What does the Bible say about embarrassment?

This is no proof of conversion. It is only the main proof that man has got into a bad conscience and cannot get out of it. Adam and Eve dare not look at each other, nor yet to God. They cannot bear the condition they have got into, and they cannot change it, therefore they hide it. But do not mistake this for repentance. Shame merely drives them to hide from, and excuse themselves to, God. And so with ourselves. As long as the shame of sin continues, we try to hide it, to get away from it, but it only drives us further and further from God. It is not a divinely-taught conscience, because we are more concerned about the shame before men, than the sinfulness before God. Until God has the place which man now occupies in our hearts, there is no conversion, the soul is not looking to God. We may be able to reason about the tender love and grace of God, but our sense of the guilt of sin should ever be deeper than that of its shame. When the conscience is before God, guilt brings sorrow, and yet we can, as sinners, reckon upon the love and kindness of God.

This is no proof of conversion; it is only the main proof that man has got into a bad conscience, and cannot get out of it. Adam and Eve dare not look at each other, nor yet to God. They cannot bear the condition they have got into, and they cannot change it, therefore they hide it. But do not mistake this for repentance. Shame merely drives them to hide from, and excuse themselves to, God. And so with ourselves: as long as the shame of sin continues, we try to hide it, to get away from it; but it only drives us farther and farther from God. It is not a divinely-taught conscience, because we are more concerned about the shame before men than the sinfulness before God. Until God has the place which man now occupies in our hearts, there is no conversion: the soul is not looking to God. We may be able to reason about the tender love and grace of God, but our sense of the guilt of sin should ever be deeper than that of its shame. When the conscience is before God, guilt brings sorrow; and yet we can as sinners reckon upon the love and the kindness of God.

This knowledge of ourselves by the light of God forms the principle of repentance. We may read many a blotted page in our history, and be sorry and ashamed of it; but to read ourselves in the light of the glory and presence of God leads to that repentance which the Spirit works. We learn that we are black, when the sun looks upon us (Cant. 1), when the burning brightness of the glory rises upon us, as here upon Peter.

Forlorn and forsaken Paul turned for support to the Lord whom he knew. There was One who had Himself learned what in its bitterest sense shame was here in this world. We know that the word "shame" may be understood in more than one sense. Shame began in the garden of Eden, when our forefathers forfeited their position by disobeying their God. How could they lift up their eyes and meet their Creator as He walked in the garden in the cool of the day? They were ashamed because they had sinned; they blushed because of their disobedience; they were like the man in the temple who would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, "God be merciful to me, a sinner."

It is lovely to see this same spirit in Ezra, confessing before God, "O my God, I am too ashamed and humiliated to lift up my face to You, my God; for our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has grown up to the heavens (v. 6). In other words, their sin was far beyond their control or their ability to check it. But he does not confine his thoughts to the guilt then present, rather he confesses it had been there "since the days of our fathers' (v. 7). In speaking thus, he remembered that it was such guilt that had led to their captivity, their kings and priests being delivered into the hands of foreign kings because of this guilt, and brought down to shameful humiliation.

The tears of his penitence filled his eves, and he dreaded to look upon Him against whom he had sinned. But the truth he had not grasped was that God, to whom he was answerable as a sinner, was ready to pardon, and that a Divine invitation was addressed to him, and to every other guilty one: "Look to Me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is none else." — Isa. 45:22. Ezra, the priest, confessing his own sin and the sins of his people, acted on this invitation and lifted up his eyes to God in spite of his sense of guilt. He said, "O my God; I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee, my God, for our iniquities are increased over our head, and our trespass is grown up into the heavens." — Ezra 9:6.

Do not be ashamed to own Him. Remember the scripture has said that whosoever believes on Him shall not be ashamed. It is the unbelieving that will know everlasting shame and contempt. What have you to be ashamed of?

The Lord Jesus had spoken of shame. He knew the tendency of our hearts when He said, "Whosoever shall be ashamed of Me and My words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed," etc. Luke 9:26. No doubt it was addressed to Jews at that time, but the principle always holds good; so He puts the danger of shame as well as of fear. John the Baptist thought he might have made a mistake: his thought was fear, not shame.

You believe in Him with your heart, and with your mouth confession is made to salvation, for the Scripture says, "Whosoever believes on him shall not be ashamed." God does not suppose that the man who believes in His dear Son is going to be ashamed of Him, and if any of you have found the Lord as your Saviour, and have learned that His death has washed your sins away, and delivered you from judgment to come, do not be ashamed to confess Him. Whosoever believes on him shall not be ashamed is a fine word. I do not think he need be ashamed. The man who has believed will never be put to shame; but for the man who has not Christ, there is nothing before him but dreadful shame. He will be ashamed of himself; ashamed that he missed the light; ashamed that when he had the chance to take Christ, he did not take Him. It is far better to be His now, and each of you may be, "for there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved" (vers. 12, 13).

But we proceed "And now, dear children, abide in him" — the whole family of God — "that, if he be manifested, we may have boldness, and not be put to shame from before him at his coming." This is a sentence we ought to consider, as it is often misunderstood. In general, those who make use of the verse think that it means that we, or any other Christians, should not be thus put to shame. What the apostle really says is, Abide "ye" in him, that "we" may not be ashamed, those of whom they were the work in the Lord. For it would have been no small affront to the truth, and a very great pain to the workman, that any who had appeared to receive the truth should give it up. He therefore puts it in the form of an appeal to their affection. If the apostle personally had so wrought, he would have been still the blessed and holy and faithful apostle; but in itself it is a shame to the labourer when those supposed to be brought into the truth abandon it.

Remember that this departure was then going on. It began with Judas, or, if not exactly with Judas, with many of His disciples who went away back and walked no more with Him from the time He disclosed His incarnation and His death as the indispensable food of faith, long before the apostasy of Judas. There were also many among the rulers who believed but because of the Pharisees did not confess Him; for they loved glory from men rather than glory from God. O beloved friends, beware of this! Confess Him if you believe; confess Him if your hearts rest on Him for life eternal. And not merely confess Him, but, whatever the pressure, abide in Him. The apostle here puts it in a way exceedingly tender: "That if he be manifested, … we may not be ashamed from before him at his coming." Would not their defection be a shame to us rather than an honour in that day?