Before Jonas Salk discovered the vaccine for polio, he had to fail 200 times. When he was asked how he felt about those 200 failures, Salk said, “I never failed two hundred times in my life. I was taught not to use the word ‘failure.’ I just discovered two hundred ways how not to vaccinate for polio.”
Just think about that for a minute. 200 times. What if he had given up after that 200th attempt? Or even the 20th attempt? Polio was a deadly disease that afflicted thousands prior to the discovery of the vaccine. The disease claimed the life of 3,000 people in 1952 alone. Thank God, Salk didn’t quit early. Today, polio is almost completely eradicated across the world. Salk had to think of his failures in a way most people don’t in order to move forward to success.
In the Gospel of John, we read about another man with a series of failures. Peter grievously sinned by denying he even knew Jesus three times. But the truly amazing thing is how Jesus responded to Peter’s failures. Jesus didn’t abandon Peter or discard him as no longer useful to him. In fact, He gave Peter a position of extraordinary prominence in His newly launched church.
This is an important reminder. When you have a God of infinite grace, failure can become a steppingstone to true success. It’s an opportunity for growth, if you’re willing to receive God’s grace. Every time you honestly confess your sin to God, think of it as taking one more step toward becoming the person He wants you to be.
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9, ESV)
Most Christians will readily agree that confession leads to forgiveness, but do we really believe that Jesus cleanses us from all unrighteousness?
There is tremendous freedom in bringing our failures into the light of God’s presence. He is a God who graciously forgives, but like a good father, He calls us to confess where we’ve gone wrong.
If I snap at my wife Whitney in the morning and then later that evening come home and say, “Hey, honey, what’s for dinner?” There’s still going to be a rift between us. Before our relationship can be restored to what it should be, I have to go through the painful experience of saying, “I was wrong for how I snapped at you earlier. Will you forgive me?” That’s how it always goes with relationships.
We might assume Peter’s leadership career was over after that failure in the temple courts, but Jesus fully restored Peter. Think about that. It’s hard to imagine something more grievous than denying his Lord three times, but Jesus restored Peter and chose him to be the guy to first proclaim the gospel of grace in Jerusalem.
The same kind of thing could be said of Paul. He had a record of persecuting Christians and blaspheming Jesus, yet God used him to first take the gospel to the Gentile world. Paul even says that God chose people like him because they would showcase His grace and the fact that His cross and resurrection set us free from our past and restore us to our true calling (see 1 Timothy 1:16).
This is what makes Christianity so amazing! Because of the gospel, past failure doesn’t disqualify us from the calling God has on our lives.
While it’s important to confess sin to the Lord, it’s equally important to see that the Lord can grow you through your failures. Never give in to the lie that God is done using you because of something in your past. Maybe you’re holding onto something you need to surrender to Him.
So many Christians feel defeated by past failures and feel they can never move on and move forward in their walk with the Lord. If that’s you, please know that is not a word from God. That’s not Jesus telling you you’re disqualified. That’s the devil.
Revelation 12:10 calls the devil “the Accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accused them day and night before God.” This is one of Satan’s tactics. He will urge us to quit when we’ve blown it. Or tell us we’ve tried God’s patience too many times. Watch out for the critics you face in life. The more you say “Yes” to God’s calling on your life, the more critics will attack you.
But every time you stumble and fall, don’t let Satan sideline you. By God’s grace, see it as another opportunity to rise again in the power of the Lord and get back in the fight.
Theodore Roosevelt said:
“It’s not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena… who, at best, knows in the end the triumph of great achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly. So that his place will never be with those cold timid souls who know neither victory or defeat.”
If you feel like you’ve failed Jesus too many times, see John 21:15-19 as an invitation to sit down by the fire with Jesus. Hear Him asking you, “Do you love Me?”
And if the answer is “Yes,” then there’s always hope. And that love can drive you to keep following after Him.
Have thoughts on this post? I’d love to hear from you!
We sometimes hope we can run away from past failure instead of facing up to it so that we can move forward. Failure in some form or another is common to us all. “We all stumble in many ways” (James 3:2). We all have done things we regret.
But how should we respond to failure? Do we let it run our life and define us? Do we run away from it and try to avoid it? Or do we determine to own up to our failure so that we can learn from it and move on?
A lot could be said about the rise and fall of King Saul found in the biblical book of 1 Samuel. It’s a cautionary tale—one that we all should heed. It reveals the danger of failing to obey the Lord’s voice.
God wants us to learn to be overcomers, not be overcome by failure. He wants us to face our mistakes squarely, admit where we have gone wrong, and then receive the grace of the Lord Jesus so that we can press on.
Walter and the Mouse
There once was a boy named Walter. Walter was the kind of kid who was always getting himself into trouble. He thought of himself as a little artist, and he was once caught painting pictures with black tar on the side of his family’s white house. When it didn’t come out, his parents were furious with him. Walter was your typical class clown. He fell behind in his studies, and his teachers often had to scold him for pulling class pranks. In one prank, Walter even caught a field mouse and brought into class with a string tied around its neck as if it were a dog on a leash.
