No One Should Be Ashamed of the Way God Made Them

 

How do I reconcile the fact that “I am fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14) and yet “I was born in sin, and in sin did my mother conceive me” (Psalm 51:5). They are both affirmative biblical truths and Satan seeks to deny them both. Satan wants to convince us that we are flawed as created and yet without sin guilt.

“Ye shall be as gods . . .”

Satan’s told Eve that she was not good enough in the way that God made her, but if she broke away from the oppression of her Creator could be something better—something superior. Satan loves to do that. He loves to convince people that their intrinsic attributes, conveyed upon them through the providential biological and creative processes ordained by God Himself are somehow in error.

Humans join in this satanic work casting shame on one another in order to bolster the illusion of our own superiority. Strong over weak, beauty over plainness, one skin color over another, one gender over another, even intelligence over more common mental acuity. We are all created unique human beings with varying attributes, but still lovingly in God’s image, and providentially for His wonderful divine purposes.

There is no biblical mandate for us to be ashamed of the way God made us. Yet we become convinced that we must rebel against His divine choice and seek to be something different from what we are. There is no doubt that the ravages of sin and the fall impact the way in which we were born, but there is no biblical merit in being ashamed of the choices of divine providence.

I am not denying the corruption of humanity because of the fall. What I am affirming is the goodness of God’s providence in spite of the fall.

How should I then view myself?

Pride has no place. The same reasoning that discards shame over my intrinsic qualities must also reject pride. If I must not feel shame over being a short person (is 5’ 8” short?), then others must not feel pride over being tall. This is especially true when the differences are arbitrary, like nationality, race, body type, and talents. I happen to be white. That was not my choice. I was born that way. It should not be a source of shame or pride. It is just who I am and I cannot and should not want to change it.

But we do have flaws, don’t we?

Yes, we do. We are all born with them. Those are the effects of sin and the fall. We have flawed human bodies. We are all born dying. Some of those genetic flaws are more visible than others. In humanity, these flaws are a result of the sin of Adam and Eve, but they are distributed (or restrained) among humans by divine providence—sickness, birth defects, genetic defects manifesting at various stages of life. My brother died of cancer that was the result of a congenital birth defect. We try to change these if we can, but more often than not we are obliged to live (and die) with these frailties of our human bodies.

Our real problem is not physical, it is spiritual. We are born with a natural bent to sin inherited from our parents, and we are all sinners by choice. Our desires are corrupted.

Satan turns the table on these two truths.

He does not tell us that we are OK the way we are, but rather to focus on changing the wrong things. He wants us to be unhappy with the way God created us while telling us that there is nothing wrong with us spiritually. Eve was flawless as created. He told her that she needed something better. He did not tell Eve that she was a god–she already knew she was not–but that she could become one. Paul describes this same thing in Romans 1 as arrogance.

“They became vain (arrogant, self-focused) in their imaginations (what they could someday be) and their foolish heart was darkened.” (Romans 1:21)

Satan is the cosmic flim-flam man, selling a myriad of fake lotions and potions to fix what ails us. When we buy it we turn toward the darkness.

So how should we respond?

Don’t get angry at God, it won’t help. God is not responsible for the sin of the human race, humans are. We are sinners by nature and by choice. Anger at God for this circumstance only drives us further away from the real answer.

There are two proper responses to the reality of who I am.

Be honest.

The first is honesty about myself. I am wonderfully made yet spiritually flawed. Adam and Eve were created with a God-shaped hole in their souls. They needed fellowship with God. We need it even more. An honest appraisal of self says that my only hope is found in the God who created me. I cannot change myself, but I can find my completion in God Himself.

Be thankful.

That is what Paul said (Romans 1:21). We should be thankful for our very existence. The idea that I can live, have conscious thought, and enjoy even one moment of the beauty of the universe around me is an immeasurable gift.

We should also be thankful for our completion in our Creator. The irony is that the sin that separates me from God also shows me how much more I need Him. The more broken I feel, the more I should seek Him. It is odd how mankind resents this so basic need. We have no more justification in resenting our need for our Creator than a newborn baby would be in resenting its need for its mother. We ought to treasure the relationship that God not only wants for us but has provided for us through the sacrifice of Christ.

Satan’s lie is to make you think that God did something wrong that you must fix. God’s truth is that everything we need for our forgiveness and fulfillment is found in Him.