Isaiah 43:1
But now thus says the LORD,
he who created you, O Jacob,
he who formed you, O Israel:
“Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name, you are mine.
Shame is a liar. It tells you bold faced lies directly opposed to what God says about you. Shame tells you that if you have sinned you are unforgivable, you are permanently stained, you are a lower class of human. Certainly if you have sinned God calls you to repent and ask for forgiveness. But you know God does not do? He does not demean. He does not heap shame on you. Rather he calls you to himself and he makes forgiveness available.
Shame lies to those who are the victims of sin too, those who have been betrayed and abandoned. Shame tells you that you are unwanted, unlovable, unworthy, used up, less-than. Shame tells you that you are marred and damaged goods and had you been better none of this would have happened.
None of this is what God tells you. He says that “ I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.” In the Bible a name is not merely a label someone goes by; it is a description of who they are, a part of their identity. So God is saying that MINE is who you are, your label. And God tells you that in Christ you are a new creation. (2 Corinthians 5:17) To be “in Christ” means that you believe in, depend on, and follow Christ. If you do, then you are not what you once were and you are not defined by anything except Jesus himself. If you are a follower of Jesus God sees you only in light of Jesus–dignified, whole, forgiven, loved–not as defined by shame.
I originally wrote this post for my church, Immanuel Nashville, in our Daily Pulse email. If you want encouragement from God’s word delivered Monday thru Friday to your inbox, I encourage you to subscribe.