As he grew older, Walter tried many different things—including live comedy. But he was so bad that he once got booed off the stage. Many viewed him as a failure who would never amount to much. And yet, eventually his name would be familiar in every American household after a different mouse made him famous. Today you know him as Walt Disney. Disney is a classic example of someone who didn’t let failure defeat him. He considered his past failures and was determined to learn from them.
When we face our failures, we can learn and grow. But if we ignore them or try to run from them, they will continue to trail us.
The Ideal King
In the early days of Israel, the people wanted a king like all the other nations around them. So, God gave them a king named Saul. By all appearances, Saul was everything the people would want in a king. Saul was “as handsome a young man as could be found anywhere in Israel, and he was a head taller than anyone else” (1 Samuel 9:2, NIV).
In modern parlance, we would say Saul looked the part. Not only was he tall and handsome, but he was also a natural leader in many ways. He led Israel to victory in numerous military battles. Under his reign, Israel grew more powerful. Saul was the ideal king…or so it seemed.
As I’ve studied Saul’s life, I think it’s possible that because he was given so much success so quickly, he began to credit himself for all those victories. Rather than cultivating a deeper relationship with the Lord, Saul began to act for personal glory and recognition.
In 1 Samuel 13, we see that Samuel had specifically told Saul to wait for him to arrive on the seventh day after a battle with the Philistines, and then Samuel would offer up a burnt offering to God. But soon after the battle, the Philistines regrouped, and a massive army began to surround the Israelite camp. As the days wore on, fear began to settle on the Israelite soldiers.
In fact, fear began to take hold of Saul, and he watched one squad after another start to take off and hide in wells and tombs. So what did Saul do? Instead of speaking up and assuring the people that God was in control and that Samuel would arrive soon, Saul decided to offer up the burnt offering himself.
Just as he finished making the offering, Samuel arrived, and Saul went out to greet him. “What have you done?” asked Samuel. Saul replied, “When I saw that the men were scattering, and that you did not come at the set time, and that the Philistines were assembling at Mikmash,I thought, ‘Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not sought the Lord’s favor.’ So I felt compelled to offer the burnt offering.” (1 Samuel 13:10-12, NIV)
Here we see first the roots of failure.
The Roots of Failure
1) Human frailty
When things go wrong, it’s easy for panic to set in. The people considered the greatness of the Philistine army and scattered. Rather than show strength in God, Saul acted in weakness.
2) Impulsive action
How many lives have been lost to impulsivity? Wisdom teaches us to think things through before acting. Rather than seek the Lord’s counsel or wait for Samuel to come, Saul went ahead with offering the sacrifice that only Samuel was to offer.
3) Fearing men rather than God
This is the big one. Saul let his fear of men win the day. Offering a sacrifice may have looked like a very godly thing to do, but the reality was that he was disobeying God. He feared the people more than he feared God.
When Samuel shows up, he reprimands Saul for his foolish action.
Interestingly, these three roots of failure continued to haunt Saul’s steps. Soon after this, his men were tired and hungry, yet he impulsively put a ban on all eating until the battle had been won. Such a move was unwarranted and only worked against his men having the energy they needed. Saul was even about to execute his own son for unknowingly breaking this order.
Things only got worse for Saul. In 1 Samuel 15, he is told to execute the wicked King Agag of the Amalekites and destroy all the livestock that has been used in their pagan worship.
But what did Saul do? He thought he had a better idea than God. He knew the people wanted to keep the best of the livestock so he allowed them to spare them rather than following God’s clear commands. Time after time, Saul fails in the same way by fearing men rather than God. Because he never dealt with his failures, they returned again and again in Saul’s life.
Sometimes, our boys will chase each other, and oftentimes the one being chased suddenly is terrified by the thought of being pursued. When they are upset, Whitney reminds them, “He can’t chase you if you stop running.” It’s the same with failure.
It is only those who face their failures that are truly able to walk away from them. Those who run from them or avoid dealing with them will continue to be plagued by them.
So, how should we respond to failure?
The Response to Failure
1) Learn from your failures.
Saul’s most egregious sin was his failure to heed God’s voice. But he fell in the same way repeatedly because he never learned from his failures. He never stopped to review where he had gone wrong
It may sound counterintuitive, but failure is often the doorway to great success.
Jonas Salk failed two hundred times before he discovered the vaccine for polio. 200 failures straight! And yet, in his own words, he merely found 200 ways to not discover polio. When he finally got it right, it was worth every failure. But what if Salk had called it quits on that 200th failure? Who knows—Polio might still pose a very real threat to us today!
God’s counsel to us is this: “Don’t waste your failures!” They serve a purpose, and we need to learn from them rather than let them drag us down.
Most of us probably failed 100 times before we learned to walk. Failure is something we need to push through before we find the success God has in store for us. It’s how He molds our character and makes us more like Christ.
2) Grow through your failures.
Saul stubbornly ignored past failings and refused to grow through them. Rather than stop to consider a better way, Saul’s heart hardened, and he bristled at the thought that he made a mistake.
“Then the word of the Lord came to Samuel: “I regret that I have made Saul king, because he has turned away from me and has not carried out my instructions.” Samuel was angry, and he cried out to the Lord all that night.” (1 Samuel 15:10-11, NIV)
When we don’t grow through our failures, we harm others, too. It’s because Saul refused to learn from his failures that he went completely off the rails. It’s as though the GPS of God’s Word kept telling him to make a U-Turn, but he stubbornly refused to make any course corrections.
