BP 237
In the play, Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare writes the famous and familiar words, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”
In the context of Shakespeare’s play, the meaning of these words is that even though the lovers, Romeo and Juliet, come from families—the Capulets and the Montagues–who are at war with each other, their love cannot be annulled simply by the family names they bear. Their love rises above their names. They are not defined by their names. They do not need to hate each other but instead love each other deeply.
Jesus communicates something far different for humanity than Shakespeare–at least for those who hear His voice. He came to us with a powerful love that transforms our family name. He metamorphosizes our identities from lowly caterpillars to beautiful butterflies. How so?
Before Christ transforms us, we are left to embrace our old selfs, and these are not promising identities. Our former identity, our old family name, was “Fallen.” “The old self.” Ephesians 2 describes our family identity with words like “separated from Christ,” “strangers,” “having no hope and without God,” “far off,” “aliens.”
Elsewhere, the Bible says that His creation that is separated from Him by sin and rebellion are “not a people.”
The worst of it all is that we cannot rise above our family name whatever it may be—Capulets, Montagues, The Human Race–by falling in love with another person (or nature, or animals, or paintings, or poetry, or work, or sports, or humanitarianism, or . . . sin). We are forever imprisoned by our family identity and can never liberate ourselves from our captivity. Distract, yes. Deny, yes. Turn up our noses at in pride, yes. Liberate, never.
Sin is our nature. Rebellion is our modus operandi. Separation is our forever fate. Opposition to authority is our bent. We need a miraculous change. We must be transformed from the inside out. We must be made new in a way that we cannot even imagine. Our very hearts must be recreated.
This recreation is exactly what God does for those who cry out to Him. Below, be reminded of the words of Scripture that refer to this change of character at the deepest level.
“And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh” ~ Ezekiel 36:26
“Jesus answered, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, “You must be born again”’” ~ John 3:5-7
“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
“Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator” Colossians 3:9,10
“And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit” ~ 2 Corinthians 3:18.
“ . . . for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness . . .” ~ Ephesians 5:8ff
The beautiful message found in all these verses is that God miraculously changes our family names from Frank Fallen and Sarah Sinner and Laura Lost and Debby Darkness and Robby Rebellion to Felipe Forgiven and Rose Redeemed and Gabe Glorified and Abbie Adopted and Leah Light.
Ephesians uses other words that convey the aftereffects of God’s heart transformation: “fellow citizens,” “saints,” “members of the household of God,” “alive together with Christ,” and “seated with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” What an amazing thing to be “with” God in His house for the rest of eternity!
As exhilarating as human romantic love can be as witnessed between Romeo and Juliet, God far transcends this human love with agape love. Agape love is the love of God that motivated Jesus to enter the human race as a baby so He could show men and woman who God is, and speak the human language, and die for them so that their guilt might be washed away forever, and be raised again so that His people might know that they will live forever instead of settling for a fleeting romantic love followed only by death–“ashes to ashes.”
So, what is the application of this “flowery” post? Next time you read Shakespeare or T.S. Elliot or Dickens or Dickenson or Bronte, enjoy what they offer but beyond their earthly words that can be creative and rich, remember the deeper, eternal words of your Savior who came to transplant the stone in your chest with a supernaturally recreated heart that loves the Creator and so will love others as well and even yourself.
“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”
Enjoy these words in the immediate human context. But long for much more. Think about it. Dream about it. You have been given a new name in Jesus. At one time, you were called “Unrighteous.” Now He has taken your unrighteousness and made you His son, His daughter. Now you are known by a new name: “Righteous.” You are called “Beloved” by the Creator of the universe.
Please, do not seek to find your identity in your own heart. Look to the One who made you. He knows who you are. He will tell you who you are! He will transform you into who He made you to be before the world was even made.
God doesn’t want you to settle for being the old rose, and He doesn’t stop at making you some hybrid rose that is marginally improved. No, He comes to make you a whole new rose in the greenhouse of His love, a rose that would never exist apart from His recreating presence in your DNA.
The thorns on your stem represent the crown that was beaten into His head, the blood-red petals speak of His life poured out to make you new, and the supernatural fragrance that emanates from your heart is the alluring sweetness of His love.
So, go, and be that heavenly rose that the world needs so desperately. There are some who will see (and smell) the Florist of florists in you and will cry out to be transplanted into His glorious garden.
“But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. 15 For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, 16 to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life” ~ 2 Corinthians 2:14-16
“But now thus says the Lord,
he who created you, O Jacob,
he who formed you, O Israel:
“Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name, you are mine” Isaiah 43:1
“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it’” ~ Revelation 2:17
