Failure and Success: No Past At All!
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
In our churches we often sing, "Arise, my soul, shake off thy guilty fears." But nothing happens and we keep our fears. Why do we claim on one hand that our sins are gone and on the other act just as though they are not gone?
Brethren, we have been declared "Not Guilty!" by the highest court in all the universe. Still there are honest Christians, earnestly seeking the face of God, who cannot seem to break loose and find real freedom. The grave clothes trip them up every time they try to move on a little faster. Satan uses their past sins to terrify them.
Now, on the basis of grace as taught in the Word of God, when God forgives a man, He trusts him as though he had never sinned. God did not have mental reservations about any of us when we became His children by faith. When God forgives a man, He doesn't think, 'I will have to watch this fellow because he has a bad record.' No, He starts with him again as though he had just been created and as if there had been no past at all! That is the basis of our Christian assurance--and God wants us to be happy in it.---I Talk Back to the Devil, pp. 6-7
Psalms 103:1-22
(1) ---A Psalm of David.--- Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.
(2) Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:
(3) Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;
(4) Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies;
(5) Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's.
(6) The LORD executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed.
(7) He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel.
(8) The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.
(9) He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger for ever.
(10) He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.
(11) For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him.
(12) As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.
(13) Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him.
(14) For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.
(15) As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth.
(16) For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more.
(17) But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children's children;
(18) To such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them.
(19) The LORD hath prepared his throne in the heavens; and his kingdom ruleth over all.
(20) Bless the LORD, ye his angels, that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word.
(21) Bless ye the LORD, all ye his hosts; ye ministers of his, that do his pleasure.
(22) Bless the LORD, all his works in all places of his dominion: bless the LORD, O my soul.
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