The Lutheran Hour
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"Leaving the Past Behind"
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Text: Philippians 3:13-14
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Gracious Lord, keep us constantly in mind of the great work of salvation You have done for us through Jesus Christ. May His death and resurrection be a part of our history that we never forget. Through this saving work of Jesus, O Lord, we are grateful to You there are those things in our lives and our history we need not carry with us anymore. You have taken the burden of sin and death away from us so we stand righteous in Your sight. We thank You for taking our burden upon Yourself and pray for Your continual comfort until we reach our home in heaven. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
“Those who don’t remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” So said George Santayana well over a century ago. This tends to be one of the reasons schools everywhere teach history as one of the staple subjects. Americans know all too well the tragedy of the Vietnam War, for example. It seems anytime we are threatened by some sort of international conflict, the memory of Vietnam comes back to us. We don’t want to repeat what happened there. It’s good that we remember.
Etched into the entrance of the World War II concentration camp of Dachau are the words “never again.” Holocaust survivors and their descendants want to make sure as painful as that memory is, no one loses sight of what happened in Germany over half a century ago. So many closed their eyes to the horrors taking place under a Nazi regime. The result was a tragic loss of life and a devastating war. Humanity needs to learn from that and remember, so it never happens again.
Even in our own circles, there’s the often repeated encouragement to remember the past. At the congregation I serve in Wisconsin, there is a rich history to our church. There are wonderful stories of people who sacrificed much in order to establish a congregation where Scripture could be taught rightly and God could be worshipped regularly. We, in modern times, think of what they gave up, how important God was in their lives, the sacrifices they made, and we are encouraged by that. We learn from their example and hope we can demonstrate the same faith and zeal when it comes to our worship and attention to God’s Word.
But the importance of history, the importance of remembering the past, seems to be challenged by something we find in God’s inspired Word. In Philippians chapter 3, the apostle Paul would tend to turn the widely accepted goal of remembering the past on its ear. He writes, “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.” It’s as though Paul is encouraging the opposite of what we’d expect. Don’t remember the past. Forget the past. Instead, look ahead. Is that what we’re to do?
Paul had something specific in mind. Certainly, Paul is not advocating forgetfulness of history in general. This is especially evident because Paul is repeatedly joining the other writers of Scripture in keeping the cross of Jesus ever before us. That’s an historical event, isn’t it? It was a long time ago, but how well we remember. We remember that Jesus walked a long road, carrying His cross to Calvary. We remember that Jesus was nailed to that cross in order to take away all of our sins. We remember that on Easter morning, Jesus rose from the dead, defeating death and the devil and opening up eternal life to all that believe. God would never have us forget this. This history is, in fact, the reason we’re going to heaven. We remember that we’ve been called by God. Through baptism, through hearing the Word of God, the Holy Spirit has come to us and given us faith. We believe that Jesus is our Savior from sin, something which God Himself made possible. We can’t forget this, either.
So what is Paul advocating when he talks about forgetting what is behind? No doubt one of the things in Paul’s mind as God inspired him to write these words was his own history. Paul wasn’t always the champion of Jesus Christ that he turned out to be. In fact, he was quite the opposite in earlier years. Then called Saul, he persecuted Christians. We read in the book of Acts how he actively hunted down those who were followers of Jesus and turned them over to arrest and even death. We read in the book of Acts how Paul was there, giving his approval to the killing of Stephen, sometimes called the first Christian martyr. There’s much in Paul’s history which demonstrates rampant sin and active opposition to God.
And it is no doubt this, at least in part, which must have been on Paul’s mind when he wrote the words of Philippians 3. Certainly, Paul would never be able to fully forget what he did, how sinful he was. No matter how thorough God’s regeneration of Paul was, the sinful past would always be something Paul would be aware of. But it was also something he could gladly leave behind.
There was a time in military training when those of us in officer’s school had to carry a large pack on our backs as we were walking through a wooded area. Oh, and everyone was complaining about it. It was hot. It was Alabama in the middle of summer. We had our sleeping gear, our spare uniforms, our water and our necessary belongings strapped to our backs as we went to the place where we’d set up camp. Some of us in the group, including myself, were starting to feel pretty strained by the whole experience. As much as the drill instructor would yell at us to keep the pace and be tough about it, the weight on our backs wasn’t getting any lighter.
Finally, we reached our destination, a clearing in the woods. This is where we’d set up camp to stay. Now there was the task of gathering wood, setting up a perimeter, and all the other things that went into making our area secure and livable. But as straining as all of that would be, there was one thing we didn’t have to do. We didn’t have to carry those packs anymore. The instructor told us we could take them off and leave them behind while we did the rest of our work. Was that a relief! No more burden. No more pack that had to be hauled. Many of us commented how much easier it was to do what we had to do without all that extra weight. We remembered what it was like. We remembered how heavy it was. But it wasn’t part of us anymore. It was left behind.
That, no doubt, is what Paul is getting at when he writes Philippians 3: “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.” All that sin, the burden of being opposed to God, persecuting the church, living a life contrary to God’s will, was part of Paul’s past, but it was just that. It was past. That burden had been taken away. Jesus had forgiven all of his sins so he didn’t need to be weighed down by them, constantly fretting over them, worrying about whether his sin would prevent him from reaching the goal of eternal life. It was behind him, washed away by the blood of Jesus.
While you and I may not have a past of actively persecuting the church of God, there are surely those things we’ve done that we regret. There’s that time when we lashed out against a friend and made that friend an enemy. There are those times we neglected the Word and worship of God and instead chose to follow our own desires. There are those times we put pleasure ahead of God’s commandments. There are those times when we lied about others, gossiped about others, antagonized others. And for all of us, the Bible says, is that sin we were born with which naturally separated us from God.
