1 John 2:28
"Now, little children, remain in Him, so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not draw back from Him in shame at His coming."

You've heard about abiding in Christ. You've heard that you have an advocate who is making intercession for you. You've heard there is One God and One intermediator. You've heard that there is an infinite Grace that bridges the separation between mankind and God, Grace that reached down, not something that tries to reach heaven from the finite world. And you've heard that light came into the world and the world would not come into the light. There is still this uncertainty. Still this doubt.

John writes to people who already know the Advocate, already know the one Mediator, already know that grace came down rather than being climbed up to, already know that the true Light entered the world and was largely refused. And still he says; remain. Because even with all of that truth in place, the heart can still draw back.

Why? Why the fear and shame?

This is what happens when we have drifted into a functional independence. Still orthodox in our confession, still talking about the Advocate and the Mediator, yet no longer remaining in Him. The difference is not information, it's location.

The Light really did come, and the world really did prefer darkness. None of that is in question. What remains in question is whether we are presently abiding; whether the life of the Son is the atmosphere we are living in, or whether we have stepped just far enough outside it that His appearing would expose our gaps.

Doubt does not always mean unbelief. Sometimes it is simply the honest record of a heart that still feels the pull of the old world while trying to live in the new one. That heart is still too close to the world, still hasn't come to the end of itself. God's love is still not perfected in this one.

John’s counsel is not "try harder to feel confident." It is "remain." Stay where the Advocate already is. Stay under the covering of the one Mediator. Stay in the light that was refused by the world but given to you. The confidence is the fruit of that remaining, not its precondition.

It's strange this fear and doubt. Especially when every example Christ lived out shows Grace that has compassion and love for those who still struggle with remaining confidently in Him. The uncertainty they still feel is not proof that the truths have failed. It is evidence that the remaining is still a living act, not a settled achievement. They must keep remaining. The shame is not for those who struggle; it is for those who stop loving God's Son.

Jesus didn't shame the father who cried, "I believe; help my unbelief."

He doesn’t discard Peter after his threefold denial of knowing him.

Jesus does not leave Thomas in his demand for proof. He restores him, he re-commissions him, and he draws him near to himself.

The pattern is consistent. The One who will appear is the same One who already showed Himself gentle with those whose remaining was incomplete, hesitant, or interrupted.

Think about this. The first man, Adam, who was responsible for the cursed world we now all live in; want did he do when he sinned?

When God came into the garden again, looking for Adam, calling his name. What did Adam do?

Adam hid himself from God.

When the Lord God came walking in the garden in the cool of the day and called his name, Adam did not run toward Him. He did not fall on his face in repentance. He did not step into the open. He hid among the trees.

And he eventually (having been caught in his shame) said, "I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself."

That is the original pattern of drawing back in shame. The approach of God did not change. The same voice that had spoken the world into being and walked with the man in unbroken fellowship was still calling. What changed was the man’s location and the condition of his heart.

Sin had introduced exposure, and exposure produced fear, and fear produced hiding. Functional independence had already begun. Adam was still "orthodox" enough to know whose voice it was; he simply no longer wanted to be found by it. The trees became his covering. The distance became his safety. And the walk of shame was born; the instinct to draw back whenever the Holy One approaches.

Now let's contrast this story with another. Another man in the trees. Another moment when the Holy One draws near. But the response is the opposite of Adam’s.

Zacchaeus does not hide among the leaves to avoid being seen. He climbs the sycamore precisely so he can see Him better. Short in stature, compromised in his worldly reputation, wealthy by his injustices, yet he still positions himself for an encounter he has no right to expect.

When Jesus stops, looks up, and calls him by name; "Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today", the man does not shrink back in shame. He comes down at once and receives Him joyfully.

The tree that once served as Adam’s hiding place becomes, for Zacchaeus, the place of revelation. And once the call comes, he leaves the tree behind. He does not stay elevated, half-visible, managing the distance. He comes down into the open, into the presence, into the house where the Son of Man has chosen to stay. He welcomed Jesus right on into his own home.

That is a different walk of shame.

The shame of his past is real; extortion, collaboration, isolation.

Yet when the approach of Jesus happens, the reflex is not to draw back but to hurry down. The confidence is not self-generated; it is the fruit of being found and called. Jesus does not wait for Zacchaeus to clean himself up first. He invites Himself in while the man is still in the tree, still compromised, still short. And the result is not exposure that destroys, but exposure that restores.

This isn't some tricky twist of the narrative by me, Jesus literally says it:

"Today salvation has come to this house…For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost."

Adam hid and the fellowship was broken. Zacchaeus came down and the fellowship was restored. Both men faced the approach of God. One drew back in fear because of nakedness. The other hurried into the open because he was sought.

Do you know you are what you sought?

The sum of who and what you are is not what you've done or how you've chosen to be, you are who you sought. Who you sought fills your voids. Heals your brokenness. Fills the cracks and scars and makes them new. He does that. Not you. The Divine within you does that.

You are not the sum of what you have done or the sum of the ways you have tried to cover yourself. You are the one who has been sought. Zacchaeus climbed the tree because something in him still wanted to see the One who was passing by. Adam hid among the trees because something in him no longer wanted to be seen. The difference was not moral achievement. It was direction of desire. One man used the tree to draw nearer; the other used it to keep distance. And the One who came walking by still called both by name.

Think long and hard about that.

When Jesus says, "The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost," He is describing the entire story. The seeking is prior. The call is prior. The invitation into the house is prior.

The voids are not filled by the intensity of your seeking. They are filled by the One who found you in the middle of it. He makes the scars the places where His own life now shows through. It is not a divine principle inside you operating on its own. It is the living Christ, the Advocate, the one Mediator, remaining in those who remain in Him. There is no ritual or venerated relic that will reproduce this. No sacrament or worship system of sacrifice will generate this regeneration.

Conclusion:
Trying to do those religious things is like climbing back into the trees. Do not climb back into the trees to manage the distance. Do not hide behind your orthodoxy while the life itself is held at arm’s length. The confidence that will stand at His appearing is the confidence of those who have already come down, already welcomed Him in, and already learned that the only safe place is to be found.

The walk of shame ends when the sought one stops hiding and starts remaining.

Amen 🙏🏼