The Christian and His Past

    We have done things in the past that we now regret. The apostle Paul had a big one. Prior to his conversion, Paul zealously persecuted believers in Jerusalem. He could have been burdened by this guilt for the rest of his life. He could have tried to make up for it. Instead, this is what Paul said about his sordid past :

For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect.

- 1 Corinthians 15: 9-10 (ESV)

    He didn't run away from his past. Instead, he admitted the shameful things that he had done. He recognized that he didn't deserve to be called an apostle but for the grace of God. "I am what I am," Paul said, in effect saying that what matters is that Jesus saved him from his past and his present identity in Christ now defined who he is. Grace had transformed Paul from zealous persecutor and defender of the Torah to zealous missionary of the gospel to the Gentiles.

    In the same way, regrets from the past neither condemn nor burden a true Christian. Jesus Christ took our sins away and paid it in full with His sacrifice on the cross. In Christ, we can confidently say :

'I am what I am' - whatever the past may have been. It is what I am that matters. What am I?


I am forgiven, I am reconciled to God by the Blood of His Son upon the Cross.


I am a child of God.


I am adopted into God's family, and I am an heir with Christ, a joint-heir with Him.


I am going to glory.


This is what matters, not what I was, not what I have been.

-D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones in Spritual Depression It's Causes and Cure