FORGETTING THE PAST
Phil 3:13-14 But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead, I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus.
OK – we are looking at those areas of life where we are living under the law which is bondage instead of living under grace which sets us free.
Today I want to look at the past. Everybody has a past of making mistakes, failures, broken relationships, under achievement and sin. When Jesus died on the cross He took the punishment of the judgement of God for all our sin – past, present and future; thus His blood washes away all our sin and cleanses us from all unrighteousness. Jesus exchanged His righteousness for our righteousness so we are now the righteousness of God in Christ: 2 Cor 5:21.
As far as God is concerned all our sinful past no longer exists, not because He’s forgotten it but because He chooses not to remember it, yet many Christians still harbour thoughts of guilt, condemnation, fear and shame over past behaviour. Why is this? It’s because although we have asked God to forgive us for those things, we are still allowing them to remain on our conscience, and instead of looking towards the cross where Christ set us free which is to be righteous conscious and releases peace and joy, we constantly look inward at the things we have done wrong making us sin conscious and stirring up guilt and condemnation etc.
Under the Old Covenant on the Day of Atonement which took place once a year, the nation of Israel would gather at the door of the tabernacle. The high priest then performed the ceremony that assured the nation there sins would be forgiven for one more year. This took place in 2 stages:
First: a goat was brought for a sin offering; The priest would lay his hands on the goats head and confess over it the nations sins for that year, thus transferring their sins onto the goat. The goat was offered as a sacrifice for death and when God saw the blood it was a reminder to him that the punishment for their sins had been taken out on the goat. God was now able to release His mercy upon the nation in forgiveness.
Second: another goat was brought and the priest laid hands on the goats head and confessed the sins of the nation again, transferring their sins onto the goat; but this goat wasn’t sacrificed, it was set free to escape into the wilderness never to return. It was named,’ The Escape Goat’, or as we would call it, ‘The scapegoat’. In this , God was saying that not only had He forgiven their sin but He had also taken it away never to recall it again. Here we see the 2 fold stage of God’s forgiveness. First He forgave their sin and second He took it away never to recall it again.
When we come to understand this 2 fold stage of forgiveness we see that Jesus not only forgave our past sin; as our scapegoat He has carried our sin away never to recall it again. It’s not that God forgets our sin it’s that He chooses not to recall it. It’s the same for us. We must receive God’s forgiveness for our past sin and allow Christ to take it away to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Then if perchance these past sins come to remembrance, we to must forget them, we must choose not to remember them by putting them back on Christ again and as our scapegoat allow Him to carry them away. We can do this as many times as is needed until such time we find release from them and at long last experience a clean conscience leading to freedom from guilt, condemnation, shame and fear. It was for freedom that Christ has set us free.
Meditation point: My sins past, present and future have not only been cleansed by the blood of Jesus; Jesus as my scapegoat has also carried them away never to recall them for all eternity.
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