Mark Of Shame
Have you ever felt like you were walking around wearing a scarlet letter on your chest?! Maybe you think that when people look at you, all they see is your past sins or sin, making you want to run and hide like Adam and Eve did in the Garden of Eden? Maybe when you look at people you can see from their eyes or disposition or maybe from what they may say to you that they can’t get past the “mark of shame” you are invisibly wearing. Or, maybe people are looking at you and they don’t see the scarlet letter at all?!
The scarlet letter is meant to be a symbol of shame (later becomes a symbol of identity). Instead of seeing a “scarlet letter” on our chest, what if we saw the cross?! The place where Jesus Christ bore our SIN and SHAME. “looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:2) Guess what friend, as His child we have been covered by the blood of the Lamb and we are now clothed in HIS robe of righteousness.
God doesn’t shame or condemn us, but He does convict us of our sin. “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1) Shame may shout, “your sin is hopeless.” But, Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world declares “through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.” (Colossians 1:20) “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” (John 8:36)
Our identity isn’t in our sins, it’s in our Father who made us and who knew us before He formed us in the womb. We don’t have to live feeling defeated, embarrassed, or ashamed, carrying our baggage of the past. We can live, through the power of the Holy Spirit, victorious because we have been made a NEW creation!! “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17) If we have repented, then our “scarlet letters” have been removed by the blood of Jesus Christ. We are now white as snow.