When Samuel confronts Saul, we find out just how arrogant he’d become. He was so proud of his accomplishments that “he set up a monument for himself” (v. 12). Not only that, but he’s convinced himself that he’s done the right thing.
When Samuel reached him, Saul said, “The Lord bless you! I have carried out the Lord’s instructions.” But Samuel said, “What then is this bleating of sheep in my ears? What is this lowing of cattle that I hear?” (1 Samuel 15:13-14, NIV)
Think of how ridiculous this is. God had commanded Saul to destroy all the livestock, and he claims to have done everything he was told. And Samuel says, “Oh, really? Well, then why are we surrounded by herds of sheep and cattle?”
Saul hadn’t grown at all since his past failures. When we don’t learn from past failure, we tend to rationalize our behavior, convincing ourselves that we are on the right track. Saul’s rationalization cost him dearly. Instead of being the first in a long line of kingly successions, Saul would be the dead end, and his kingdom would be taken away.
We need to grow through our failures. The problem with so many people is that they go to one of two extremes when it comes to failure. Some refuse to ever face their failures and deal with them, so they continue down a dark path to destruction as Saul did. Others focus so much on their failure that they let their failure define them. Their failure becomes their identity; they think, “I am a failure.” But let’s be clear: Failure is not something you are; it’s something you do. It’s not your identity; it’s merely a fact of life.
If you have trusted in Christ, God doesn’t see you as a failure. He sees you as His precious child. He doesn’t define you according to your countless failures; He defines you by your relationship to Him, as His adopted son or daughter.
3) Remember that God understands.
We will never grow from past failures, until we learn the importance of confession. And confession is very simple: it means agreeing with God about where you’ve gone wrong. We come clean to God when we remember that He is a merciful and gracious God.
“As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.” (Psalm 103:13-14, NIV)
Sometimes we fail in life not because of sin, but simply because of human frailty. And God understands that. He’s not looking for a reason to scold us. He knows we are dust. So, remember that failure does not hold the final verdict on your life.
“But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.” (2 Corinthians 4:7, NIV)
It’s often in response to failure that we see God’s power shining all the brighter. When a church has made the gospel of Christ central, it will have grace and forgiveness flowing freely. People won’t be beaten down for making mistakes. Instead, God will use others to encourage those have stumbled and help lift them up.
I remember seeing one Paralympics women’s running event where a contestant stumbled and fell to the ground. The crowd let out a collective gasp when she went down. But then something amazing happened. The other contestants looked back and upon seeing their fallen competitor, immediately stopped in their tracks and, without prompting, helped her to her feet. They cared more about finishing the race together than leaving someone behind.
When others fail, it’s a chance for us to express the mercy of God.
4) Receive God’s forgiveness.
When we own up to our sins and mistakes, we can experience the fullness of God’s grace.
“For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.” (Psalm 103:11-12, NIV)
God wants us to know what it means to have our failures and sins removed from us. He calls us to look to the cross of Christ, where Christ paid for all our failings and transgressions. He did that so that we don’t have to fear failure. We can face it courageously, knowing that it no longer controls us. We are fully accepted by God because of Christ.
5) Believe that better days are ahead.
Just because you failed God or others in some way, that doesn’t mean God is done using you. Although Saul never actually rose from failure, we have many examples in Scripture of those who failed God in a big way but were still used by God in an even bigger way.
For example, God told Jonah to go into the wicked city of Nineveh and proclaim to Israel’s enemies the amazing truth of God’s grace and forgiveness. Well, Jonah didn’t want to do that, so he went in the opposite direction by trying to sail across the Mediterranean Sea. Eventually, he was swallowed by a great fish and brought back to shore when the fish spat him up.
So what did God do? Consign this sailor to swabbing the deck for the rest of his life? No. God still used him in what ended up being the greatest revival recorded in Scripture.
God can use our failures for good. That doesn’t mean failures themselves are good, but it shows us that we don’t have to let the rainy cloud of discouragement follow us the rest of our days. We can rise from our failures and let God use them for good (Romans 8:28). Aim to have your last chapter better than your first. Better days are ahead.
Are you prone to let your failures define you?How does it affect you to know that in Christ God doesn’t view you as a failure?
Have thoughts on this post? Feel free to comment below!
In his book, Christian Living in the Home, Christian psychologist Jay Adams describes a time a marriage counselor sat down with a couple. Throughout their discussion, the counselor noticed how the husband shifted uncomfortably in his seat. The wife, on the other hand, sat with arms crossed in defiance. She slapped down a sheet of paper on the counselor’s desk. “There is why I’m getting an ulcer.”
Listed on the sheet was every wrong the husband had committed in the last 13 years, complete with supporting details. The counselor was taken aback, and the husband seemed to shrink in his seat. The counselor’s eyes rose to meet the woman’s. “It’s been a long time,” he said, “since I have met anyone as resentful as you.” The wife was speechless, and the husband sat up a little.
The counselor continued, “This is not only a record of what your husband has done to you [incidentally, subsequent sessions showed that it was a very accurate record], it is also a record of what you have done about it. This is a record of your sin against him, your sin against God, and your sin against your own body.”
