When a repentant sinner is converted to Christ, he is never ashamed of Jesus again, as he happened to be prior to his conversion.
“Hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.” (Rom 5:5).
Shame is removed in conversion forever, replaced with love for God by His indwelling Spirit (Rom 5:5), referred to in Mk 8:38, like Lk 9:26, where Jesus declares:
“Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
Those that are ashamed are unsaved. Ashamed means to not confess him publicly especially under inconvenient or difficult circumstances and to be offended because of His Name or Word, like the stony soil which is unsaved (Matt 13). It also infers not obeying the Scriptures. Mk 8:34-38 (like Matt 10:32-39; 16:24-26 and Lk 9:23-26) notes that being ashamed of Jesus Christ and His words (v. 38) is categorically connected to refusing to become Christ’s disciple (vv. 34-37) — by refusing to exchange masters, from this world to the Lord (vv. 36-37), refusing to deny self and losing one’s life for Christ and the gospels sake (vv. 34-35), and refusing to take up the cross and denying self and following Christ (v. 34) — whose end will be an eternity in the unquenchable fires of hell.
Those who rather than being ashamed of their sins (Rom 6:21; cf. Rom 1:16; 2 Tim 1:8, 12, 16) are ashamed to confess and follow Jesus and His Words in this evil and adulterous world, will have Christ ashamed of them at His return and be denied by Him (Lk 12:8-9; 2 Tim 2:11-13) and eternally damned in hell—for Christ is “not ashamed to call [true believers] brethren" (Heb 2:11), “God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city” (Heb 11:16). A remnant “concerning the house of Jacob” has always been converted and unashamed before God, and one day “Jacob [Israel] shall now not be ashamed” and will “sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and shall fear the God of Israel.” (Is 29:22-24).
No text in Scripture indicates that God will be “ashamed” of His people born again — He is not and will not be ashamed of them (Heb 11:16) and no true believer will ever be ashamed of Christ. The repentant sinner that was truly converted in the day of his salvation is never again ashamed of Christ (Rom 10:11; 9:33; Heb 2:11; 11:16; Rom 1:16; 5:5).
Salvation Leads to Never Being Ashamed Again, the Fulfillment of Prophetic Scripture
One reason we know shame is permanently washed away is because the very act of supernatural salvation fulfills the prophecy of never being ashamed again: Rom 10:11; 9:33; Heb 2:11; 11:16; Rom 1:16; 5:5; ref. Is 28:16; 54:4; 45:15-17. Yes, by your conversion you fulfill a prophecy.
The well-known and frequently quoted passage of Rom 10:9-10 explains how salvation comes about, which is followed by one of the many effects of true conversion:
“For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.” (Rom 10:11)
Not being ashamed is the direct effect of believing which led to salvation. The word “for” could be interchanged with “because” since they carry the same meaning, both of which connect to the previous passage that the one who wills to be truly converted makes confession with his mouth of the gospel of Christ unto salvation (v. 10) based upon repentant faith in the heart. This person will no longer be ashamed of Christ, not by word or by deed.
Where does the scripture prophecy that him who gets saved will no longer be ashamed? In Isaiah 45:15-17 and 54:4.
Is 45:15-17 reads:
“Verily thou art a God that hidest thyself, O God of Israel, the Saviour. They shall be ashamed, and also confounded, all of them: they shall go to confusion together that are makers of idols. But Israel shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation: ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without end.”
Not only is shame forever removed, so is confusion. People that are ashamed or confused are unsaved. Scripture is perspicuously clear about that. Personal salvation also doesn’t change one iota between Jew or Gentile, so the same truth is applicable to both. Salvation brings about an end of being ashamed of Christ or confounded, that is, a shameful and confused life that denies Jesus Christ in both confession and manner of life.
Rom 9:33 declares similarly to Rom 10:11:
“As it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumblingstone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.”
Jesus Christ, the Chief Cornerstone, is “a stumblingstone and rock of offence” to the unconverted but those truly redeemed are not ashamed of Him. This is referenced by Paul from Is 28:16,
“Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.”
Not making “haste” here has the same connotation as not being confounded or ashamed. The truly converted are unashamed for they fell on this Stone and were broken, while the ashamed of Jesus and the gospel will have the Stone fall on them and be ground to powder (Matt 21:42-44).
Is 54:4a states:
“Fear not; for thou shalt not be ashamed: neither be thou confounded; for thou shalt not be put to shame: for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth.”
