That None Should Perish

July 12, 2026

Let’s start at the beginning to find out where shame came from. Genesis 2:7.  “Then the Lord God formed a man^[c] from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.”

And jumping down to 2:23: “This is now bone of my bones
    and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called ‘woman,’
    for she was taken out of man.”

²⁵ Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.“

And God was pleased. Proud of His creation. Along with that God commands: “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.” [1, 2]

There was no shame. God was proud and pleased with His creation. All of creation.

Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

² The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, ³ but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”

⁴ “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. ⁵ “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

⁶ When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. ⁷ Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

⁸ Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. ⁹ But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”

¹⁰ He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”

¹¹ And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

¹² The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”

¹³ Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”

The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

Eve. She blamed the serpent proudly.

Adam. Proudly blamed the woman. And blamed God for putting her there.

And Shame appeared.

Shame came about from disobeying God’s commands.

Shame can be healthy but deadly too at the same time. It is okay to feel ashamed of what you did, that is natural. But to sit with it and let it consume you is not.

When you sin, shame usually follows right on its heels.

But you ask, how can I get rid of shame? Is there a remedy? Yes.

The best thing to do is to admit your sin. Not just to yourself.

But also to the person you hurt. To ask for forgiveness, and to be honest. As Matthew 5:23 teaches that if you are presenting an offering at the altar and remember that someone has a grievance against you, you should leave your gift there, go and reconcile with that person first, and then return to offer your gift.