Not Who I Am Anymore

A quick story: My younger brother spent a good chunk of his life as the so-called "black sheep" of the family. Even in school, his tendency to talk first and consider the consequences later would draw the ire of teachers and administrators alike. He'd spend a Summer learning how to calm himself down, only to face another school year of the same old trouble.

The real problem wasn't in his behavior from the onset of the year, but with his reputation from the year before. Trouble was expected. He was treated like a troublemaker, and so acted like one. He expressed this frustration to me on more than one occasion: how can I hope to change my ways if they won't LET me -- and why should I bother?

In fairness to the school system, they had no way of knowing how he had matured during those summers, or the decisions he made to at least try to behave. All they had to go on was the past.

With God, it's different:

And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.

So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. (2 Corinthians 5:15-19)

Since it was Christ Himself who remade us, He no longer holds our past against us. In fact, as Psalm 103:12 says, he has removed it from us, "as far as the East is from the West."

Our past is no longer a part of who we are. He literally cannot hold our past against us, once He has taken it away, because we are no longer the same person! We are, thanks to the mercy and sacrifice of Christ, an entirely NEW creation!