A Dead Past; A Future Resurrected

October 2, 2020
“And, behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster box of ointment, And stood at his feet behind him weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment.”

Luke 7:37–38

God is not afraid of the dark. Regardless of how dark your past may be, God is not afraid to shine His Light into your darkness. What we may see as dark and broken, the Lord sees as an opportunity to illuminate with the Light of His Grace and make us whole with the work of His Hands. Our past is an opportunity for God to move us forward in a greater way. God is willing to forgive us of the many trespasses, sins, and transgressions in our past. Let us look at the sinful woman in the house of the Pharisees and see where Jesus Christ was willing to take her from a dead past to a future resurrected.

Notice Jesus did not say it was the kiss, the tears, the alabaster box of ointment, or the wiping of His Feet with her hair that saved this sinful woman. It was her faith that made her whole and brought her peace.

“Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little… Thy sins are forgiven… Thy faith have saved thee; go in peace.”

Luke 7:47–48, 50

We do not know much about this lady’s sinful past, but Jesus did. He knew her as He knows all of us today. He did not want something from her, but wanted something for her. He wanted her to know Him as her Redeemer and her Savior, who does not want to condemn her in sin, but save her from sin. In the Presence of Jehovah, she knew to throw her whole self at the feet of Jesus and the Light of His Glory regardless of what she had done in her dark past. She knew and believed Jesus Christ would be greater than any of her faults and failures regardless the label given to her by the religious Pharisees. She did not see the religion of the church and the works of self-righteousness. She saw Jesus and believed in Who He was and what He could do for her. Her only care at that dinner was getting to Jesus to lay it all down at the Feet of Christ regardless of what others thought of her.

This lady was now ready to trade in her dead past of running from God to a resurrected future of running towards God. She was ready to trade in her cold past, where she had no love for God, for a future of loving God with her whole heart. She was ready to trade in her past life as an outsider, for a future as a daughter of God and a joint heir with Christ. She was ready to give up her hopeless life that was going nowhere for a future full of hope and joy. Look at her now. Her story is told to millions of people and numerous generations to provide hope and joy for those who were as lost and broken as she was. Finally, she traded in a life of loneliness without God for a future of Eternal Fellowship with the Heavenly Father who promises to never leave her nor forsake her.

“But this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”

Philippians 3:13–14

God is ready to forgive you of all that is behind you and set you on a greater path, with a greater purpose, to a greater destination. Your past does not scare God. What is your worst condition is God’s chance to perform His best transformation. Neither is your life so stained that the Blood of Christ cannot fully wash away your past, cleanse you from all unrighteousness, make you pure, and put the pieces of your broken life back together. God does not remember your past and neither does He want you to remember it either. The Lord wants you to behold what newness lies before you and not that which is left behind with Jesus buried in a tomb. Your dead past is left behind with Christ in the grave so that your future is resurrected with Him in a Heavenly Seat close to His Heart.

Jared Gibson

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