I worked for an unscrupulous manager when I was growing up. He would fill out the schedule in pencil and, when it suited him the most, he would erase time slots and fill it out again. Thankfully, the GM was smart, and when I showed him the faint outline left by the erasing it was obvious that the data was altered.
I used to use erasable ink pens until I learned that no amount of swiping would make the surface completely clean. Maybe technology has changed, but when I was a child, writing something in an erasable format was like putting something on the internet… there was no way to get rid of it. Like a dirty chalkboard, you can make out bits and pieces of what was previously documented there.
This is why I’m thankful that Jesus didn’t erase our sins. He took them. If He had just forgiven us, there would still be a remnant or stain. And in our minds we would know what we have done. It’s hard to live through guilt. Jesus took our sins. More specifically, He bought them. They had a price and we couldn’t afford it. Jesus stepped in and heaped them all on Himself in our place.
I know a lot of people who won’t begin or further a relationship with Jesus because of their past. They feel that God is all powerful, but He can’t forgive them. They think that they have messed up too many times. They use phrases like too much, too late, or too hard. The gift we have been given pretty much means that we don’t have a past anymore. We only have a future.
Jesus found a way so that when someone comes along and scratches the surface of our lives, they don’t find the person we used to be. That person is gone. We are new with Christ. That doesn’t just mean we act different, it means we ARE different. We have a full new history of grace, forgiveness, and salvation.
Satan would have you believe that if someone comes along, they can perform that trick the detectives use on TV shows with a pencil on a post it note to uncover your secrets. God’s truth is that you have no secrets… His Son paid for them all. The temptation is to retreat in your sin. The gift is that you have no sin. Not if you accept the gift of Christ crucified and live in a relationship with Him. So please allow me to encourage you to stop letting your sin keep you from Christ, when it is Christ who keeps your sin from you. Stop trying to erase the sin, when He will fully take it all.
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