Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 2 Corinthians 5:17
Have you ever had one of those moments that you really wish you could just do over? If there was any way you could go back and change something that was said or done, you would. Maybe you have had a day or so along the way that you would do differently if you had the chance, but there is no way to get that day back again.
Then, there are those people who would like to have a whole life do-over! The Apostle Paul had grown up as Saul, born in the city of Tarsus but brought up in Jerusalem. His was a life that was filled with everything the world had to offer. Even though he was a Jew, he was also a Roman citizen and thus was afforded every privilege that came along with being a citizen of the Roman Empire. As to education, he had the best you could get, having been educated in Jerusalem under the tutelage of Gamaliel. He received not only a secular education but a religious one as well, becoming a member of the sect of the Pharisees.
With all of that going for him, why would he possibly want a do-over? One day, on the way to arrest and imprison (with a sentence of death) any Christian he could find, Saul was literally knocked off of his horse and he met Jesus. He got a new name, Paul, and a new life. In the first chapter of Galatians he tells us in his own words why he would like to erase the past completely and not just paint over it. “I persecuted the church of God and tried my best to destroy it.” In the fifteenth chapter of First Corinthians he considers himself not even worthy to be called an apostle because of his past life.
Jesus met a woman one time (actually He met plenty of people in her situation) who was being condemned to death because of her sinful life choices. The crowd was already preparing to carry out their sentence of death by stoning until Jesus sent her accusers on their way without their stones and sent her on her way without her sins. The key for her and for Saul of Tarsus and for all of us is to allow Jesus to have all of the old things so that He can cause everything to become new.
You can’t go back and do the past over again, but you can bring it to God’s throne of grace and give it to the One who made you. The God who gave you life is the only one who can give you new life. Jesus came to take away the sin of the world, not cover it over. You no longer have the burden of sin to carry around with you if you have confessed and forsaken it before the Lord.
Wouldn’t it be great if you could do over the things you got wrong the first time around? If you went back as the same person in the same situation things would end up the same way as before, so that wouldn’t really help you. Jesus didn’t die on the cross so you could go back and re-do life, but so that you could give Him your old life in exchange for an entirely new one. As He put it, you are born again a second time and become a new creation in Christ. This “new you” is not limited in any way by who you were as long as you leave the “old you” in the Lord’s hands and receive what He has for you which is a whole new you!
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