One of my favorite songs right now is by an artist called Big Daddy Weave. The song is named “Redeemed.” It has such a powerful message behind it. A message that I think many Christians need to be reminded of. Towards the end of the song they sing, “All my life I’ve been called unworthy, maimed by my shame and regret. . .but I’m reminded oh God, You’re not done with me yet, I am redeemed.” Have you ever felt unworthy or wondered how can God love you much less use you because of your past? It reminds me of the Boston Red Sox. For 86 years (from 1918 to 2004) they lived under the “curse of the Bambino.” It dealt with the Red Sox trading Babe Ruth to the Yankees. The Red Sox didn’t win a World Series for 86 years. Obviously that was nothing more than a superstition, it wasn’t real, but at times it felt real. Does it kind of remind you of your past? You know that your past is just that your past, and that it really doesn’t have any bearing on your future, yet it still haunts you. Finally in 2004 the Red Sox won the World Series. Papers in Boston and all over the United States read something similar to “The curse is broken.” Three years later the Red Sox won it again. Suddenly they didn’t have “the curse” hanging over them and they were able to simply focus on playing baseball. What changed in the team and the fan base? Absolutely nothing except their perception! Before 2004 they were looking and expecting something to go wrong because of the “curse.” But now that it was behind them, it was time to return to winning.
When a person comes to faith in Christ what happens to them? 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” Unlike the “curse” in Boston, something definitely happens inside of a person who comes to faith in Christ. The “old them” is gone and God has made them new. They have a new nature full of new desires to please God, and they have a new name, “Redeemed.” That is a reality, but we all know that the old perception comes to our mind from time to time. For Red Sox fans they are called Yankee fans. For a Christian it is Satan. He wants to remind us of our past and tell us that we are unworthy of our new name and our new nature. And sometimes those thoughts come to our mind because we slipped back into the “old” us. We must realize that God is never ok with any of our sin, but He did die for it. So instead of listening to Satan and his attacks you can quote Philippians 1:6, “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” In other words just as the song says, “oh God, You’re not done with me yet.”
There is another line in the chorus of the song that says, “So I’ll shake off these heavy chains.” It’s time to shake off the heavy chains of your past and realize that because you have placed your faith in Jesus Christ, He has not only given you a new name, but He has given you a new future as well. Run towards that future! That is what Paul encourages us to do in Philippians 3:13-14, “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” You’ve been given a new nature, a new name, and a new future, now let’s go and share with others that what God did for us, He can do for them.
By His grace and through His strength may we live for Him