Regretting Past Sins is of No Value

Regretfulness about our sinful past after Christ has cleansed us is not a very useful tool in our Christian walk for the born-again believer.

When we have been forgiven of our sins and God remembers them no more against us, continually calling them to mind does nothing useful for us.

Our focus as Christians ought not to be the past regrets but we ought to be focused on the fullness and newness of life Christ gave us when He changed us into a new creation. Romans 6

Moving forward in holiness and service to God will only be hindered by sadness and regret over something that is in the past and will not be changed.

Only the devil resurfaces memories of past sins to debilitate us, keeping us from speaking boldly about sin. There are those who act as though we have no authority to speak against sin because we were once sinners. If this were true then no one would ever have the authority to speak against sin, because all have sinned.

Speaking openly of our past to show others what a wonderful thing Christ did in saving and changing us is a good thing, but if it brings debilitating sadness and regrets it offers no hope for the ones who remain in their sins. Why bother to confess and repent if the agony of the sin torments them for the rest of their lives.

God's forgiveness when we confess is the complete extinguishing of any guilt, there should not be a residue that lingers as we grow in Christ.

Regretting past forgiven sins does not bring any more forgiveness than we had the first time, in fact the regret and sadness over past forgiven sins could very well be a lack of faith that God has forgiven and forgotten. It might also be a fear of man, that others will hold our past forgiven sins against us.

We need not fear what man thinks. No child of God who loves you will hold against you past forgiven sins. If we encounter someone who says they are Christian and want to treat us disrespectfully over our past, then they do not love us, do not understand the forgiveness of God and will not be interested in being a growing thriving companion for us on our journey.

Philippians 3:13-14 - " Brothers, I do not count myself to have attained, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 14 I press towards the goal to the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."

I am thankful for the loving Savior Who encourages me with His Word every day. I have encountered "Christians" who love to think evil things about me as though I am still in the past, never having moved beyond that past. I pay no attention to them, I have moved on from them. If they ever repent of their self-righteousness and want to reconcile I would be ready, but until that happens I am going down that path with Christ without them.

The Fruit is the Proof

Matthew 7:21-23

"21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’"

Many people in our culture say they are Christians but have no interest in God's Word or if they do, they have no interest in understanding it through the teaching of the Holy Spirit. They interpret the Words of God the way they want to believe them. They do this in human relationships too.

Most people interpret the Bible in our day according to their own personal traditions not necessarily what God was teaching in His Word. They interpret the Bible according to their desired belief and what other teachers are telling them, not based on prayer and seeking the Holy Spirit for wisdom to hear from Him.

John 16:13-14

"13However, when the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth. For He will not speak on His own, but He will speak what He hears, and He will declare to you what is to come. 14He will glorify Me by taking from what is Mine and disclosing it to you."

Those who depend on human beings to teach them without regard to whether the Holy Spirit is involved will have only their feeble human understanding based on the traditions of men to fall back on. Since the Holy Spirit is held in such low regard these days the church is falling into apostasy.

We know the level of disregard for the Holy Spirit by the blank looks and sometimes groans when we say we will wait to hear from the Holy Spirit.

I have heard often people taking scriptures out of context to make the words say what they want them to say and not what God meant by His words.

Much of the understanding of modern Christianity is based on psychology, a system that was spawned from Darwinism. Treating people as if they are nothing more than another animal causes the scientists to study the animals and think that human beings operate the same way since, in the scientist's mind, people are nothing more than a higher species of beasts.

Thankfully not all scientists think this way, some are born again and understand that the authentic science they study in nature proves the Bible and the existence of God. They know that human beings respond to things far differently from the animal kingdom.

In order to understand human beings, we must read the Word of God and pray for the Holy Spirit to give us wisdom. The Bible is full of wonderful wisdom and examples in life that show us the nature of human beings, their responses good and bad to everything.

Jesus Christ died for the entire world, all the world had to do was trust in Him and they would have an incredible eternity. When He was on earth Christ healed people and lived in poverty along with most of the world at that time. All He desired was the love from them, then He would be all we need giving us an inheritance so great it cannot be imagined by mankind. We have His Word that promises us this inheritance beyond our human imagination, and yet, most of mankind will reject Him.

Attempting to explain trust in the Holy Spirit today to the modern day narcissists brings division, not because we do something wrong but because most who say they are Christians are apostates and have never experienced hearing from the Holy Spirit.

Mankind is so stubborn they would rather believe they must depend on themselves than surrender to Christ Who will ultimately give us more than we could ever imagine.

Irrational stubbornness is a deceiver, making most believe they can do better than God in this life and they will affect our own salvation in the next.

Even those who say they are saved by grace and cannot work their way to heaven will act as though their good deeds make them special giving them a foot into the kingdom. Saying something is far different from believing and following. There is no true belief if there is no following what we "say" we believe.

God says we will know our brothers and sister in Christ by their fruit. It is alright and even commanded to challenge one another to see if we are truly saved or just pretenders wanting to be a part of a "feelings oriented" club.

Galatians 5:22-23

"22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law."

If this fruit of the Holy Spirit is not present, then there is no salvation, it is the evidence of a life changed by Christ, the very character qualities of Christ.

Matthew 15:7-8 "…7 You hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied correctly about you: 8 ‘These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. 9 They worship Me in vain; they teach as doctrine the precepts of men.’ ”…"

The warnings from God are clear, to make no friends with those who pretend to be Christians but deny Him in their actions. If their actions are contrary to their words, they are either infantile Christians who still need to learn, or they are not born again at all and never have been so.