Does anybody know what the “S” in Harry S Truman stands for? NOTHING! It doesn't stand for anything. He was born with a middle initial… and that was it. The letter “S” was a compromise that his parents made to satisfy his grandfathers, whose names were Shippe and Solomon.”
Several years ago, a new recruit in the U.S. Army had only letters for his first and middle names—R B Jones. To avoid problems when recruiting for the Army, he helpfully listed his name as ‘R (only) B (only) Jones.’ Given the nature of thinking in the Army, from that day on he was ‘Ronly Bonly Jones,’ and all his records, dog tags, assignment forms and even his discharge papers were issued in that name.
A recent study suggests about 2/3s of the U.S. population were named to honor somebody. And 60 percent (of that 2/3s) were named after a relative and 40 percent for someone outside the family.
Now, I was named for Jeff Chandler - a famous actor in the 40s and 50s that my mom really liked. I never liked the name all that much… until I found out WHO I was named for. Then (after that) Jeff became an “alright” kind of name. In fact, I discovered that Jeff meant “Peace of God’… I can live with that.
But names are important. They can shape how we think about ourselves - how we view ourselves.
ILLUS: For example, Tammy Lynn Jones (aged 44) changed her name to Teajai (pronounced “TJ”) Kimsey. She made the switch to leave behind an unhappy childhood. “When I hear the name Tammy, all the horrible stuff I went through comes up. But when I hear Teajai Kimsey, I think: fresh, bright, hopeful, intelligent – all the things I didn’t think I was when I was younger. Changing my name was like getting an eraser and starting over as this new person” (Pamela Redmond Satran & Linda Rosenkrantz – Reader’s Digest 7/09)
And that’s what God has done for us. He has given us a new name. He’s made it so we can start over as a new person. In Revelation 2 Jesus promised “To him who overcomes… I will also give him a white stone with a NEW NAME written on it, known only to him who receives it.”
In Isaiah 62:2 God declared: “The nations shall see your righteousness, and all the kings your glory, and you shall be called by A NEW NAME that the mouth of the LORD will give.
The very idea that God would give us a new name is intriguing. In fact, the promise of God to give us a NEW NAME was the inspiration for a famous Gospel Hymn of the past:
“I was once a sinner, but I came, pardon to receive from my Lord. This was freely given, and I found, that He always kept His word. (Chorus) There's a new name written down in glory. And it's mine, oh yes, it's mine! And the white-robed Angels sing the story, ‘A sinner has come home.’ For there's a new name written down in glory. And it's mine, oh yes, it's mine! With my sins forgiven I am bound for heaven, nevermore to roam.” (C. Austin Miles)
There’s a new name written down in glory and it’s mine. And it’s mine because I now belong to Jesus.
But that points to a repeated theme in Scripture, and that theme is summed up in II Corinthians 5:17 - “If anyone is in Christ, he is a NEW CREATION. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
What does that mean? What does it mean that the old has passed away and the new has come? Well it means, first, that our old way of life has passed away… it’s dead. We have received forgiveness. Peter wrote: (Jesus) himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.” 1 Peter 2:24
By contrast, Buddhism has this unique view of forgiveness: “Not in the sky, not in the midst of the sea, nor if we enter into the clefts of the mountains, is there known --- a spot in the whole world where a man might be freed from an evil deed.”
In other words, Christian forgiveness is NOT something Buddhism teaches.
There was once a novelist and well-known secular humanist named Marghanita Laski. Not long before she died in 1988, she admitted on national TV “What I envy most about you Christians is your forgiveness; I have nobody to forgive me.” (John Stott in The Contemporary Christian)
Well, she could have had someone. And we do have that someone! We have SOMEONE to forgive us. That’s precisely what Jesus came to do. He came that we might receive forgiveness. As Romans 5:8-9 tells us: “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.”
SO, how much does God forgive us? Psalm 103:11-12 tells us “For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.”
His love is higher than the heavens and his forgiveness removes our sins as far as the east is from the west. So… how far is the East from the West. Farther than you think. If you go north, eventually you’ll reach the North pole and everything from that point on… is south. In the same way, if you go South, eventually you’ll come to the South pole, and everything beyond that is north. But if you go East… you can go on and on as far as you like and you’ll never quit going East. There’s no point at which East becomes West. Thus, God’s forgiveness knows no end. There’s no place at which He will say “NO, I will no longer be willing to forgive you” (at least until the day of Judgment).
D. L. Moody once said that “God has cast our sins into the depths of the sea, and He’s put up a NO FISHING sign over the spot.”
