That is a great question AtG. I'll do my best to answer it.
Rather than wax theological, I will start out with a brief story then talk about alienation and what it did to the soul of man then pick up the story again. I think this will answer for you in a more comprehensive way what I mean by acceptance and identity.
A young woman came out of the psychiatric hospital tormented by guilt and shame. Slash marks upon her wrists showed how deep the guilt was. Thoughts of suicide constantly barraged her mind. Over three years in the hospital did not take away the pain. The guilt lay so deep she had been unable to admit to herself the cause of her guilt. She had suffered deep depression since the beginning of puberty. Why was she tormented so much? What did she refuse to remember?
Guilt, shame and fear are the first works of death, coming out of alienation. All of this began in the garden when man was separated from God. Man's transgression brought death. The death that man experienced was ALIENATION and man's behaviour changed immediately.
Until that day man had been free and he had never known fear. He was free to draw near to God, free to fellowship with another without embarrassment, free to communicate his most intimate feelings and thoughts, free to come near in relationship without being self-conscious, free to be himself without fear of rejection. Until the day man experienced the death of alienation, he was free from fear.
Prior to his transgression, Adam was able to receive (accept) love and to give love. There was no rejection of others or self-rejection, self-hatred of himself.
The day that man transgressed and broke covenant with God, he became a hiding, covering creature who lost his identity in God.
Gen 3:7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.
Gen 3:8 And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.
Gen 3:9 And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?
Gen 3:10 And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I WAS AFRAID, because I WAS NAKED; and I HID MYSELF.
These three statements express the immediate effect of alienation upon man: "I was afraid, I was naked and I hid myself." For the first time man experienced guilt, shame and fear. His first response was to distance himself and cover. Here we see the beginning of isolation. No longer able to be transparent, fearful of being too close, man has behaved by hiding and covering himself ever since.
I know this seems like a long answer but by painting a picture of what man became through the fall and the resulting guilt and shame that ensued I am hoping to show how guilt is more than a mental or psychological problem, but rather it has deep spiritual roots that has caused complete disintegration of the identity that God gave to man in the beginning and has brought about in man the inability to accept love from God and others.
Following the pattern of the first man who put the blame upon the woman, men still try to maintain innocence through denial and blame. First, a form of denial comes through minimizing an act or by ignoring consequences. A man tries to convince himself that the act is not that bad after all; it is normal. He sets forth all his intentions as being good. He rejects norms that would disapprove of his behavior. He brings forth a new order to give more freedom. Second, he lays the blame on another. Adam blamed the woman, and the woman blamed the serpent. Man refuses to accept responsibility; at any cost he must maintain his innocence. By denial and blame the natural man handles guilt.
Accepting the responsibility of guilt brings man to a process of comparison. The focus of attention is upon others. Finding sin in others helps to alleviate his own guilt. A mental process of constant comparison issues forth. He is not looking for good in others, but rather for sin and failure. Every discovery causes him to feel better about himself. And the search continues.
Then there is the mental process of balancing the moral ledger. For every credit there must be a debit; the books must balance. If he can do enough good to balance the bad, the conscience finds rest. So he is constantly looking for some way to do good. It is a process of removing guilt by one's own righteousness. It is man's process of being able to ACCEPT HIMSELF.
Guilt has deep spiritual roots. It involves the problem of evil. The day he experienced the death of alienation, man also experienced the entrance of evil. The effect of evil upon the soul of man goes beyond the perception of mind or the response of emotions.
What does evil do to the soul of man? First, evil destroyed innocence, "their eyes were opened." When he lost innocence, man experienced a sense of nakedness. This awareness of self came with a sense of shame. It caused an immediate reaction of covering himself and hiding. Shame then became a basic problem for man. Some of the deepest roots of shame and guilt come from experiencing evil in the time of innocence. This problem is not evident at first in children, but the fruit of shame and guilt will come out later.
The young woman in the beginning of this chapter was carrying deep feelings of guilt, shame and fear. She had refused to remember that her father had sexually abused her when she was four years of age. When she reached puberty, she was unable to accept her body, developing into the body of a woman. Everything about herself took on the concept of guilt and shame. Yet inside she was driven with certain sexual impulses that frightened her, that she could not deny. Being driven with sexual desires and filled with guilt, she found herself in a dilema with which she could not cope. Withdrawing into herself, she became alienated from family and friends.
Second, when it comes in, evil defiles the conscience of man. He begins to feel dirty and to see himself as unclean. He is experiencing guilt. The behavior of hiding and covering becomes compulsive. Ritualistic cleansing and washing, dressing immaculately, and obsessive cleanliness in the house indicate a neurotic reaction to guilt. Along with this comes the projection of guilt and blame on others. Impending judgment waits for all who fail to measure up to his self-imposed standards.
If he does not project it on others he will internalize the guilt. Self-punishment, self-hatred, and self-accusatory thoughts bring one to consider suicide. The young woman mentioned in the beginning lived at this point for several years. The torment of guilt gives no peace. Alienation always brings death in some way.
The frightening results of alienation is that man loses himself. And man does not find himself by looking within himself, neither does he find purpose by living for himself. When man can no longer see the face of God man loses all perspective of who he is. Alienation carries one into a downward spiral of lostness and separation.
Man through transgression, brought upon himself such guilt and shame that he utterly lost his true identity in God and by losing that and becoming alienated from God, his ability to give love, receive love and love himself, was replaced with guilt, shame and nakedness.
I am actually going to get to this more in depth when I talk about the ROOT OF REJECTION and how to deal with it.
The wonderful news is that Jesus Christ removes our guilt by cleansing us from sin and forgiving us. We are accepted in the Beloved. Through Him we learn to love and receive love, and we receive our true identity in HIM.
Obtaining forgiveness is only part of man's salvation, as there is also cleansing from all sin. Then God removes all defilement of sin, and man is actually free from sin and guilt. At this point man finds peace. The cleansing agent on earth that cleanses man from sin is the blood of Jesus Christ.
Heb 9:14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
Until God cleanses his conscience, a man cannot be free from guilt. God must remove not only sin, but the defilement of it. Through forgiveness God lifts the weight of his sin. Only then is he free.
What He cleanses, God also covers. God provides a covering of righteousness once man allows his nakedness to be exposed.
Isa 61:10 I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.
God covers only that which He cleanses.
Thank you for asking for clarification. It reminded me to talk about Adam's transgression and the resulting alienation with God that it brought. And this alienation with God brought in the worst darkness to man. Man lost his identity when he lost his fellowship with God. Man receives a new identity when he believes on the Lord Jesus Christ. Man only finds himself (his identity) in God. Apart from God, man has the identity of Satan.
Joh 8:38 I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father.
All the very best,
A777
