Is Your Past Really Past?

When we, as human beings, are born into this world, we are born with sin natures, in the image of Adam (the first man created by God and the first man to sin against him). We are separate from God, unable within our own flesh to be acceptable to God and to be approved by him. So God the Father sent his only begotten Son Jesus Christ to die on a cross in order to put our sins to death with him so that, by God-persuaded and God-gifted faith in Christ Jesus, we might die with him to sin and now walk in obedience to his commands.

[Rom 3:9-26; Rom 5:12-19; 1 Co 15:21-22,42-49; Eph 2:8-10; 1 Pet 2:24; Tit 2:11-14; Eph 4:17-24; Rom 6:1-23; 2 Co 5:15,21; Lu 9:23-26]

For pay close attention to the wording in this passage and how we humans are described PRIOR to genuine faith in Jesus Christ. We were (past) dead in our sins, in which we ONCE (past) walked (in conduct, in practice). We ONCE (past) were following the course (pattern, way) of this world, following the prince of the power of the air (Satan, the devil, deceiving spirits), the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience (those living in willful, deliberate, and habitual sin against God and against their fellow humans).

We were all ONCE among those sons of disobedience, living (in lifestyle, in practice) in the passions (desires) of our flesh (our sinful natures), carrying out the desires of our bodies (flesh) and of our minds (thinking, reasoning), doing what our sinful hearts were leading us to do. Thus, we were all ONCE children of wrath (the wrath of God) destined to spend eternity in hell, not in heaven. For the Scriptures teach us that if we walk (in conduct, in practice) in sin, we will die in our sins. We will not inherit eternal life with God.

So, what does this teach us with regard to what our lives should now look like since we have come to believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and as Savior of our lives? They should not look like they did prior to us believing in Jesus. We should no longer be walking in sin, making sin our deliberate practice. We should no longer be following the ways of this sinful world. We should no longer be walking in disobedience to our Lord and to his commands. And we should no longer be living according to the sinful passions of our flesh.

That all is to be how we ONCE (past) lived, but it is not to be representative of how we live now as followers of Jesus Christ. Does that mean that we will live in absolute sinless perfection? Probably not (1 John 2:1-2), but lack of perfection is never to be used as an excuse for deliberate and habitual sin and walks of disobedience to our Lord and to his commands. For if we claim to know Christ and to be in fellowship with him, but we do not obey him, and we are still walking in sin, then according to the Scriptures, we are liars.

And sadly, that is where many professing Christians are today, at least here in America, and probably representing the majority. But they are convinced that they are “in Christ,” and that heaven is now secured them when they die, and that it cannot be taken away from them, and that all their sins are forgiven (past, present, and future), and thus none of their sins will be held against them. But is that true? No! For Jesus said that if anyone would come after him, he must deny self, die to sin daily, and obey his commandments.

[1 John 1:5-10; 1 John 2:3-6,15-17; 1 John 3:4-10; Luke 9:23-26]

So, the past is not really past if it is still how we are living in the present. Just because we make a profession of faith in Jesus Christ, it does not assure us that all our sins are forgiven and that heaven is secured us and that it cannot be taken away from us. For if our faith in Jesus Christ is genuine God-gifted faith in him, we are those who have been crucified with Christ in death to sin, and raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, no longer to live as slaves to sin but to God and to his righteousness.

That is what it means to be made alive together with Christ when we were dead in our trespasses. It means he delivered us out of our lives of slavery (addiction) to sin so that we will now, as empowered by him, walk in obedience to his commands in holy living and no longer in deliberate and habitual sin. This is what it means to be saved by God’s grace, which is training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in Christ (Titus 2:11-14).

For God’s kindness to us would not be kind if all he did was forgive us our sins while he left us in bondage to sin with no way of escape. His kindness to us is not only in dying that horrible death, on our behalf, and in taking upon himself the sins of the entire world, but it is in setting us free from our addiction to sin and it is in empowering us to live holy lives, pleasing to God. Then, as his followers, we can in good conscience, because of his grace, claim we once walked in sin and in disobedience to God, but no longer.

For Our Nation

An Original Work / September 11, 2012

Bombs are bursting. Night is falling.
Jesus Christ is gently calling
You to follow Him in all ways.
Trust Him with your life today.
Make Him your Lord and your Savior.
Turn from your sin. Follow Jesus.
He will forgive you of your sin;
Cleanse your heart, made new within.

Men betraying: Our trust fraying.
On our knees to God we’re praying,
Seeking God to give us answers
That are only found in Him.
God is sovereign over all things.
Nothing from His mind escaping.
He has all things under His command,
And will work all for good.

Jesus Christ is gently calling
You to follow Him in all ways.

Men deceiving: We’re believing
In our Lord, and interceding
For our nation and its people
To obey their God today.
He is our hope for our future.
For our wounds He offers suture.
He is all we need for this life.
Trust Him with your life today.