But how do we become a NEW CREATION in Christ? (Glad you asked) Jesus said “unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3) YOU MUST BE BORN AGAIN!!! How do you do that? Well… you become a Christian! You BELIEVE in Jesus as your Savior; You REPENT of your sins; You CONFESS Jesus as your Lord and Master; And you allow yourself to be buried in the waters of baptism – and rise from those waters a new person.
In fact, Baptism is the very IMAGE of what we’re talking about here: Romans 6:3-5 tell us: “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.”
We rise from the waters of baptism to “WALK IN NEWNESS OF LIFE!” We are resurrected from the dead so that we can be a new creation - a new person in Christ.
ILLUS: Now, there’s a difference between something that’s been “made new” and something that’s been jimmy-rigged. For example: let’s say you have a Dining Room chair in your home gets broken. One of the legs has splintered and it’s no longer safe to sit on. One more fact: the whole dining room set is an heirloom. It’s been passed down through your family for generations. The table and chairs are valuable furniture. And then there’s the sentimental value. How, are you going to fix it? Well you could “jimmy-rig” it. You could take some duct tape and tape it back together. Will that work? Well… it might!!!? But it will look ugly as sin. And it wouldn’t be nearly as valuable as it once was.
So, whatcha gonna do? Well, let’s say you have an uncle who’s really good at making furniture. He’s a master craftsman - he’s good with wood! And he tells you he can take the chair that’s been damaged and he’ll make it like it’s brand-new. He’ll do it for free because He loves you.
Which would you prefer? Would you prefer the duct-taped/ jimmy-rigged chair, or would you prefer the chair that’s been “made new” by a master craftsman?
You see, that’s what God offers us! You can patch up your life – kinda. And you might even be satisfied with it… for awhile. Or you can turn your life over to God and allow Him to make your life new again. God didn’t come to modify the brokenness of our lives. He came to remake us, renew us, and to resurrect a new person from the dead one we started with. He came to RE-create us in the image of Christ.
But WHY WOULD God even care? Why would He want to make us a New Creation?
ILLUS: A woman shared a story of her childhood as a victim of polio. She said, “When my mother left me in Sunday School I always asked to wear her locket. She thought I liked the locket, but that wasn’t it at all. I knew I wasn’t worth coming back for, but I knew she would come back for her locket.” (W. Paul Jones)
A lot of people feel that way—either because they have a disability, or because they believe they are insignificant, or they feel worthless because of mistakes they’ve committed, or sins they done that make them squirm in shame from their feelings of guilt and uselessness. They just don’t feel like they are worth coming back for. And the Bible AGREES. “All we like sheep have gone astray” says Isaiah 53:6. And Ephesians 2 tells us that (before we became Christians) we “were dead in our trespasses and sins… (and) were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind” (Ephesians 2:1 & 3).
Jesus said He “came to seek and save the lost” (Luke 19:10). The Bible says Jesus came for those who RIGHTLY believed that they weren’t worth coming back for. But God loved them anyway. Ephesians 2:4 tells us “Because of His great love for us, God made us alive together with Christ. We were saved by grace” - God’s grace, not by our personal merit (as if we could deserve His love). Mark Twain noted: “Heaven goes by favor. If it went by merit, you’d stay out and your dog would go in.”
To illustrate that truth Jesus told the parable of the lost sheep. He said that a sheep wandered off from the flock and got lost and the shepherd left the 99 safe sheep to find that one sheep. When he found it, he rejoiced and he laid the sheep on his shoulders and when he got home, he called together all of his friends and his neighbors and said to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ And I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who need no repentance.” (Luke 15:4-7)
You see, Jesus DIDN’T come for those who thought they were worth coming back for. He didn’t come for the self-righteous, but for the sinner. And that’s a good thing, because the Bible says that none of us can do enough good to qualify for heaven. “We’ve all sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).
Martin Luther said “Jesus Christ never died for our good works. They were not worth dying for. But he gave himself for our sins, according to the Scriptures.”
We don’t get into heaven because of what we’ve done, We get to heaven because of Who we know—Jesus. Jesus, the one who came, and died, and rose again… and the one Who is coming again. He’s COMING BACK for us who belong to Him. And because Jesus is coming back, I’m a new creation in Christ.
“I was once a sinner, but I came… pardon to receive from my Lord. This was freely given, and I found, that He always kept His word. (Chorus) AND SO… there's a new name written down in glory. And it's mine, oh yes, it's mine! And the white-robed Angels sing the story, ‘A sinner has come home.’ For there's a new name written down in glory. And it's mine, oh yes, it's mine! With my sins forgiven -- I am bound for heaven, nevermore to roam.”
INVITATION
