Exposed
For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known. Whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the light; and what you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops. And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Matthew 10:26b-28.
Don’t worry about your sin being exposed before man, worry about your sin being exposed before a completely holy God.
Your secrets are already exposed to God, so you might as well stop lying to yourself and lay them out before God. His holiness exposes your unholiness as you come before Him in relational vulnerability. When you expose yourself before God, you allow Him to clean you and shape you into who you were meant to be. When you hold on to the illusion that you can keep something secret from God, you resist the work of the Holy Spirit and hinder your growth. Because people are made in the image of God, we feel shame when our sins are exposed before people. But exposing our unholiness before other people falls short of the shame we should feel. Everything will be exposed before God, so work through the shame of exposing yourself before men so that you might be healed.
Who you think you are determines how you react.
In Luke 18:9-14, the righteous pharisee walks away unjustified because he puts himself above others while the tax collector humbles himself and is justified. The pharisee carried himself with pride, refusing to expose any flaws he might have been hiding. Because the pharisee thought he was important, he reacted to the presence of others with superiority, putting himself further up by putting others down. The tax collector didn’t react to the presence of the pharisee, but rather, approached God with humility and openness, asking for God to have mercy on him. When you humble yourself before God and ask for His mercy, He will lift you up. “When pride comes, then comes shame; but with the humble is wisdom.” (Proverbs 11:2). Holding on to your shame will lead you to become emptied before God, but humbly, consistently emptying yourself before God will lead you to being filled with Him and His peace.
What is your view of self?
The world denies man is in the image of God and the fall. The worldly view of self reduces mankind to a mechanical wheel of evolution where anything can be good and morality is relative. In this, the state of mankind and the world is simply the way things are and have always been, a simple progression of biology. A godly view of mankind holds in tension the truth that man is made in the image of God with the reality that humanity and the world are broken. The broken system we are in is not something we are guilty of, just what we live in. However, a godly view of the world doesn’t stop with observing its broken; a godly view of the world includes God’s redemption plan. While the world is broken, God is working to make it good again, and He began with mankind. You have been restored to a non-broken relationship with God because Jesus came, died, rose and ascended. At the cross, Jesus exposed sin and allowed humanity to return to a relationship with Him. You can choose to humbly expose yourself to God, or you can exalt yourself and carry your pride with you all the way to the grave where you will be exposed.