Free From Shame - How the Gospel Redeems Our Past and PainSample

Have you ever felt like you were cursed? Maybe a string of unfortunate circumstances befell you all at the same time. You may have felt alone and humiliated. You may have felt like God Himself was against you. However, the feeling of being cursed is not a result of bad luck or karma—it is actually a result of shame. Shame is the feeling that we are loathsome, undesirable, unwanted, or an outcast.

Adam and Eve’s disobedience to God brought shame. When the Lord came to Adam, Eve, and the serpent, He listed curses that would afflict them because of their sin. Biblical curses are the consequences of sin. They serve as both God’s just punishment for the guilty and the natural ramifications of choosing life outside of God and His goodness.

God cursed Eve with the pain of childbirth and the complications of marriage (Genesis 3:16). God cursed Adam with difficult and tedious work (Genesis 3:17–19). Both Adam and Eve were cursed with death—a return to the dust (Genesis 3:19).

But the most severe curse was actually given to the serpent. God pronounced that the serpent would ultimately be defeated (Genesis 3:14–15). With this curse, there is also a promise. Genesis 3:15 states, “I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.”

God promised that Eve would give birth to a Son who would conquer the serpent and overcome evil. The promise in Genesis 3:15 is the first glimpse we see of the person and work of Jesus Christ. Jesus, who is God, became a human—the promised offspring of Eve. He bore the sin and the curse of God’s people (Galatians 3:13).

Jesus took our shame to the cross, where He died the death we deserved because of our sin. He is the Son who crushed the serpent’s head. Because of Christ’s salvation we no longer have to live in shame—for our depravity is not beyond the realm of God’s power.

Reflect and Respond

How does the gospel remove the curse of sin from our lives?