Part 9 of 10
Letting Go of Our Past
Many Christians are still hanging onto the wounds of their past life; regretting and/or grieving the choices and experiences of their past life. There also are many who have suffered abuse in word or deed, being exploited at the hand of a parent or other authority figure. When we recall such things, holding them in mind, we still may feel the bite, bitterness and may have unforgiveness that will taint our life. Satan knows our habit and will remind us of our failings and deepest hurts; he will use every tool in his bag to rob us of the riches of our inheritance that we may enjoy “in Christ.”
There is a remedy that God has provided for us and that is that our “new creation” life which is found “in Christ.” Believers can come to know the truth of who they now are as a new creation, and thereby learn to reject and “cast down” these plaguing thoughts of our past.
“Therefore
IF ANY MAN BE
IN CHRIST, HE IS A
NEW CREATURE: OLD THINGS ARE PASSED AWAY; BEHOLD, ALL THINGS
ARE BECOME NEW.” (2
Corinthians 5:17)
For some, these thoughts
have become such a stronghold that they have adopted the sad story of their
past as their “identity.” In doing so they deny their new identity that
they have “in Christ.” It is
only as we realize that we are now “in
Christ” that our past can be effectively set aside. Christ is now our
only legitimate life and person (Gal 2:20). So when the accuser assails us
in mind we can turn his thoughts and accusations aside, saying; “I
know I’m not a failure or a reject, I’m the new-born beloved
child of my Father God Almighty; I’ve literally been born anew by His
indwelling “Seed” (Gk., sperma, 1Pet 1:23,
Gal 3:16).
1
Peter 1:23 Being
BORN AGAIN, NOT OF CORRUPTIBLE SEED, BUT OF INCORRUPTIBLE, by the
word of God (which is Christ, Jn 1:1), which
liveth and abideth for ever.
Galatians
3:16 Now to Abraham and his
seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as
of one, And to THY SEED (GK.,
SPERMA), WHICH IS CHRIST.
Every believer is in fact “A new creature… in Christ,” bearing Christ’s life and nature. Yet, for many their past is always close at hand and part of their mindset that needs to be renewed. Many suffer daily, not realizing the harm they suffer by not leaving behind their past to go on to live as the new persons they now in fact are “in Christ.” These believers miss out on the freedom and the blessings of rest and peace that they might otherwise enjoy “in Christ.” The enjoyment of the riches of “Christ who is our life” is lost to them until they come to see, become established, and then stand upon “the truth” of who they now are in Christ.
Paul uses the word “mind” 39 times in 37 verses of his 13 epistles to the members of “the church, which is the body of Christ.” He uses the word “think” 23 times and “know” 88 times. The answer for wrong thinking believers is not psychoanalysis per se, or mind over matter. Rather the answer is a psychological change that comes about when we learn, see, and trust “the truth” of “the gospel of our salvation.” We must stand on the facts and truth of what God has done for us according to Paul’s words of the “gospel of the grace of God” (Acts 20:24).
First, most Christians should already know they are already rendered guiltless by the simple and yet most powerful truth… that their sins (past, present, and future) are freely and fully forgiven, washed away by having believed in the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
“(Christ)
In whom
WE HAVE REDEMPTION THROUGH HIS
BLOOD, THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS, according to the riches of
his grace” (Ephesians 1:7)
…
having [FREELY] FORGIVEN US ALL OUR TRANSGRESSIONS”
(Colossians
2:13 AMP)
Also, all too few
Christians have come to properly see and realize that they are now “delivered
from the power of the darkness”
(
“Are
you ignorant of the fact that ALL
OF US (believers) WHO HAVE BEEN BAPTIZED
(PLACED) INTO CHRIST JESUS WERE
BAPTIZED (PLACED) INTO HIS DEATH?
4
WE
WERE BURIED THEREFORE WITH HIM BY THE BAPTISM (placement)
INTO DEATH, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious
[power] of the Father, so we too might [habitually] live and
behave in NEWNESS OF LIFE.
(Romans
6:3-4)
"Giving
thanks unto the Father, who hath made us meet [fit] to be partakers of
the inheritance of the saints in light: 13 who HATH
DELIVERED US FROM THE POWER OF DARKNESS, and hath translated us
into the kingdom of His dear Son" (Col. 1:12, 13).
