"The Christian does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us" - C.S Lewis
Have you ever felt shame? Ever felt like hiding or running away or covering up because of something you’ve done? I remember a time, when I was younger when myself and my sister were painting with my parents in the garden. After a while, my parents decided they would go and get a cup of tea inside, so off they went and left my sister and I painting. Now, I don’t know you but when I’m left alone with my sister things don’t often turn out well, or they didn’t when I was younger. Well, my sister decided it might be good fun to flick paint at me, and of course, I had to retaliate so I flicked paint back at her. A full-on paint war began and only when the paint was fully-used up did we survey the mess and devastation around us. Although we found it hilarious, we knew our parents would be shocked by the sight of two six year olds covered in paint head to toe, so we tried to sneak upstairs and have a shower. But just as we stepped inside the house, our parents came out the kitchen and we were in big trouble.
Often when we feel ashamed our immediate reaction is to do what I did with my parents; sneak around and hide because we’re embarrassed. Not only do we sneak and hide from our friends and family but more often than not we hide away from God. I know that when I’m ashamed of my actions or thoughts, when I feel like I’m covered, not in paint, but in sin, I convince myself that I can’t talk to God, I don’t want to, because all He’ll do is tell me off. But I’ve realised that these reactions are far from the truth and far from the teachings in the bible.
2 Corinthians 5:21 says: "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." Now that’s a bit complicated but what its saying is this; God sent his son, Jesus who is righteous and perfect, to take on our identity as sinners and die with it, so that we no longer live as sinners but so we can take on Jesus’ righteous identity.
As Christians, we often find it easy to comprehend that we are sinners, to understand that Jesus had to die for us because we’re so bad. But somehow its harder to grasp the second part of that verse “so that in him we might become the righteousness of God”. When Jesus died, he took on our identity and died with it. He became our sin and was crucified, meaning our feelings of shame and worthlessness about our sin were crucified too. But if Jesus has died as our old identity, then we can’t keep living in it. We can’t keep living with our shame because otherwise what was the point of Jesus dying? It’s like someone giving you a brand-new coat, because your old one is dirty and ripped to shreds, you receive it, say thank you but carry on wearing your old one! That’s not right! Jesus died for you so that you could be made right with Him and take on His “righteous” identity. We don’t deserve it but that’s why it’s called grace. You see Jesus was given the punishment that we deserve for sin, he was flogged, he was whipped and he was crucified. We don’t need to put ourselves through that punishment again. Now I’m sure none of you are flogging yourselves physically but you might be doing it emotionally; telling yourself you’re a really bad person and that you don’t deserve forgiveness. But that’s not how Jesus wants us to live.
As Christians, when we confess with our mouths, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in our hearts that God raised him from the dead, then we must put on the identity of Christ. We must discard our old self, that was not right with God (and all the thinking that goes along with that-the shame and self loathing) and put on Christ.
What does this idea of putting on Christ mean? In Galatians 3;27 it says; And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes and Ephesians 4:24 says “put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” . Now that doesn’t mean that after your baptism you get given a “new nature” t-shirt, that you have to wear everyday otherwise you’re not right with God. No, in fact, “putting on”, is actually translated as “sink into” or to be “saturated with”. That means that when we “put on Christ” it’s not a transient thing, something we can just adopt when we feel like we’re being a “good Christian” and take off when we feel like we’re being a really bad Christian. Putting on the identity of Christ means becoming completely new people, inside and out. We are ‘born again’ into a person that, no matter how rubbish we feel and how awful we think we’ve been, we are always RIGHT with God.
So how can we “be saturated in Christ”? I don’t know if you’ve heard of method acting, but it’s where a person is so serious about their role that they ‘become’ the person they are enacting. Some method actors live on the set of the film for months at a time; living and breathing like their character. Those playing victims of war/famine have starved themselves so they know what it’s like to be without food and some have even given up their home and moved country. These adopted lifestyles and habits are often extreme and unhealthy, but the great news is that if we become saturated in Christ, we can only cultivate positive habits. As it says in Galatians 5:22-23, when we imitate Christ and the Spirit living in Him we bear the fruits of “love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control”. You might be thinking, yes but we still make mistakes, we sin and our behaviours are wrong and surely that changes how God sees us? Yes we do sin, but as Kyle Winkler, an American preacher, said; ‘it’s not that our behaviours make us right with God, but when we are right with God, it changes our behaviours!’
When we realise that we are right with God, then we can walk with boldness and confidence, we can draw close to Him. We don’t have to sneak away and hide, instead we can confess our wrongdoings and are forgiven, and the best thing? We remain right with God the whole time. When God gives you this new, right identity, you need to claim it and proclaim it over your life, because when you believe it for yourself then it will begin to transform how to act. When we feel ashamed then its easier to do shameful things, but when we are right with God and we take on that identity, we begin to act in that way.
So I challenge you today, that if you have not “put on Christ” before, if you are still living in your shame even though Jesus died to crucify that ‘false’ identity then, pick it up and put it on. And if you have done that, then you must continue doing that. You need to wake up everyday and “put on Christ” afresh, until you acknowledge that you’re right with God and experience the freedom of living without shame and guilt.
Putting it into Practice
Putting on Christ can be hard, particularly when we feel unworthy of God's affirmation that we are right with Him. Today, you could look at people in the Bible who seemed unworthy of God and His love but were still used by Him. For example, Rahab was a prostitute and yet she was still used by God to help the Israelites defeat the pagan city of Jericho. Not only that, but she was infact an ancestor of Jesus Christ! May these biblical stories of sinners encourage you to start believing that Jesus really did die with our sinful identity so that we could become children of God and be used by Him.