Labels

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 2 Corinthians 5:17

The circumstances of author and speaker Christine Caine's birth are tragic. She was a foundling who never knew who her parents were. On her birth certificate, under the space for parents, was written, "Unknown." Under the space for Name, it was written, "No Name." Caine said that from the very beginning, she was born under a label. Unknown, Unwanted, Unnamed. She said that although she was adopted as an infant, she knew the circumstances of her birth, and the result was shame. The shame was increased when, as a young girl, she suffered sexual abuse at the hands of male members of her adopted family. She said it was only through the renewing, transforming power of Jesus Christ that both the shame and the labels she had carried from birth were removed. 2 Corinthians 5:17 was made real in her life. Her testimony aligned with the wonderful lyric from the old hymn, "I've a new name written down in glory, and it's mine, Oh yes it's mine."

There are so many today living under labels and shame. Sheila Walsh has said that there is a huge difference between guilt and shame. "Guilt tells me I've done something wrong. Shame tells me that I am something wrong." Praise the name of Jesus that we can find freedom in Jesus Christ from both. Forgiveness for the guilt of our sin, and healing over the burden of shame. Where do you need such in your life today?

So many are being crushed under the weight of shame. The one behind it is always our enemy the devil, working through people, systems, and religions. Yes, even Christianity. Jesus Christ has never been about dead religion. Religion is about men's ideas about who God is and how to reach Him. It usually comes attached with a list of rules and regulations that must be followed in order to be accepted. If you fall outside the lines, you suffer rejection and humiliation. I experienced this as a young boy. My family was never very regular in church, but for a time, we did attend one. I was there enough to get to know some boys who were also in my grade school class. When my family fell off from our church attendance, I can remember the sting of shame I felt when those same boys would berate me for not being in church. Even at that young age, they were practitioners of religion, but not partakers of the life of Christ.

That example is very mild I know, and religion is not the only part of the culture that seeks to put shame upon us. In fact, so twisted has our culture become that shame is heaped upon any who fail to keep to what some would believe to be the right and only view. We chastise and ridicule those who disagree with us. It is rampant in the culture and it has found its way into the church. Nothing crushes our spirits like shame does. As Walsh says, it tells us that we are, at root, something, someone, who is wrong. Which means we are not right. Not right with others, and not right with God. We end up living under a label, and feeling we are exactly what the labels says we are; Unwanted....Unknown.....Unnamed. Yet all of these have been dealt with at the cross of Christ. Have they been dealt with in you?

At the cross, every damaging and destructive label can be erased. Is erased. At His cross, by faith, the labels we have been given are cleansed from us. We are made new creations in Him. The old has passed, and all things really are new. What we have been called, we are not called by Him. What we have been, we no longer are in Him. Instead of living in and under the burden of a label, we can now live in and under His name, and the new name He has given us. Jacob, whose name meant "Deceiver," was given by God the new name of Israel, which meant the one who strives to take hold of God. Simon, who was bold in his talk, but cowardly in his actions, seen most in his denial of Christ, was named Peter, the Rock, by that same Jesus. The shame of his betrayal was removed by the words and work of Christ. So it can be for you and me. Has it been so? Would you have it so now?

Christine Caine found the newness of life and identity through her faith in Christ. The deep wounds she carried over the circumstances of her birth, and the abuse she suffered as a child, were healed and she was made whole by the resurrection life of Christ. Her labels were gone, and a new name and life had come. If it hasn't come for you, would you have it now? Paul said that "there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." The shame that we carry constantly whispers condemnation into our spirit. No matter the root of your shame, be it what you've done or has been done to you, bring it to Him. All of it to all of Him. Be new. Be free. Be thar now.

Blessings,

Pastor O