P.O. Box 53055    
Los Angeles, CA 90053   

EXPECT TO PUT THE PAST BEHIND YOU

Some words don't have the same meaning today that they had 50 years ago. You may say one thing, but the other person may understand something quite different.

A modern dictionary might be helpful to define such current words as cool. When I hear the word cool, I reach for my sweater. AIDS used to be nursing helpers. Pot was what you cooked soup in. You get the idea.

Another word that has changed its shade of meaning is the word "relationship." Time was when the word relationship meant something solid, something enduring.

A young man recently described the relationship he said he had with his live-in girlfriend. Trying to explain their lifestyle, he said, "We're best friends, we love each other, and we share expenses and intimacy."

"Why,” his friend suggested, “that sounds like my wife and me. Why don't you go ahead and get married?"

He shook his head. "No, Man, I want a relationship, I don't want a commitment."

You know, with the way words have taken on different meanings these days, it is becoming increasingly difficult to communicate with people what it means to be a Christian and what we can expect in the Christian life.

This is why if we are going to really understand what the Christian life is all about we need to go to the Bible. You see, the Bible uses special words to explain what it means to be a Christian. Some of the words may sound strange or even not make much sense to us in our contemporary culture. But when you understand where the Bible writers were coming from, it doesn’t leave much room for doubt as to what we can expect in the Christian life. For example, the Bible says we must be crucified with Christ (Galatians 2:20 NKJV). In another place it says that we must be born again (John 3:3 NKJV). Understanding what it means to be crucified with Christ and to be born again is fundamental and even essential if we’re going to understand what the Christian life is all about.

The concept of a cross and what it means to be crucified is not very well understood today. More often than not, we see crosses worn on gold chains around someone’s neck as a kind of decoration. This would never have been the case in ancient Rome, where crucifixion was the death penalty for the worst possible crimes.

It’s impossible to give a perfect description of a typical crucifixion. There were too many possibilities for the executioner. The Roman historian Seneca said he had seen not just one kind of cross but many. He described how some of the victims were crucified with their heads down to the ground; some were impaled through their private parts; others were crucified with their arms stretched out on the cross beams.

When Jesus told His followers to take up their cross and follow Him, or when the Apostle Paul declared that we are crucified with Christ, the people in those days understood what it meant. To them the cross was a symbol of death. It represented an abrupt, violent end of life. A person didn't “do time” on the cross.

But the cross we often hear preached these days is a new kind of cross. It’s kinder and gentler. Instead of killing a person, the new cross simply re-directs them. While the cross of ancient Roman times stripped its victims, the new cross of the 21st century tries to maintain self-respect.

If we're going to correctly understand what it means to become a follower of Christ, we need to have a correct understanding of the cross as it really was. When the cross that Jesus and the Apostle Paul were talking about struck, it struck hard and cruel, and when it had finished its work, its victim was dead.

When we understand this, it makes clear what Paul meant when he said that in the Christian life, "old things are passed away; behold, all things are new (II Corinthians 5; 17 NKJV). When we really understand the meaning of crucifixion, we know that the Christian life can't be an add-on. It must be a new beginning. We must expect to put the past behind us.

The idea of the Christian life being a new beginning is reinforced by the concept of being born again. We don't hear much these days about being born again, but we do hear about being saved. When Jesus talked that night long ago with Nicodemus, who was an important church leader, He told him that in order to be saved he had to be born again. He said, “Marvel not that I say unto thee, Ye must be born again. (John 3:7 NKJV)

By using the example of being born again Jesus was trying to help Nicodemus understand that when a person becomes one of His followers it doesn’t mean just an enhanced continuation of one’s old life but rather a complete new beginning.

And here's the exciting aspect of this new beginning. When we’re born again, we get to dump all the old baggage of our past - the hurts and slights, the wrongs and mistakes that have been accumulating in our lives from way back.

Have you ever tried to go through a turnstile with your arms full of suitcases? It can’t be done. So it is when we begin a new life in Jesus; we have to drop that old baggage. When we do, we can go on our way light and free.

So, you wonder what to expect in the Christian life? Well one thing is that you can expect to put the past behind you. The Christian life is not about living in the past. Being crucified with Christ and being born again takes care of that. In 2 Corinthians 5:17 (NKJV) we read wonderful news for those who up to now have been weighed down with the past. “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”

Although we come from our pasts, which may have included some pretty serious hurts and mistakes on our part and on the part of others, living a new life in Christ means that we can close those dark chapters of our lives and get a new start. I like the way the Apostle Paul expresses it in Philippians 3:14 (NEB). “All I can say is this: forgetting what is behind me, and reaching out for that which lies ahead, I press towards the goal to win the prize which is God’s call to the life above, in Christ Jesus.”

There are people out there who would encourage us to try to make sense of our lives by looking back. But why try? We can’t live our lives over again. I can’t change what I used to be. But in Christ, I can definitely change what I am now. To put it another way, we can’t go forward by looking backwards all the time.

In fact, we will soon find out that if we're continually looking back, we'll probably find ourselves going backwards. We might even find ourselves repeating the past in spite of ourselves.

I once read a report on automobile accidents. In one state it was reported that there were 14,000 incidents where moving cars crashed into another vehicle which was simply parked on the side of the road. The article called this phenomenon the “moth effect”.

The article pointed out that just as a moth is attracted to a light, so when we drive we tend to drift toward what we happen to be looking at.

A Driver's Education teacher was teaching teenagers how to handle traffic on the highway. He warned the new drivers against looking at the cars to the left and to the right. And especially, be cautioned, don't pay attention to the guard rails. Know that they're there, but don't let your eyes rest on them for long. “Because,” he said, “what you see is what you hit.” Isn't that true? Don't you sometimes feel like you're being drawn toward the 18-wheeler that passes you? Or toward the barricades to the side of your lane? So beware! We go in the direction we’re looking. What you see is what you hit.

It’s the same in the Christian life. We can’t expect to go forward if we’re looking backward all the time. The Christian life is not about our past mistakes, rather it’s about a new day, today, and a future filled with hope in Jesus Christ. By the way, successful Christians have discovered that the new life in Christ is best lived one day at a time!

Each day comes to us clean and new and bright with promise. Yesterday is gone. It's over. We can't live it again. The good that we did, the bad that we did, it's behind us.
You may be thinking, but Lonnie, you don’t know what my life was like. How can I ever live it down? If that is where you are right now, don’t worry. There’s a beautiful promise just for you found in 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (NKJV). There it is. It’s clear. If we ask Him, God will forgive us for our mistakes of the past. And He will heal our pain from hurts done to us.

But remember, when we have experienced His healing, cleansing power in our lives, we must turn our eyes away from the past and look to today. Today can be a new beginning. Seize the day. Take a deep breath and walk into the sunlight. You’ve been crucified with Christ. You've been born again. Now put the past behind you. Expect to start a new life in Christ.