He Died Climbing

The Christian life has no rearview mirrors. There is no looking back--it's always forward, always upward. That means that the guilt of past sins must be left behind. But this is quite an audacious statement coming from Paul isn't it? The one who persecuted Christians. The one who approved of Stephen's execution in the book of Acts. Acts 8:3 says he was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison. This man is now saying, forget those things which are behind--the memory of what he had done to the church, but he says "I no longer live under the guilt of my past. It's under the blood, that sin-debt is paid, and God no longer counts me guilty for what I've done because Christ Jesus was counted guilty in my place." Friends come to Jesus and be liberated from the painful memory of your past. He stood guilty and condemned in your place so that you could look on him by faith and be counted righteous. Forget the past.