Christian Living

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Larry Lilly's Letter Tuesday November 4, 2008

Over a span of some 47 years I have observed that life for most people consists of balancing the repercussion of past actions with the hope of a better future. The battle is so intense that often people end in a hospital stress unit or worse trying to sort this conflict.

A universal truth has it that we will reap what we sow. This reality is scary for sensible people. The attempt to neuter this reality is as broad as if the five oceans were seamed together as one. One idea is to somehow put more good on a scale and thus our good works overbalances the bad, and we are safe. This concept seems good on the face of it, but a little thought points up the absurdity of the idea. Every farmer knows good seed does NOT cancel bad seed. Another scheme involves the attempt to "will away" the past acts, as though they never happened, and voila, they mystically never happened.

I'm sure you get the idea and may be thinking of your own plan/method of dealing with the guilt over past actions.

The website of Heritage Baptist College includes a list of sayings from chapel speakers over the years and one grabbed my attention as I browsed the page:

"When the devil reminds me of my past, I remind him of his future."

This is a helpful statement and is good for thought and usually a chuckle, especially if you see or envision the speaker; tie loosed, hair a little disheveled, face, neck and ears near scarlet from the blood rushing to the brain area and hear actually or in your mind the near death rattles in the voice. I admit to being a Baptist preacher, but it is super unlikely that you will ever see my hair disheveled.

Biblically there was a time when Satan's and my future were one and the same and that future was the same due to sin, He the sin of pride, and me the sin of Adam as the federal head of the race, and my own choice to indulge my penchant for forbidden fruit.

But something happened along the way, and my future and Satan's future are no longer the same. The grandest event in history changed our future. Biblically speaking Satan and other fallen angels are beyond redemption and not even potentially included in the Soterial scheme, but fallen people are said to savable by the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, and when this provision of God is applied God passes by angels and lifts the believer to a higher status than that of angels. The scripture is plain that angels which kept not their first estate are bound in chains of darkness, meaning they are not included in the offer of salvation. Thus, we have the truth of the preacher’s statement comparing my future and Satan's.

In addition the Soterial scheme includes the forgiveness of the past by the removing of those acts that were/are against God's instructions to the race concerning righteousness and Adam's sin removed by the placing of those who believe into the new race of God’s dear Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

One of the grandest truths of salvation is the truth that in Christ all who believe are as new born babes, and free of committed sins and the racially inherited sin of Adam. In this position we are free to truthfully say:

"When the devil reminds me of my past, I remind him of his future."

Larry Lilly Copyright © 2008 Use with credit.

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