Past sins? Grace is the answer

One question that comes up a lot is that people fear the Lord cannot use them or work through them in the lives of others because of their past.

Maybe they were a drug addict, maybe they were a drunk or perhaps involved in criminal activity or infidelity or... Really the list goes on and on.

However, I personally know that I have never been perfect and really far from it in my younger years yet the Lord can use me. My pastor was a drug dealer and user before he came to Christ. He has now been a pastor for the better part of twenty years.

I have come across testimonies of people who were cold blooded killers who were saved and later became prison evangelist with very effective ministries.

The Apostle Paul was a killer before he had his conversion experience on the road to Damascus. Paul persecuted the church, imprisoned them, had them killed you name it.

“I persecuted this Way (believing in Jesus) to the death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women, as also the high priest bears me witness, and all the council of the elders, from whom I also received letters to the brethren, and went to Damascus to bring in chains even those who were there to Jerusalem to be punished.” (Acts 22:4-5)

Paul after his conversion experience went on to be the apostle that the Lord used to bring the Gospel to the Gentiles in addition to writing a large portion of the New Testament. If the Lord can use Paul, He can surely use you if you have repented and seek Him with an honest heart.

Don’t believe the lie that the Lord cannot use you because of whatever sins may be in your past. This is a lie straight from the pit of hell. Satan is the accuser and will be happy to continue shooting darts at you to keep you ineffective for the Lord.

The Lord often will convict us of our sin if there is something we currently need to repent of, but He will never put us on a guilt trip for our past sins. If we have accepted Jesus as our Savior our sins were already forgiven before we ever committed them at the cross. This is the work of the devil to keep dragging up the past.

What it really boils down to are two things. First, a person who allows past sins to “shame them” into not being productive for the Lord needs to really understand the concept of Grace and how total and complete the Lord’s forgiveness really is. Second, once they understand how total the Lord’s forgiveness is they need to stop the enemy from using this tactic against them.

Romans 3:23 tells us “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

In God’s eyes there is no such thing as a “big” sin verse a “little” sin. In His eyes sin is sin and all of it deserves punishment unless we have our sins covered by the blood of Christ. We have all sinned so you are not unique. Your forgiveness from the Lord when you accept Christ is as total and complete as anyone else’s.

"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8)

“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)

God knew we were sinners before Jesus ever even went to the Cross. But He loved us enough that in spite of our sin He was willing to suffer and die that we might have forgiveness. We receive salvation based on Grace and Grace alone. There is nothing we could ever do to earn our salvation other than surrender our lives to Jesus as Lord. The Lord died for us while we were sinners because of His Grace. We did not merit salvation based on our works, Isaiah 64:6 even says that all our righteous acts are like filthy rags in the eyes of the Lord.

If we confess our sins and pray asking Jesus to come into our hearts, the Lord cleanses us from all unrighteousness. He cleanses us so much that the Lord does not even remember our sins any longer.

“I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake; And I will not remember your sins.” (Isaiah 43:25)

Please note however that the wonderful Grace of the Lord does not give us a license to sin. You can rest assured that if you travel off into willful disobedience that you will reap what you have sown sooner or later.

The reason pasts sins continue to bother people who have found the Lord is Satan shooting his darts at you. If you do not comprehend the Lord’s Grace you will buy into Satan’s lie and he will be effective in making sure you are not effective in your service to the Lord.

The cure for this is simple. If you really understand Grace and you are filled with God’s love and Grace that will help to free you up of your past baggage and allow you to move forward. Paul was once a cold blooded persecutor of the believers but after Salvation Paul grabbed hold of the effect understanding God’s Grace should have on our hearts,

“Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:12-14)

But there is also something I have found effective. When Satan attacks you with your past, simply tell him thank you for reminding you of God’s Grace and Mercy then tell him to be gone in the name of Jesus.

As someone once said, “When Satan reminds you of your past, remind him of his future.”