Love Defines Us
If you’re anything like me, maybe the nearing end of another Christmas season unravels a mix of different emotions and deep thoughts. It’s a time of joy for many, sorrow for others, and a great amount of reflecting upon another year gone by. We’re faced with what we’d love to leave behind, what we desperately wish we could change, and the reality of all our past failures and accomplishments.
Whether it’s in achievements that our flesh tries to boast and build upon, past failures of sin that we struggle to leave at the cross, or shame we’ve allowed to shift and shape the way we view ourselves or think God views us, His word provides assurance and promises to remind us that God always had a plan of redemption. Because of the unrelenting love, grace, and mercy of God, His plan through His Son was always to redeem us, make us completely new, and fully whole in Him.
As humans, there will always be a constant battle to anchor our worth and value in someone or something. It may be the desire for acceptance/praise of man, in what we own/material possessions, what we’ve done/haven’t done, or in what we’ve failed in or accomplished. Many of us may feel we can boast about ourselves and what we’ve done in this life, while others may be drowning under their own guilt and shame due to their own sin, or sin that’s been done to them. And yet, God gives us the very cure for us all, the very antidote for all prideful, broken, and shame filled hearts and lives. God loved us enough to not leave us in our sinful states, but remake us, solely based upon the precious blood of His Son, Jesus. Our worth and value are not in the sum of anything we’ve done or think we could do, but upon the unending love of Jesus and what He’s already done for us on the cross. Jesus was despised and forsaken of men. He was a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, as one whom men hid their face (Isaiah 53:3). Our griefs He bore, our sorrows He Himself carried. He was pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities, upon Him was the chastisement that brought our peace. Because of HIS wounds, (all sin of humanity and the wrath of God upon Him), we are healed (Isaiah 53:4-5).
In Isaiah 43, we read about God’s regathering and redemption of wayward Israel, but this chapter simultaneously reveals to us a powerful description of what God’s love does to utterly redefine His people. It gives us everlasting promises to remind us of who we are now in Christ, and how His unwavering love for us is the only thing that forever gives us secured and unchanging value and worth. Isaiah 43:1-25 states that we are redeemed, called by name, His, precious in His sight, honored, loved, created by Him and for Him, chosen, told not to fear (for He is with us), and how He is the One who blots out our transgressions and remembers our sin no more.
As we remember and celebrate the birth of our perfect and sinless Savior Jesus in this season, let us continue to hold fast to ALL that His life, death upon the cross, and resurrection has done to redeem, transform, and make us a people for His very own (Psalm 4:3). Take no thought anymore to wherever you’ve once placed your identity. You are made new, fully redefined by the love of the only sinless One who more than willingly took on all sin, who despised His own shame in order to fully cover yours.
Whether it’s in achievements that our flesh tries to boast and build upon, past failures of sin that we struggle to leave at the cross, or shame we’ve allowed to shift and shape the way we view ourselves or think God views us, His word provides assurance and promises to remind us that God always had a plan of redemption. Because of the unrelenting love, grace, and mercy of God, His plan through His Son was always to redeem us, make us completely new, and fully whole in Him.
As humans, there will always be a constant battle to anchor our worth and value in someone or something. It may be the desire for acceptance/praise of man, in what we own/material possessions, what we’ve done/haven’t done, or in what we’ve failed in or accomplished. Many of us may feel we can boast about ourselves and what we’ve done in this life, while others may be drowning under their own guilt and shame due to their own sin, or sin that’s been done to them. And yet, God gives us the very cure for us all, the very antidote for all prideful, broken, and shame filled hearts and lives. God loved us enough to not leave us in our sinful states, but remake us, solely based upon the precious blood of His Son, Jesus. Our worth and value are not in the sum of anything we’ve done or think we could do, but upon the unending love of Jesus and what He’s already done for us on the cross. Jesus was despised and forsaken of men. He was a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, as one whom men hid their face (Isaiah 53:3). Our griefs He bore, our sorrows He Himself carried. He was pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities, upon Him was the chastisement that brought our peace. Because of HIS wounds, (all sin of humanity and the wrath of God upon Him), we are healed (Isaiah 53:4-5).
In Isaiah 43, we read about God’s regathering and redemption of wayward Israel, but this chapter simultaneously reveals to us a powerful description of what God’s love does to utterly redefine His people. It gives us everlasting promises to remind us of who we are now in Christ, and how His unwavering love for us is the only thing that forever gives us secured and unchanging value and worth. Isaiah 43:1-25 states that we are redeemed, called by name, His, precious in His sight, honored, loved, created by Him and for Him, chosen, told not to fear (for He is with us), and how He is the One who blots out our transgressions and remembers our sin no more.
As we remember and celebrate the birth of our perfect and sinless Savior Jesus in this season, let us continue to hold fast to ALL that His life, death upon the cross, and resurrection has done to redeem, transform, and make us a people for His very own (Psalm 4:3). Take no thought anymore to wherever you’ve once placed your identity. You are made new, fully redefined by the love of the only sinless One who more than willingly took on all sin, who despised His own shame in order to fully cover yours.
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