This woman was directly opposing what we read in 1 Corinthians 13:
“Love… keeps no record of wrongs.” (1 Corinthians 13:4-5, NIV)
Every relationship requires good communication to remain healthy, but in many cases, a husband and wife can’t communicate well because an icy wall of resentment has been built up between them. Until they deal with harbored resentment, the relationship will continue to suffer.
Every time you recount the wrongs of another, you are violating the principle of love.
We do this in various ways. We may not vocalize all the ways we’ve been wronged, but whenever a certain person pops into our mind, we silently rehearse all the ways they’ve let us down. We are experts at nursing grudges. We remind ourselves why we have the moral high ground and why certain people don’t deserve our kindness or affection.
God tells us to “not let the sun go down on your anger” (Ephesians 4:26), because He knows about the destructive tendency of being dominated by anger and resentment. And, yes, it can even cause ulcers when we allow rage to seethe beneath the surface.
Greeting with a Holy Kiss
Many have wondered about the contemporary significance of Paul’s plea to the churches to “Greet one another with a holy kiss” (1 Corinthians 16:20). In the first century context, it was a perfectly normal practice to plant a kiss on the cheek of a family member or close friend. Because the church is truly a family,[1] it only made sense for Christians to greet each other in this warm and accepting way. Many cultures still practice this today.
In my American context, a handshake or warm embrace conveys the same message: “You are welcome here.” If this was a normal practice, why did Paul have to urge the churches to do this? Because he knew how hostility can grow even between followers of Jesus, and he saw how out of place this was.
When you are holding a grudge against someone, it’s very hard to want to go up and hug them. The wall between two bitter people might be invisible, but you can sense the tension through their body language, physical distance, and avoidance of eye contact. The rift in the relationship makes physical contact—especially a warm embrace—seem impossible.
So, to urge believers to “Greet one another with a holy kiss” was a reminder to lay aside differences, forgive those who have wronged you, and reconcile when possible.
I have sometimes thought about the first time the letter to the Philippians was read aloud as the whole church gathered. In that letter, Paul suddenly calls out two women by name: “I plead with Euodia and I plead with Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord” (Philippians 4:2, NIV). This may have been a church of around 100 people where everyone knows each other. These two women apparently had a disagreement, and it was such a disagreement that even Paul heard about it while in jail over 600 miles away. I imagine them sheepishly looking up at each other as their names are mentioned.
Frankly, it’s a little comforting to know that Christians had disputes and disagreements even in Paul’s day. I don’t know if Euodia and Syntyche’s disagreement was over the color of the carpet or the size of the baptistry or the type of music that was sung. Who knows? Christians can get caught up in disagreements about all kinds of things! Paul, like a gentle father, reminds them both to work for the unity they share in the gospel.
Paul is not belittling them by calling them out here. More likely, these are a couple of very prominent women in the church who hold a lot of influence, and he wants them—in fact, he’s pleading with them—to not let their argument get blown out of proportion. He also mentions they are counted among those “whose names are in the book of life” (v. 3). He’s saying, “Remember, ladies, you are daughters of the King, and your names are written with permanent ink in the Book of Life.”
According to Revelation 21:7, the Book of Life is the massive book that will be opened for all to see on the Day of Judgment listing the names of everyone who will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Seeing disagreements through the lens of eternity helps to put things in perspective. Never forget that the very Christian you are now resenting will be with you in Heaven, too.
Complacent about Conflict?
Have you ever been part of an argument that seemed to take on a life of its own? By the end of the debate, both you and whoever you were sparring with are left huffing and puffing and neither of you can remember why you were fighting in the first place. Sadly, many marriages end or are damaged over pointless arguments that get out of hand. God calls husbands and wives to reconcile when there is a difference. Again, Scripture says, “Don’t let the sun go down on your anger” (Eph. 4:26) because Satan will try to use any and every dispute to split Christians apart. And he especially comes after marriage because it’s the most intimate human relationship. Perhaps you’ve heard this old poem:
To live above with the saints we love, Oh, that will be glory, But to live below with the saints we know, Well, that’s another story.
We should not be complacent when we have conflict with other Christians. It’s not something to just “be okay” with or just ignore. Relational conflicts are like a slow leak in a dam that can drain the life out of you if you try to ignore them. God wants us to be honest with one another, and to reconcile and forgive when we have differences. I’ve spoken with some people who had a conflict with someone in a church, and because of that single conflict they’ve been bitterly holding a grudge for years. That’s not healthy for anyone—not for the church and not for yourself.
But the most important reason we must seek reconciliation is that it glorifies God. Bitterness should have no place among believers, because when we hold a grudge, our actions preach an anti-gospel. How can a church proclaim a message of reconciliation that would attract the world, if such a church is marred by bitterness, hostility, and division?
If you have a conflict with someone, don’t let it fester. Make every effort to reconcile with that person.
“If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.” (Romans 12:18, ESV)
Paul knows that many times, we find ourselves in pointless arguments and disputes when we are under stress. If we are fretting and anxious about the future or things that aren’t going well, it doesn’t take much for us to snap. Even the branches of a mighty oak will snap under enough pressure.
