II Corinthians 5:17-18 “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
18 And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;”
This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! We can all have new beginnings through Christ!
And all of the new beginnings people have in Christ are gifts from God, who brought us back to Himself through the sacrifice of His Son. And God has given us this ministry of reconciling people to him. A ministry of reaching people with the gospel, of pointing them to Christ, of helping them navigate life’s crisis points and leading them to a healing relationship with God’s Son (II Peter 3:18).
Philippians 3:13-14 “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”
Paul determined to move beyond his failures.
The longer he lived the Christian life the less he thought about himself, and the closer he grew to Christ the more he saw himself for who he was.
Between his second and third missionary journeys Paul said he was the least of all apostles.
I Corinthians 15:9 “For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.”
At his first imprisonment, he said he was the least of all saints.
Ephesians 3:8 “Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ;”
At the end of his life, he said he was the chief of sinners.
I Timothy 1:15 “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.”
Paul had a past and he knew it, he was ashamed of his past. But in spite of his past sins God chose to use him mightily. Paul had been able to come to a point where he could let go of the past failures, unreached goals, and false guilt over past sin forgiven and be released into a new beginning with Christ.
You cannot change the past, but you can let it go, and have a new beginning living for God now. Don’t ruin your future by living in your past. Start your new beginning with the Lord today.