Former Record Of Sin

For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.  Romans 3:23 (and a bit of v22).

As a former convicted sinner, I carry around with me this record. Now, I'm not supposed to carry this record anymore as my Lord Jesus paid the penalty for my sins at Calvary. However, that former record gets presented to me repeatedly by the enemies of our faith in Jesus. These enemies are helped along in their dreadful work by an all too human memory of my past deeds and thoughts, and a burned and scarred conscience. One wonders how anyone could go on with this sort of burden to bear! 

Last night, I finished reading a novel of gloom and doom. The characters are all antiheroes; no one is good, no not one, and all are killed or doomed or lose something precious to them. It was a bestseller of course, and they made it into a movie. I think the author must have written it during an election year after reading only the parts of the Bible about sin and abominations. There was no hope in that novel. 

Well, that is like reading the first parts of Paul's two great sentences on our Lord's work and leaving it there. The first you read in our verse for today, and it continues with our great hope: 

...being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. (vv. 24-26)

The remainder of Paul's statement tells a different story from that first part. In the same way, or because our Lord is the way, the former life of sin is gone and my hope is now in Jesus. I cannot present my former record without also sharing the good news of my current state and the hope it gives for eternity. 

What a glorious hope we are given by faith in Jesus!

Bucky