1 Pet 2:6 reflects this:
“Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded.”
"Confounded" means to be made ashamed, to be falsified or discredited, to fall away. The truly saved will not be. Like “haste,” it also carries the idea of not being confused or discombobulated over doctrine, which is shameful.
Shame for Jesus Christ and our shameful and ungodly lifestyle pre-conversion is wiped away permanently. Obliterated forever.
“What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death. But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.” (Rom 6:21-22).
What Does Being No More Ashamed Look Like?
1. Unashamed pictures the faithful and obedient wise servant waiting for Christ’s return, unlike the evil servant (religious but lost) who knows of Christ’s return but doesn’t take care of his soul and thus does not glorify Christ and magnify Christ by his life, since he falsely believes “My lord delayeth his coming,” therefore “The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Matt 24:45-51).
But the truly saved wise servant of Christ is of they that “shall not be ashamed that wait for [Christ]." (Is 49:23b). He shall not be ashamed of his hope in Christ (Rom 5:5) nor disappointed of his end. It is our duty that we must not and it is our privilege that we shall not be ashamed of our faith in Christ. The truly saved shall never have cause to repent of his confidence in reposing such a trust in the Lord Jesus.
2. The unashamed of Christ will not make haste (Is 28:16) to run away from the sufferings he meets with in the way of his duty, and not be ashamed of the despised true religion of Christ. He understands that persecution and suffering is the way of life for the redeemed, made clear by the Lord Jesus Christ: “The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.” (Jn 15:20). The following texts reflect the truth that saints will receive and endure persecution for their faith and not make haste or shame: Jer 20:11-13; Matt 5:10-12; Jn 15:18-20; 16:1-4,33; 17:14-18; 1 Th 3:2-4; 2 Tim 3:10-12; I Pet 2:18-25; 3:13-17; 4:12-19; 5:10; Rev 12:17.
The ones that make haste or shame do not like the trials and offence that comes with genuinely professing the name of Christ. They become offended at Jesus Christ and His Word, being ashamed of Him and proving to be of the stony ground, professors of Christ but not possessors (Matt 13:20-21). They never counted the cost (Lk 14:25-35), and sadly believed in “another Jesus” and “another gospel” (2 Cor 11:4), one that they yoked with the love of the world and self. The ashamed so-called “believer” will also get offended when questioned about his “salvation” testimony, while the truly saved will declare: “Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what He hath done for my soul" (Ps 66:16).
3. “Ashamed” in Rom 10:11 is translated from the Greek verb “kataischuno” which carries the idea to be disgraced and dishonoured to the point of blushing. What is to be expected as a natural reaction of the natural man (2 Cor 2:14; 1:17-31) who lives a chameleon-like life, imitating, conforming to the dogmas of Christianity without supernatural regeneration. He is as the leopard attempting to change his spots. An actor. A pretender. Yea the very definition of a hypocrite (Rom 2; Matt 7:1-5). He doesn’t really like to speak of Christ and His Word, but merely uses Him for personal benefit, for service to his own belly (Rom 16:18; Phil 3:18-19). The false professor will use Jesus for personal benefit and advantage, until He is not advantageous anymore for him.
I know people like this. They have no issue talking about themselves, work, weather, TV, sports, entertainment, a house, cars, hobbies, music, recreation, trips, or jokes but rare to no mention of Jesus Christ or His Word. Definitely not enough to carry a conversation. This person doesn’t love Jesus Christ but is ashamed of Him, with their faces, their noses, their lips, their fingers, and their minds in the world. “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he:” (Pr 23:7). The Lord Jesus gives this warning to such: “by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.” (Matt 12:37). And this in Matt 23:17, “Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifieth the gold?”
Their lifestyle also compounds the shame, but now days with the corrupted Christianity everywhere in professing “evangelical” and “Baptist” churches, gathering hand in hand as if majority suddenly reflects truth — many have seared some of that shame.
They are “confounded” and find Jesus “a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence,” and “stumble at the word, being disobedient” (1 Pet 2:4-8). Their “Jesus” is yoked with their world and church, living perpetually in spiritual adultery. They are in fact enemies of Christ. “Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.” (Jam 4:4).
People that are truly saved, born again, redeemed by the Son of man, are longing for His appearance and are not ashamed of Jesus, or His words, or His gospel, or the Word of God.
