“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” Most people do not take the time to analyze this gem of a text. They major on a new present and future for the one who is in Christ. But as blessed as these truths are, there is a third truth just as precious. And that is this: He says we also have a new past, one that is blameless and spotless. God doesn’t patch up the old life; He gives a completely new one. It’s as new as the present and future one; how about that!
Recovering alcoholics and drug addicts are taught to testify, “I am an addict, but have been clean for x amount of years.” I’ve noticed many of these keep falling out of bed. Why? Simply because they sleep too close to where they got in. I think it much more beneficial for one who desires to live a victorious life to say, “I am in Christ, and now I have nothing in my past to shame me.” A Christian’s past has been wiped clean (Heb.8:12). As the gospel song says, “What sins are you talking about?”
No child of God need be hindered by their past; they now have a new identity in Christ, a “new man,” if you please. When a harlot on the street shouted out to the newly converted Augustine, “Augustine, it is I,” his reply was, “I know, but it is not I.” Again, as another song puts it, “I am not the man I used to be.”
If God buried your sin in the depth of the sea, don’t go looking for deep-sea diving equipment.
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