Renouncing Shame
Everything we do depends on God whether we realize it or not. According to Ecclesiastes, there is nothing new under the sun. God has already seen everything that has happened and will ever happen. He sees everything from the perspective of eternity. We see things as God reveals them to us one step a time. All things are and will be according to His sovereign will.
When Abraham was called by God, he was called to be God’s ambassador. He had God’s authority and he represented the Kingdom of Heaven when he spoke the Word of God on behalf of God. Likewise, we are called by our sovereign Lord to be his ambassadors. We have been called both to deliver the message and to be the message… Therefore, we pray you in Christ’s stead be ye reconciled to God.
2 Corinthians 5:17-21 says: Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
As His ambassadors, our authority is based entirely on who we are in Christ. Old things are passed away, behold all things are become new… Through Christ we have been made God’s new creation and He has entrusted us with a new message to reconcile others to himself through Jesus Christ. Our credentials are not in our own accomplishments, rather our credentials are the gift of the spirit: Christ in us the hope of Glory.
The last two weeks we examined two aspects of ambassadors culminating in 2 Corinthians 5:17-21: first, that God is our sufficiency and that we are totally dependent upon him. The second aspect is that we are ministers of the law of the spirit of God in Christ in us. We are ministers not of the Old Testament law of the flesh that results in death, but of the new law of the spirit that results in eternal life.
Because of the spirit of life in Christ, God has enabled us to fulfill the “sh’ma” the Old Testament law according to Deuteronomy 6:5, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy might.” Jesus clarified this passage when he quoted it in Mark 12:30: “And though shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind and with all thy strength.” Some have said that Jesus quoted the scripture incorrectly when he changed the ending of this verse to “with all thy mind and with all thy strength.” However, Jesus knew the Hebrew text. He also understood the meaning of the text. The word translated “might” in Hebrew means “very” or “superlative.” Jesus clarified this passage to mean, “love God with your “very essence” or as Oswald Chambers said, “My Utmost” for His Highest.
Jesus then quoted Leviticus 19:18 from the Old Testament: “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” How do you love your neighbor as yourself? The answer is the third aspect of being an Ambassador. According to the preceding verse in Leviticus, you love your neighbor by reproving him. If we do not reprove our neighbor when he strays from the Word, we ourselves commit sin. Loving your neighbor is to correct him according to the Word, for the Word of God is profitable for doctrine, for reproof and correction, which is instruction in righteousness. To correct is to restore your neighbor to an upright position before God.
The third part of Ambassadors in 2 Corinthians 4:2 says, “but we have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty.” The normal response to shame is to hide it. The law of the spirit brings sin into the light of the Word of truth. The devil hides in the darkness. The truth of the Word of God exposes the shamefulness and dishonesty of sin. A little pocket of darkness gives the devil a foothold. According to John 3:18-20: He that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world and that men loved the darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hates the light, neither cometh to the light lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth, cometh to the light that his deeds may be manifest that they are wrought in God. According to 1 John 1:17, If we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all unrighteousness.
Holiness means to be set apart for the purpose for which the designer designed us. The purpose for which he designed us is that we should be to the praise of the glory of his grace whereby he has made us acceptable in the beloved. He has designed us to be his ambassadors. When we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have “denounced the hidden things of dishonesty.” For he who new knew no sin was made the perfect sin sacrifice for us that we may be made the righteousness of God in him.
May God richly bless you!
Your brother in Christ,
Michael