So, Paul says what we need to do: “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!” (Philippians 4:4). Now, we’ve got to remember where Paul was writing this . He wasn’t sitting in a Roman bath or sipping on an espresso at Café Roma. He was writing by candlelight in a dark jail cell in Rome. He was not writing this as someone unfamiliar with stressful and difficult situations. The best way to deal with relational conflict is to remember how Jesus dealt with our record of wrongs.
What Jesus Did with Our Record
For the follower of Christ, the gospel informs every relationship. We can’t understand love without considering how Jesus has loved us. We won’t be motivated to reconcile with others until we recognize that the gospel is a message of reconciliation. We can’t begin to forgive those who have wronged us until we remember how much we have been forgiven.
“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.” (Colossians 3:12-14, NIV)
Every single one of us has wronged Jesus more times than we could possibly remember. As God, our sin is first and foremost against Him. But did Jesus hold our sin over us? Did He stand afar with arms crossed, or did He draw near with arms extended? Relish these words:
“He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.” (Colossians 3:13-14, NIV)
Jesus held that record of wrongs and, instead of hitting us over the head with it, He lovingly allowed the nails to be driven through that record and into His hands. Let’s remember how much we have been forgiven. And then go and do likewise. Reconciliation between believers should be priority number one, because love keeps no record of wrongs.
Have thoughts on this post? Feel free to comment below!
[1] God is our Father, and we are called brothers and sisters.
You cannot change the past. This is a hard truth for many who can still feel the sting from past blunders, embarrassments, and betrayals. But though we cannot undo what has been done, we can begin again. That’s the great hope of Christianity. And when we begin again, we no longer have to be controlled by our past. Through the gospel of Jesus Christ, we can break free from regret, guilt, and resentment.
Many people say things like, “I’m trying to reinvent myself.” They are tired of being criticized or scrutinized, marked by the decisions they once made. Like a tattoo that can’t be removed, many feel like their past has left a mark that can never be erased. They wonder, “Is this how I will always be seen?” Or even, “Will I always see myself as a reflection of my past?”
Maybe there are times you’ve wished you could relive certain moments in your life. You’ve thought, If only I had handled that differently. If only I hadn’t spoken so foolishly. If only I had shown more courage or humility in that moment.
If only… How many have this phrase etched across their hearts?
In his 2022 memoir, Matthew Perry, who played the witty Chandler Bing in the hit series Friends, had his own regrets to share. Throughout his career, Perry slept with many women, desperately wanting to be loved but never being willing to commit. He writes of the “if only” moment when he almost proposed to the love of his life but changed his mind at the last second, afraid she would eventually reject him.
“I had missed the moment. Maybe she’d been expecting it, who knows. I’d been seconds away; seconds, and a lifetime. I often think if I’d asked, now we’d have two kids and a house… Instead, I’m some schmuck who’s alone in his house at fifty-three, looking down at an unquiet ocean.”[1]
You might not be a celebrity, but maybe you can relate to Perry’s deep sense of regret. You wonder what life would entail had you popped the question, applied for the job, or taken the leap of faith. But the past remains where it always is. We cannot jump into our DeLorean, fire up the flux capacitor, and travel back through time.
Moving Forward
Some of us have committed greater sins than others. Some of us have been sinned against greatly. In some sense, we all have baggage. But it’s so important to know that you are not alone in your pain. It may seem like you are the only one going through the deep anguish of regret, but let me assure you that you’re not. God is ready to help you like a devoted shepherd with an injured lamb. The Lord is a healer; He can reach the deepest parts of our soul. When we open ourselves to Him honestly and confess the pain of the past, we can know His cleansing power as never before.[2]
While it’s important to get honest about what has happened, Scripture also urges us not to dwell on the past. You can visit old memories to make peace and learn from them, but it’s not a place to stay. The only way to move on is to move forward.
The Apostle Paul had his own share of regrets. We may know him today as Saint Paul, but his past was stained with blood as a persecutor of the church. And yet he wrote:
“Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:13b-14, NIV)
Paul understood that in order to move forward, you have to have a goal, something to reach for and cling to. Despite his regrets and checkered past, Paul chose to dwell on his Savior “who loved me and gave Himself up for me” (Galatians 2:20).
Have you discovered the new beginning you can have in Christ? Do you know the ocean of love God has for you in Christ? Saying “God loves you” is not just a quaint cliché we like to say to gin up good feelings. It is an objective fact we can know because Jesus was sacrificed on a Roman cross outside Jerusalem nearly 2,000 years ago.
“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8, NASB)
The cross proves God’s love for us, because all our regrets and shameful failures were piled up on Christ when He “bore our sins in His own body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness” (1 Peter 2:24).
No More Condemnation
Through faith in Christ, we are no longer condemned enemies of God, but justified children of God.
“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1)
It’s so important that we come back to this truth over and over. No condemnation in Christ. That needs to be the chorus playing on repeat that never gets old and always quiets our hearts. We never outgrow our need to hear it. In Christ, you are not condemned.
Whatever our mind focuses on shapes our identity. When we feast on the truth, we can embrace this new identity with every sunrise. Trusting in Christ and what He did on the cross for the forgiveness of sins is where it all begins. Unfortunately, there are many so-called Christian authors that are actually proclaiming a gospel of self-love, that the way to move forward is to fall more in love with yourself rather than to embrace God’s love and forgiveness for you in Christ.[3]
Knowing that our guilt was really and truly taken away at the cross is what truly changes everything. And it’s the truth we must continually apply to our hearts, which so often want to condemn us (1 John 3:20).