The True Gospel of Jesus Christ Brings Shame to the Sinner and then Removes Shame of Christ At Salvation
The true gospel of self-denial and self-abandonment is where repentant sinners are ashamed of themselves, and they come to Jesus Christ to be forgiven. They are not ashamed of Jesus or His words (the whole counsel of the Word of God, doing what He says), they are ashamed of themselves, of their sin, their selfishness, their ungodliness, their unrighteousness. Because of this, Jesus forgives them, washes them and cleanses them of their sin (Is 1:18; 1 Cor 6:11), and He is not ashamed of them. Those that go to heaven forever were ashamed of themselves, but not of Christ and His words.
Repentant sinners who deny self, take up the cross and desire to follow Christ have an overwhelming sense of shame for their sin, for themselves. Those that will deny self and lose their own lives for Christ and the gospel, are ashamed of themselves, of their sin, their idolatry, their shame. They are ashamed of their lives and gladly give their lives, their whole life, entirely over to Christ, and count it all as loss that they might win Christ (Phil 3:3-10). Unrepentant sinners on the other hand refuse to see themselves in their own shame, and have a strong shame for the gospel. They have shame reversed. The cross is a stumblingblock and foolishness, a shame, to those that are perishing (1 Cor 1:18, 23). Jesus is offensive to those that want to hold on to their sin, whether it is immorality or morality. Why? Because they love self. They love sin. They love this acceptance from others and they don’t want to live a holy, righteous and pure life if they are immoral. They don’t want to lose their friends, they want to be accepted. The religious lost, hypocrites who are focused on the preservation of self, don’t want to admit they are sinners, and are afraid of losing their religious friends, being alienated or ostracized from their hypocrite friends or both, which is especially true as they get older, and the immoral lost are afraid of losing their immoral friends, who are also ashamed of Jesus. Both are equally ashamed of Jesus. The self-righteous hypocrites have their circle that they value greater than truth and Christ, which holds the grip on their shame, and makes them ashamed of the true gospel and unmasks them as wretched sinners doomed to eternal judgment. Thats why they wanted to take Jesus and throw Him off that cliff, because they were not ashamed of themselves, but of Him. ‘How dare you preach that message to us. We want to hear how good and great we are. We’re not blind, we’re not poor, we’re not needy.’ They are an adulterous generation (Mk 8:38).
The false gospel of self-fulfilment on the other hand continues on in their shame of Christ and His words, but not shame for self, their sin, their love of the world, etc. And then when Christ returns, He will be ashamed of them, and say unto them, “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.” (Matt 25:41). Those that go to hell forever were ashamed of Christ and His words. Nothing could ever, ever come close to the seriousness of the shame of Jesus Christ and His words. Its eternally disastrous, as we have noted in the second half of this passage in Mk 8:38,
“of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
The shame and everlasting contempt (abhorrence) will come from God the Father. These words in Mk 8:38 are tired directly to an OT text that was familiar to the Jews that heard Him say these things, to Dan 7:9-10, which is tied directly to Matt 25 and throughout Revelation. Here is the text from Daniel:
“I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened. . . . I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him.” (Dan 7:9-10, 13)
Mk 8:38 is looking forward to the coming of Christ, for those that are not ashamed of Him when He comes. Those that have “obeyed the gospel” (2 Th 1:8; Rom 10:16; 1 Pet 4:17), by obeying the call to repentance and faith (Mk 1:15; Ac 20:21) by coming to Him through self denial, losing life, taking up the cross and following Him (Mk 8:34; 10:17-31; Matt 10:32-39; 16:24; Lk 9:23, 57-62) are happy to see Him, they are glad that He is here. You’ve been looking forward to His return. When Jesus comes in full blazing glory, the glory of the Father, His own glory and the attendant glory of the accompanying angels, a scene described in the prophetic portions of scripture Daniel, Matthew, Luke, Revelation, when Christ returns to sit on the throne of judgment, He’s going to have nothing but shame to heap upon those that are ashamed of Him. Dan 12:2 says some will arise to everlasting life and others to shame with everlasting contempt,
“And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.”
How Is It With You?
Are you shamed of Christ? Are you His enemy? Do you pretend to be a Christian, but inside know that you are empty, confused and ashamed? Flee for refuge to the cross of Christ, where your shame can be cleansed and removed forever.
Is 55:1-3, 6-7:
“Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. . . . Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.”
And when you do find Jesus Christ and truly and repentantly believe on Him, you will live for Him and bring glory to Him through godly and righteous living and will unashamedly confess Him and His gospel before the unsaved,
“For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.” (Rom 10:11)
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