Not only is Jesus’ death our death, but also Jesus’ burial is ours, and His resurrection is our resurrection to “newness of life.” These are the facts of Paul’s “Gospel of Christ” (Rom 1:16). Jesus’ blood and death paid for our sins, but also His death is the death of the “Old Man” (Rom 6:6-7), our “old identity” of our past, to whom the happenings of our past life occurred. Being now dead with and “in Christ” we’re freed (v7 below) from the past; we in fact are new persons in Christ.
“We
know that OUR OLD (UNRENEWED)
SELF WAS NAILED TO THE CROSS WITH HIM in order that [our]
body [which is the instrument] of sin might be MADE INEFFECTIVE and
inactive for evil, that we might
NO LONGER BE THE SLAVES OF SIN.
7
For WHEN
A MAN DIES, HE IS FREED (LOOSED, DELIVERED) FROM [THE POWER OF] SIN
[among men].” (Romans 6:6-7)
Our co-death with and “in Christ” separates us from our past and all its events, it no longer has a hold on us. Yes, we may remember the events but they have no hold upon us unless we permit them to occupy our mind. Our co-burial is significant because we only bury “dead” people. Even our government’s judicial system never punishes dead criminals. Thankfully, the Lord did not leave us dead and buried; He also resurrected us by our co-resurrection with and “in Christ” so that we might enjoy the benefits of His mighty life within our spirit as our new life. These facts are the crux of the Pauline mystery gospel.
“I
HAVE BEEN CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST [IN HIM I HAVE SHARED HIS CRUCIFIXION];
it is no longer (the Old) I
who live,
but CHRIST LIVES IN ME;
and the life I now live in the body I live by faith of (ek, from and with)
the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself up for me. (Galatians 2:20)
“…
God would make known what is
the riches of the glory (expression)
of this mystery among the Gentiles;
which is CHRIST IN YOU, the
hope of glory: (Colossians 1:27)
We still live in a dying sin-laden physical body and we have a soul that yet needs to be renewed to completion, but Christ is now our life at its core, within our spirit, we’re 100% new. The engine of our being, our spirit, was made all together new the very moment we are received Christ, being regenerated, at our new birth. Christ in us is our new mind, as He leads us, guides us and fellowships with us from within.
God heals our wounds when we truly let Him into our hearts and minds, allowing Him to take over in our whole life. “To BE MADE NEW IN THE ATTITUDE OF YOUR MINDS, AND TO PUT ON (Grk, enduo, BE CLOTHED IN) THE NEW SELF, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” Ephesians 4:23. We must agree with Christ in us and say good bye to our past life. Let your mindset be renewed with Christ’s Spirit and mindset (Philippians 2:5), so as to be “transformed” in “mind” (Rom 12:2). We need to eat and be nourished by the words of truth in all Paul’s epistles. God wants you to “be renewed” in mind, recreated in your soul, as a new person “in Christ.” Let go of your old self and past by adopting this new mindset.
The “(Satan’s)
spirit of error” (1John 4:6) likes to keep us wrapped up in our self,
our past, our sins, depressions, and addictions; that way we can’t mature
spiritually and find or enjoy the riches of Jesus Christ as our new life.
These devices keep us from having a living relationship with “Christ
who is our life” (
When we harbor and/or dwell on our hurts we let our past decide what we will do with today? God does not want us to be unhappy, always guarding ourselves from being hurt again. “God is love”… it’s His nature, and this is our new nature in union with Christ. If we are afraid to receive love or to love others and really give of ourselves, then we will never be happy in this life. As long we remain spiritually stunted we won’t enjoy the fruits of salvation, because our mindset and way of living are literally starving us of spiritual insight and God’s wisdom. This is what living in our past does to us.
Only when we decide to let
go of the past and believe
the truth of our new identity in Christ will we be able to live to
our full human potential in the Lord, to freely live and enjoy life. Put
your trust solely in the Lord and He will lift you up.
“He (The Lord) gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall, but those who HOPE (HAVE THIS EXPECTATION) IN THE LORD will renew their strength. THEY WILL SOAR ON WINGS LIKE EAGLES; THEY WILL RUN AND NOT GROW WEARY, THEY WILL WALK AND NOT BE FAINT.” ()Isa 40:29-31