But what about this terrible thing I’ve done? There’s no condemnation in Christ.
But I can’t seem to move past what’s happened. There’s no condemnation in Christ.
It’s not that sin doesn’t matter to our holy God; it’s that He fully condemned our sin in Christ already.
“He condemned sin in the flesh by sending His own Son in flesh like ours under sin’s domain, and as a sin offering, in order that the law’s requirement would be accomplished in us.” (Romans 8:3b-4a, HCSB)
The condemnation that was owing to us fell on Christ, God’s own Son. In an act of astounding love, the Lord Jesus bore the judgment for our sins.
“But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:5, NIV)
But why? Why the brutality of crucifixion? Why would God do this to His dearly beloved Son — the very One who worked with Him in the creation of the universe, the One who was daily His delight? As one young man put it, “Why not just forgive us without that bloody mess of a cross?”
It’s a good question that gets to the heart of the gospel. The only way to truly understand the meaning of the cross is to first see that God is holy—inexpressibly, unfathomably holy. His eyes are so blazingly pure that He cannot bear to look at sin. We could not dwell with God while covered in sin. That is why our sin had to be judged at the cross if we were to ever have a new beginning. Until that burden was lifted, our past would continue to condemn us—even if we stuffed it down into our subconscious.
No wonder Christians throughout the last 2,000 years have seen the cross as a symbol of hope, forgiveness, and cleansing. The cross assures us that God has not abandoned us in our shame and regret. Because of His astounding love for us, we don’t have to live under the burden of shame and guilt. This is why Christians are always singing about the cross. Without it, we have no hope of a new beginning.
If God Is for You
Our enemy despises the cross. The Bible calls Satan “the accuser of our brothers and sisters… who accuses them before our God day and night” (Revelation 12:10, NLT). The devil would have us fixate on our past regrets rather than strive toward a new beginning.
Thankfully, the cross of Christ speaks a better word over us.
“If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.” (Romans 8:31-34, ESV)
I love this series of questions because it underscores the power of the gospel. If the sovereign God of the universe is for you, why would you ever be afraid? If God declares you are justified, welcomed, and forever made clean, how could you ever feel abandoned? If God gave up His very greatest treasure—His own Son—how could He possibly hold back something less? If God has given you His beloved Son, well, then He will surely give you everything!
When we are not letting our mind marinate in the truth of God’s Word, we will hear the enemy’s word instead. The devil continually prods us with, “Look what you’ve done!” or “Look what’s been done to you!” The Holy Spirit whispers, “Look what Christ has done for you!”
Instead of fixating on the past, let’s fix our eyes on Jesus “the author and finisher of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2). In love, He will see us through to the end. In Him, you can have a new beginning as a beloved child of God.
Have thoughts on this post? Feel free to comment below!
[1] Matthew Perry, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, 176.
With the sun beating down on his head, a bronze-skinned man steps out onto the river bank. His lower half is still drenched and dripping with the Jordan River. He’s wrapped in a tunic made of camel’s hair. Hair and beard look unkempt. He seems to lack all sense of social convention. He is a portrait of a desert wanderer. The surrounding crowd on the shoreline cannot help but stare and listen to his brazen call to repent of wickedness. Having just emerged from the water, some are still soaked from head to toe.
He picks up his staff in one hand and raises the other toward the crowd. A knobby finger points like a dagger at a group of men in long clean robes: the Pharisees and Sadducees.
“Brood of vipers!” The desert man’s voice echoes off the stony river bank. All eyes are now staring at the religious leaders, who grimace with distaste.
“Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come!” the man bellows. While some are shocked, others recognize his boldness to confront sin is a clear sign of his prophetic calling of God. If John is a prophet, then he’s merely God’s mouthpiece. What he has to say truly comes from the Almighty. And yet, here he was confronting the religious aristocracy, the paragons of purity.
In one sense, these Pharisees and Sadducees carried an air of power and respectability wherever they went. The people noted their stringent piety and rigorous law-keeping. Nevertheless, the people so admired John the Baptist that these holy men looked like tongue-tied schoolchildren in his presence. They come only to observe, not to be baptized in the filthy river.
“Show fruit consistent with repentance!” John continued, eyes blazing like fire.
John’s Ministry of Baptism
Apparently, John didn’t have a public relations consultant. Why did he call these highly esteemed religious leaders a “brood of vipers”? Because they ignored the warnings of the wrath to come and led others to destruction. And, as John says, they didn’t bear fruit, showing they had not truly given their lives to the Lord.
This was John the Baptist’s entire ministry. He called people to repent of sin, return to faith in the one true God, and be baptized in the Jordan River.
John said, “I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry” (Matthew 3:11).
This One “coming” was the Lord of the cosmos Himself. John the Baptist was always pointing others to look to Christ, not himself, for hope. He humbly confesses he’s not worthy to even carry the sandals of Jesus. But it’s not just humility; it’s a right view of how supremely worthy Jesus is.
Then he says of Jesus: “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire…”
It’s important to realize that even though John says that he baptizes with water and Jesus will baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire, this doesn’t mean that water baptism is no longer necessary today. At the end of Matthew, Jesus Himself gives the command: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…” (Matthew 28:19).