It is about this that God speaks in Philippians 3. All of those things, all of that sin, are behind us now. It need not weigh us down. It need not burden us anymore. And it certainly need not stand in the way of reaching eternal life. You and I have been forgiven. It was Jesus who carried the weight of sin as He went to a cross a long time ago. He is the One who took the punishment we deserve when He died on that first Good Friday. It’s the load of sin that we’ve had which Jesus took on His back. And when He died, it was all taken away.
What is that sin in your past? What is that skeleton in your closet? What is that one thing or that number of things that still burden you? You don’t have to be weighed down by them anymore. That sin is behind you. It has been forgiven because of what Jesus has done for you.
How liberating this is. It’s like when those trainees in the military were able to drop their packs and move on toward other things. You and I have been freed to look ahead. Now, our lives are constantly lives of focus on the cross of Jesus and the eternal life He has won.
When we finally reached that campsite, there was still much to be done. But something else kept coming to our minds as we went through that training. The training was almost over. You should have heard us, practically each hour of the day while we were out in the woods. “Thirty six more hours until we can go home.” A few hours later, “Only 28 more hours until we can go home.” A few hours later, “Only 19 more hours until we can go home.” Oh, we still had burdens. But how focused we were on time when finally it would all be past.
So it is with us who believe Jesus is our Savior from sin. We are free to look ahead. We don’t know how long a life God will grant us in this world, but we’re already looking forward to that day, that hour, when we will enter into His glory. Eternal life is ahead of us. Each day is one less day we’ll have to wait. We willingly serve God the best we can during the time He gives us here. But constantly on our mind is when every burden is gone. “I press on,” Paul says, “toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”
Those who don’t know history are condemned to repeat it. It’s a good statement; a very true statement. It even applies to our Christian lives. We know the history of Christ’s work of redemption, a work which is applied to us daily when we receive His forgiveness for all that we’ve done wrong. That’s history we will always remember and keep with us. But not all history remains on our minds. At least, it need not. Those sins, those mistakes, those times when we strayed from God, is all behind us now, washed away by the blood of Jesus. The burden is gone and you are forgiven. Now look ahead. It’s coming soon. Eternal life is waiting for you. Amen.
LUTHERAN HOUR MAILBOX (Questions & Answers) for October 6, 2002
ANNOUNCER: What is the difference between grace and luck? I’m Mark Eischer. Joining me by phone is Dr. Carl C. Fickenscher, professor of homiletics at Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, Ind. Dr. Fickenscher, what is the difference between grace and luck?
FICKENSCHER: Well, luck obviously we speak of as something that is simply by chance, something that happens without any real cause we can explain. Frankly, nothing is quite that way because God is in control of everything and God’s grace is His love for us that gives us so many wonderful things we don’t deserve.
ANNOUNCER: So really the first difference between grace and luck is that one of them exists and the other does not?
FICKENSCHER: Absolutely. It’s as simple as that, frankly.
ANNOUNCER: Alright. In fact, author R. C. Sproul in his book “Not a Chance” says the mere existence of chance is enough to rip God from His cosmic throne. If chance exists in any size, shape or form, God cannot exist. Why is that?
FICKENSCHER: Well, because God, as the Bible describes Him, is omnipotent. He has all power. He also is omniscient. He knows everything. That means nothing can escape God’s awareness and nothing could allude His power. If it’s something happening anywhere, it is well within God’s awareness and if it’s something happening of any significance, in fact any thing we would even deem insignificant, it’s something that happens not without God’s will. This of course is why, for example, in Romans chapter 8, St. Paul says “that God causes all things to work together for good for those who love God.” Even when really disastrous effects of our sin touch our lives and the lives of others, somehow God in His grace is still always bringing about good results in the big picture for us.
ANNOUNCER: In a sense good fortune could be a gift of God’s grace. So, whereas luck doesn’t exist, fortune could.
FICKENSCHER: Right. If it is understood as something God has given, that’s right.
ANNOUNCER: Let’s relate this to the puzzling question of theology. Someone could say that by God’s grace on account of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection, I am saved. I’ve been brought into the church. Perhaps my parents brought me to the baptismal font, and here I am through no effort or merit of my own, a redeemed child of God. Is that luck? Am I a lucky person compared with everybody else in the world?
FICKENSCHER: That is certainly one area where we as Lutherans have, I think, a very helpful Biblical understanding. We realize the Bible does not explain God’s answer to the question why some are saved and not others. But we do realize that God has atoned, that Christ has forgiven all sins in His death and resurrection, that God is reconciled to all mankind, that God fully intends everyone to be saved, and that in the means of grace–in baptism, in the preaching of the Word and also Holy Communion–He truly does give really and fully the gift of salvation to everyone. Now some people do not believe that in the preaching of the Word and the Word of Christ which they perhaps have heard, that they really are saved. They don’t believe the Word is really true for them and tragically, therefore, many people that God truly desires to be saved, are lost. But when we recognize God’s full intention is the salvation of everyone, we would never attribute that either to luck, to luck by birth, luck being born into a Christian family or lucky circumstances in which we heard God’s Word at just the right time or in just the right circumstance.
ANNOUNCER: Very good. We’ve been talking with Dr. Carl Fickenscher, professor of homiletics at Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, Ind. Dr. Fickenscher, thank you for being with us. The next Lutheran Hour message is titled, “The Answer to Anxiety.”