GraceCourse-worksheet-3.2

Unashamed continued

God’s remedy for shame
Shame says that we are what is wrong and puts us into “the less mess”. We believe that we are “less” than others. We feel helpless, worthless, meaningless, powerless, hopeless. It strikes at our belief about who we are, our identity.
God’s remedy is to give us a new identity.

Our old identity
We were (past tense) at one time by nature children of wrath (Ephesians 2:3). Our heart, the very core of our being, was deceitful above all things, and desperately sick (Jeremiah 17:9).

The great exchange
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21).

exchange.jpeg
Jesus did not die just to pay the penalty of our sin. He took on Himself your defiled, unclean nature and destroyed your inner contamination. In exchange you became someone very different to who you were before. You became the righteousness of God. Your heart is no longer deceitful and beyond cure. That great prophecy of Ezekiel 11:19 I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh was fulfilled.

We are no longer by nature objects of wrath. He has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4). Our shame has been completely taken away. Once and for all. Past, present, and future.

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

Two thousand years ago, you and I and all those who are in Christ died on the cross with Christ. Our old sin-loving, shameful self was killed. Dead. Gone. A biologist might translate 2 Corinthians 5:17, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new species”!

Feelings of shame make us want to draw back from a holy, righteous God. Nut we don’t have to run any more. We don’t have to hide. No matter what is in our past. Because we a totally new, clean identity in Christ.

You are invited to draw near in full assurance and enter a deep relationship with God Himself in the Holy of Holies because you have been cleansed and made holy in the deepest part of your being! See Hebrews 10:19-22 19Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.

Question: Are you going to believe what God’s Word says about you? Or are you going to believe what your past experiences tell you?

A new name
2The nations will see your vindication, and all kings your glory; you will be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will bestow. 3You will be a crown of splendor in the Lord’s hand, a royal diadem in the hand of your God. 4No longer will they call you Deserted, or name your land Desolate. But you will be called My Delight is in her and your land Married. For the Lord will take delight in you, and your land will be Married (Isaiah 62:2-4).


Now, watch the 19:14-minute DVD video.

PAUSE FOR THOUGHT 2

Which one of your “new names” particularly strikes a chord with you?


What could you do to make this truth in your life?


How might knowing this truth in your heart rather than just your head affect how you relate to God and to others?

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