Though Christians don’t always agree on the purpose of baptism, Jesus seemed to present baptism as the inaugural event marking a new disciple of Christ.
Why Be Baptized?
It is important to understand that baptism does not save you. We are saved by grace alone through faith in Jesus Christ alone (Ephesians 2:8-9). Though Christians are called to good works, no good work—not even baptism—could save us from the tyranny of sin. Paul made the point that he was not sent with the primary objective of baptizing others, but of preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 1:17).
The thief on the cross had no opportunity to be baptized before he died, yet the Lord assured him of his place in Paradise with Him that very day (Luke 23:43). It is only repentance toward God and faith in Jesus Christ that reconciles us to God. Having said that, followers of Christ are commanded by God to be baptized. The Bible never treats it as an optional “extra.” Local churches are called to baptize new believers after the pattern of the New Testament (Acts 2:38-41; 10:47; 16:14-15).
Baptism pictures our need for cleansing and restoration. But it also pictures our identification with Christ. Going down into the waters, we are identifying ourselves publicly with Christ’s death and our own death to sin. Coming out of the waters portrays both Christ’s resurrection and our resurrection with Him to new life (Romans 6:3-4). As we are baptized individually and as we see others baptized, we are reminded that Christ’s sacrifice on the cross was for us personally.
And, as John says here, when we trust in Christ personally, we receive the Holy Spirit.[1]
The Winnowing Fork of Judgment
Why are repentance and baptism so important? John says of Jesus: “His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will clear His threshing floor and gather His wheat into the barn, but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire” (Matthew 3:12).
In ancient Israel, there was a practice called winnowing which allowed the farmer to separate the grain (or seeds) from the chaff, which were the husks that cover the seeds. When the farmer tossed the grain and the chaff into the air with the winnowing fork, the Middle Eastern wind would carry the lighter chaff to the side and the heavier grain would fall to the ground. He would gather the grain together to keep, and the chaff he would sweep together and toss into a fire.[2]
John is giving us a vivid picture of judgment. On the coming day of judgment, Jesus will gather the grain—those who are His own—to Himself. And the rest, He will cast into what He calls “the unquenchable fire.” This is a sobering and serious reminder that a judgment is coming, and if we don’t belong to Jesus, we are destined for eternal damnation (Matthew 10:28; Mark 9:43). John is making it clear that it is eternal by saying it is a fire that never goes out.
I want you to understand that the idea of eternal judgment was no more popular in Jesus’s day, 2,000 years ago, than it is today. While some may say that it is unloving to tell people about hell, John recognized that what would be truly unloving is not to warn people that a judgment is coming.[3]
God Himself pled with unrepentant Israel to return to Him and avoid judgment:
“As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?” (Ezekiel 33:11, ESV)
This life is infinitesimally short in light of eternity. God says in His Word that your life is nothing more than a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes (James 4:14). But eternity—that lasts forever! So where we spend eternity matters immensely.
This is why I, too, want to warn others. If Scripture is right that there is a coming judgment and that our own conscience testifies to this truth, then for me not to speak about hell would be unloving. I make a point to speak about it because I, too, am a sinner and have been rescued from judgment—Jesus has saved me. And so, I want to point to my Savior and say this offer of salvation is for all. No matter what you have done or where you have been in life, this free gift of salvation is offered to you!
Why Was Jesus Baptized?
Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. (Matthew 3:13-15)
So, if water baptism represents cleansing from sin, why in the world is Jesus coming to the Jordan River be baptized here? After all, Jesus is the sinless Son of God in human flesh. Scripture always affirms that Jesus was and is “without sin” (Heb. 4:15). So why did He submit to baptism?
I think we see a clue as to why Jesus did this way back in the prophecy found in Isaiah 53:10. There we read that the sinless sufferer was “numbered with the transgressors.” Or, it could be translated as “[He] was counted among the rebels.”
Even though Jesus was perfect and sinless, He willingly chose, out of love, to identify with sinful mankind. Beginning with His coming at Christmas, to His baptism, and all the way to the cross, Jesus was humbly and lovingly saying, “I have come to identify with the very people who have rebelled against Me.” He came to die for the very rebels who were cursing Him, mocking Him, and crucifying Him. From the cross, He said, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). In the context, He was speaking of the Jews and Romans that had Him killed. But in reality, He says that of all of us. We all have committed treason against the God who made us. We all deserve death. But Jesus was perfect. He willingly died in our place so that we could be forgiven and spared from all judgment.
In humbly consenting to water baptism, Jesus marked out a pattern for all His disciples to follow. In this way, He is not asking of us anything that He Himself did not willingly do.
And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:16-17, ESV)
Scripture teaches that the one true God is three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And here we see all Three in view. Jesus submitting to baptism, the Spirit descending upon Him to empower Him for ministry, and the Father’s voice from heaven saying: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
If Jesus had never been baptized, this moment would have been missed. Now all who have repented and trusted in the Lord Jesus are reconciled to God, made new by the Holy Spirit, and are loved in the Beloved—even as Christ is loved by the Father (John 17:26). And if that’s you, friend, you are called to be baptized.
