Day 2234 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.

Romans 6:5 NIV

hrist has risen, and now we get to rise too! The chains of sin and shame have been dealt with. I was thinking about this one last night and I think that's a hard thing for us to come to terms with. Personally, I still remember a lot of the things I've done. I may never forget some of them. Not sure how it all works because it's bigger than me. So how can we move on when those past mistakes still hold a place in our minds?

Well, we have to understand that He really did die for us and that He covered our sins in the process. While the memory of our mistakes may still be there, it doesn't mean that we're that person anymore. Our pasts don't have the power to hold us back because the power of Christ's salvation is stronger. Any pull that our old way of living may have can't compare to the desire to live better knowing what Jesus did for us.

The biggest part that I think we need to understand is that our old lives died with Him. Those twisted and evil lives we used to live were nailed to the cross with Him. He took all of our sins, our shame, our mistakes, our darkness, our brokenness, our stains upon Himself so that we could let them go and move on to something better. He did what we couldn't so that we could become something that we couldn't be otherwise.

We died too. And if we died with Him then we were also brought back to life with Him. We left our old lives in the tomb. We walked away from our pasts when that stone was rolled away. His story IS our story. I think that's the part that we overlook or don't consider. He did it for us so that we could be a part of it. It's not just a story in a book. It's not some tale that's been passed down. It's our history. And now our present is in Him, not who we were before.

Folks, we have a chance at a new life because of His resurrection. We were never meant to carry any of our sins or shame beyond the cross. That's where it all changed. The cross marks a new way of living and that opportunity is there for each of us. The past may always be there because we can't go back and change it. But it doesn't have to be the same story going forward. We're free from what lies behind us because those old versions of us are dead and buried!