Unless, of course, it has to do with my daily practical life, and then most of us still feel as though we are prisoners of our past and victims of the system. "Sigh...oh well...one day Jesus will rescue me from this mess and take me to heaven where everything will be chipper, no one will tell me what do to, and I can finally be free from the mess I've made of me and I'll be...happy."
Then there's God weighing in on that mentality through the Apostle Paul (who knew a thing or two about a tough past). 1Corinthians 6:9-11 Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders 10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
I think the two most precious words in the whole passage are "were. But..." There is no denying that all of us have stuff in our past that has left scar and residue. But we have been washed. That means that we are no longer to live accordingly. But we still do, because down deep, we really doubt that we have really been changed or washed, because we don't really FEEL all that different. In fact, many mornings we wake up and feel like the poster-children for "total depravity."
So that's where faith comes in. It's taking God at His Word and doing what He says to do. HE says we've been washed, cleansed, justified, sanctified, and even glorified (Rom. 8:30)! So do we believe it? The quickest way to know what we believe is by what we do. Are we living lives of freedom and purpose and joy? Or are we "just forgiven...?"
No, let faith be active and visible in our "real" daily & practical lives. God says so, and it's why Jesus came. May it not be for nothing in each of our lives.
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