Have thoughts on this post? Feel free to comment below!
[1] “For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:13, ESV). Also see Romans 8:9-11.
[2] Thanks to David Platt for his explanation of this process in his commentary Exalting Jesus in Matthew.
[3] See Ezekiel 33, where the Lord says that the watchman who sees the sword of judgment coming but fails to warn others will have their blood on his hands.
“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13, KJV)
It is impossible to fathom the depths of the humble, self-giving love required for the God of the galaxies to limit Himself to the workbench of a Jewish carpenter. At the same time, knowing that Jesus, the God-man, stooped to such a level out of love for us should get our attention. Too often, because we are such fickle creatures, we are in awe of things that are destined to pass away — inspiring films, beautiful buildings, a sports victory — while at the same time hardly affected by the most sublime truth in all reality. You have an enemy who would love to steal your attention away, with countless daily concerns and distractions, from that which matters most.
Can I encourage you to do something right now in the midst of all of life’s pressures? Reflect on the passion of Christ for a moment. Perhaps the story of the Crucifixion is something you have heard countless times. But the truth of God’s love for you is no less powerful after hearing of it one million times.
Even now, as I consider Christ hanging there like a common criminal of His day, I have to ask: How much must God love me if He was willing to go through the unspeakable torment of the cross in order to bring me to Himself? I encourage you to ask the same question. Peer back through the centuries to that lonely figure on the cross. Take some time to gaze at His nail-pierced hands. Consider His humiliation before ever getting to the cross. Trained torturers whip Him and beat Him and mock Him. One particularly brutal Roman guard grabs hold of His beard — a symbol of honor for a Jew — and rips it out by the roots (Isaiah 50:6). “So, you want to be known as the King of the Jews, do you?” one soldier sneers, as he firmly presses a crown of razor sharp thorns onto His sacred head. By the time they have finished with Him, He has been reduced to a mangled mess. Even His closest friends could hardly recognize Him when He stumbles pass them under the weight of the giant beam of timber they’ve forced Him to carry.
When they reach Golgotha (“Skull Hill”), the soldiers strip Jesus of His clothing, His only earthly possession. The idea was to maximize His experience of shame before all the jeering crowds. After driving the nails through His hands, they hoist Him up on the wooden cross so everyone can laugh at how pathetic this would-be Messiah looks now. He has never felt more alone. Even His own Father, too holy to look on the sin-bearing sacrifice, has turned His back on Him.
The eerie mid-afternoon darkness is environmental evidence that the judgment of God is being poured out. In a hoarse and cracking voice, the bleeding and battered man screams at the heavens, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46). I cannot think of a more excruciating, painful, and humiliating experience than what Jesus went through that Friday afternoon.
Now think on this: Jesus freely submitted to all of this for you. He looked over His Father’s plans from beginning to end, then looked up and said, “I’m in.” Even if you were the only sinner in the whole world who needed saving, Jesus would have endured every bit of just for you.
At the same time, this was no easy decision for Jesus. Picture Him in the Garden of Gethsemane the evening before the crucifixion. Jesus is laying prostrate before the starry heavens, crying out to His Father in agony. Already, the darkness of night has enveloped Him. As He contemplates what He will endure in the next twenty-four hours, beads of bloody sweat begin to dot His face. A tear rolls down His cheeks.
Jesus prays, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me.” The cup Jesus spoke of was the cup of God’s wrath, and it could not be taken from Him. The only way for us to be spared from God’s righteous wrath was through a sin-bearing substitute taking our place. So Jesus prayed, “Yet not as I will, but as you will” (Matthew 26:39, NIV).
Perhaps the most shocking thing of all is that we were in no way worthy of saving. We hadn’t sought God out. We had turned and run from Him. Each one of us – in no small way – have rebelled against God. We’ve heard His footsteps behind us. We’ve heard Him calling out to us. But we’ve run to hide in the bushes.
Like a loving Father earnestly seeking His missing children who have run away, knocking at every door in the neighborhood, God has passionately pursued us. But we stayed hidden in the shadows. The Bible says that even while we were running down the path of self-centered pursuits, God did the most selfless thing of all.
“You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:6-8, NIV)
At the very point where all hope for us had faded and it would only be fair and just to leave us alone on our way to hell, God stepped in. He sent His own Son ahead of us to bear the punishment meant for us. As one grabbing the coattails of a blind man headed over a cliff, Jesus reached out to rescue us and give us sight. Because Jesus broke through the death barrier, we too can experience newness life.
One of my favorite hymns, “And Can It Be?” by Charles Wesley, captures this truth perfectly:
“And can it be that I should gain An int’rest in the Savior’s blood? Died He for me, who caused His pain— For me, who Him to death pursued? Amazing love! How can it be, That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?“
Let this truth sink in anew: The God who made you loves you more than you ever dared imagine. His love is like a massive waterfall or ever-flowing fountain that never runs dry. No matter what you have done, His love for you has not diminished one bit. He’s offering you a fresh start. Full forgiveness for all past wrongs. He’s longing for you to let Him love you as a Father. He wants you to know that life can look beautiful again. Turn your life over to Christ today, perhaps for the first time. Surrender your everything to the God who loves you with all that He is.
Feel free to comment below. I’d love to hear your thoughts!
Lamp and Light 