hang on to this new identity?