Rewind

 So that, if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: the primitive has passed by. Lo! There has come new! 

2 Corinthians 5: 17, Concordant New Testament 

I was talking with a friend the other day about the importance of "talking" through old circumstances in our lives in order to move forward in life.  While I understood the difficulties he was working through, I was never much for sharing my life with too many people.  Yet there are those who live their lives in a constant state of rewind, going over bad situations in their lives like a broken record.  I'm under the assumption that, if something has caused so much pain and suffering, what does it profit us to continue to relive it?  However, in my younger years I did exactly the same thing that I see others doing.  It's no secret that there were a few times in my life where I've felt broken.  I never had a real relationship with my father.  I suffered through a pornography addiction.  Granted, I'm not the only one to have ever gone through difficult times, but there was a time when I felt that reliving certain things was a sane way to deal with situations.  I now know that this isn't true.  There is a reason that the apostle proclaimed in 2 Corinthians that we are indeed new creations.  How else could we look upon ourselves once Jesus has restored us?  I feel that Jesus meant to take that video of the bad memories that we have been carrying with us and erased it forever.  No longer are we enslaved to that which has caused us so much pain.  Instead, as Paul tells us, when we are in Christ Jesus we have much better things to look forward to.  Jesus has already done the hard part for us.  He Himself has become sin that its punishment would not be ours to bare {2 Corinthians 5:21}.  As I told my friend, the sin issue is one we no longer need to carry with us.  For Jesus has defeated sin as well {Romans 6:6}.  How is it that we can still carry something with us which Jesus has already dealt with at the cross?  

Knowing this, that our old humanity was crucified together with Him, that the body of sin may be nullified, for us by no means to be still slaving to sin, for one who dies has been justified from sin.  Now if we died together with Christ, we believe that we shall be living together with Him also, having perceived that Christ, being roused from among the dead, is no longer dying.  Death is lording it over Him no longer, for in that He died, He died to sin once for all time, yet in that He is living, He is living to God.  Thus you also, be reckoning yourself to be dead, indeed, to sin, yet living to God in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

Romans 6: 6-11, Concordant New Testament 

I cannot read through Paul's words in Romans 6 and come away thinking that I continue to have sin issues.  It is Jesus who gave Himself to spare me that life.  What I can say is that when I look upon myself, I see He who is in me...Jesus.  If I am a new creation in Christ, then the pain of the old has passed away.  If He is indeed in me, then sin has no longer has a place to call home.  That life in rewind is over.  So, why is it that people continue to seek out those who will listen to them rewind the pain and suffering they have endured?  Well, I believe that one of two things has played out here.  First, knowing the truth of Christ Jesus, they have somehow forgotten what He has accomplished.  Secondly, never knowing Him, they simply choose to ignore the invitation which God has presented to all of His children.  Either way, the truth of what Christ has accomplished remains.  We can choose to accept it or not.  It's important that we remember that our new life in Christ will not come without difficulties.  Jesus has proclaimed that in the world we will have affliction, yet He has overcome that world {John 16:33}.  I guess that's why I'm not that into sharing my bad experiences in order to deal with them.  Jesus has already taken care of that for me.  

These things I have spoken to you that in Me you may have peace.  In the world you have affliction.  But courage!  I have conquered the world! 

~Scott~