Jesus can change the past.

The problem with sin (whether sin we committed, or sin committed against us) is that it happened in the past.

The past. It is said to be set in stone. What has happened has happened and there is no way to change it. For many people this fact becomes a prison. Whether it is something they have done, or something that was done to them, their past holds them captive, restraining them from any hope of a future, keeping them in an unchanging doldrum of quiet despair. It happens like this:

Q. "Why don't you get a job?"

A. "I can't, I just can't keep working because of what happened to me."

Q. "Why can't you just let it go?"

A. "I can't, what they did to me was to terrible."

Q. "You really should quit drinking."

A. "I know, but because of what happened to me, drinking gives me comfort."

Q. "The friends you keep are hurting you, maybe you should make new friends."

A. "Only the friends I have accept me, despite my past."

Q. "Come celebrate with us."

A. "I can't, the celebration reminds me of my past, it's to painful."

Past sin holds people captive.

We can understand that because of the infinite righteousness of God, no one who is living in sin could ever come into the joy of His presence with out causing a travesty of justice and goodness. The bible clearly teaches in passages like Romans 3:23 that "all have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God". What about a repented sinner? One who has recognized the sin of their past, and turned away from it? Could a former sinner enter into God's presence, or better yet, would he? Past sin haunts and degrades us, forcing us to remain distant from God. God forgives us, Christ's death makes us righteous, and these acts of mercy provide to us by grace the right for us to enter into His Glory, however having the right to enter, by no means implies that we would find any joy in it.

Sin has consequences. I have a friend whose parents were murdered. She has forgiven the man who murdered her parents. Let's say my friend was hosting a grand celebration of the life of her parents, a joyful occasion meant to reflect on the lives of her parents, two righteous and wonderful people. There would be no way, even in accepting the forgiveness, even in the repenting of his deeds, that he could enter that celebration and not be overwhelmed with the pain caused by his past sin. The only way he could enter into this celebration and partake in the joy of it, would be to enter it without his past. And of course this is impossible for him. Sin has succeeded in forever separating this man from the fellowship with the people whom his sin was against. Even in the light of forgiveness, even in the light of repentance, the pain of the forgiven sin is only magnified in the light of the joy of the celebration. Imagine the celebration in heaven, now imagine the pain of even the smallest sin in the light of it. Heaven will be no place you would want to be, if it means being there with your sinful past.

If this man could travel through time and change his past, he would, freeing himself from it's tryanny. If somehow he could cut himself away from his past, he could enter into the joy of the celebration. Changing the past of course, is impossible. Or is there one who can do it?

Jesus Christ said in Revelation Chapter 21, that he is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. Christ also says in verse 5 of Revelation 21 that he "makes all things new". The Apostle Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 5:17 that if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation.

What does it mean? A "new creation", or "to make all things new"? There is only one way for something to be new. If I purchase a new car, and while driving it home someone stops me and says "hey that's my old car!", I will have realized that I have been lied to. The lie will be evident in the fact that my supposed new car has a past. To be new means to be absent of history, to have no past.

Is Paul exaggerating and Jesus lying to us, when he says that we are new creations, or that all things will be made new? The word being used is "new" not "renewed" or "refurbished" or anything like that. Something "renewed" would still have the problem of the man, carrying into the future his own painful history. The only way to facilitate the making new of something that already is, is if you change the past. So it is clear. Jesus says to come to him in faith and he will remove your past. He has to, if he doesn't you'd be saved, but you couldn't experience the joy of it.

So how does it work? You accept Christ and the past disappears? The consequences vanish? Well obviously not. I have put my faith in Christ, believing that he has made me a new creation, however my past is still clearly in view, the pain of it in many ways greater than it was before I knew Christ. What do I make of this? I would call this the burden of my cross. Just as Jesus carried his cross up the road to Golgotha, so to must we bear the cross of our past sin as we struggle through life. Our hope is in this, that everything that was not build upon the foundation of Christ will be burned away (1 Cor 3:11-15). The sin we have done, and the sin that has been done to us will not survive into heaven. However, while the sinful past will be thrown into the fire, so long as we are not clinging to it, we will be saved. So the burden of carrying our sin (instead of the comfort of clinging to it) BECOMES the hope of our salvation, because we are bearing this burden in order to carry it to Jesus, the only one who can dispose of it. If we persevere in carrying our burdens and laying them down at the feet of Jesus, he will usher us into his Kingdom, and relieve us of the burden of our past as we pass through His gates.

So if the past is destroyed will we forget the wonderful story of our own redemption? Absolutely not. Because our redemption happened as we heard the gospel in love from another person and as Jesus did his saving work in each of our hearts.. So while our past will be destroyed, our redemption will be remembered, but remembered through the eyes of that good friend who loved us enough to lead us to Christ, and most importantly, our redemption will be remembered by Christ (who did the redeeming), and we will marvel as He shares with us the story of how he saved us. Our past, no longer our own, but now belonging to Jesus, and only as He recalls it, will we be able to bear the remembering of it in the light of His Glory!