Being ashamed of Christ

The shame of the cross and invoking the name Jesus that we feel when in the face of the world is due to the fact that our original and active sin and guilt and pollution is lying in denial inside us and everybody else, and invoking the cross and the name Jesus is like a public admission of that sin and guilt and pollution; and we know and experience that the world will not share in our admission but actually condemn us for it due to it cutting them close regarding it all.

Humans always get embarrassed when we genuinely admit real shortcoming or failure or downright moral turpitude (and invoking the cross and Christ is the ultimate of that, as it condemns all deeply); and other people, the world, get embarrassed for us, for themselves, for it all, and angry that anyone would even broach the subject.

That is what is behind our feeling of being ashamed of the Gospel and being ashamed of the name of Jesus Christ, and why we are reluctant to speak it in the face of the world.