PAST SINS by J. H. Durland

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Oct 16, 1893

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 19, No. 49.

PAST SINS.

By J. H. Durland

BY ELDER J. H. DURLAND.

Do NOT brood over the sins that are past. Be thankful that they are past, but do not call them back to the present, and look at them in a way to produce despondency or discouragement. If God, by his grace, has pardoned them, why should you recall them, unless it be in form of a fact in the history of his dealings with you, to excite your gratitude and praise? It is bad enough that you ever sinned and contracted guilt, why should you, then, make it worse by dwelling upon it in a melancholy state of mind?

When God pardons, it is an unconditional pardon. He knows our future as well as our past life. He does not pardon us for present goodness, nor for the good we will do in the future. Our pardon does not depend upon our future works, for we are saved freely by grace through faith, and that not of ourselves; it is the gift of God. The objects of his pardon are not the worthy, but the unworthy; not innocent, but fallen man; sinners, as such, and in no way conditional or qualified. But he saves the lost, the helpless, the ungodly—yea, the chief of sinners. They are not saved by works of righteousness which they have done or will do, lest any of them should boast. If we were pardoned on the condition that we would live godly lives in the future, we would receive it, in part at least, for our good works.

The Lord delights in mercy towards the lowest sinner that will return. He removes his sins from him as far as the east is from the west. He casts them into the depths of the sea. He casts them behind his back. He will remember their sins and their iniquities no more. He wishes to stand between the sinner and his past sins, so that his righteousness will be seen in them instead of their past unrighteousness.

If your past sins have been confessed and forsaken, magnify the Lord by believing that they are pardoned. Then forget them by having the mind so filled with the glory of God, who has done such a great work in you. Forget them as sins standing against you, forget them as sins that can produce condemnation, which can exclude you from grace or glory. Forget them, and let your thoughts, your hopes, your prayers, your faith, your exertions, be all expended upon pressing toward the mark set before you in Christ Jesus. Live in the joyfulness of the pardoned, reconciled sinner. Lift up your head in the blessed anticipation of the better things which are before, and which the Lord desires you to have. Your calling is to seek the joys to come, and not the sins which are past and covered with the blood of the cross.

It is Satan's work to bring up our past pardoned sins. He is ever seeking to get us to disbelieve the word we have once acknowledged to be true in our cases. When he tempted Jesus, he tried to get him to doubt the word of Jehovah, that had said, "This is my beloved Son." Satan says, "If thou be the Son of God," etc. God's word had said he was his Son, and now Satan tries to have Jesus throw the lie in the face of the Almighty, by attempting to prove his divine origin by a miracle. To attempt this would have been a denial of the word already spoken, and a defeat in producing the suggested miracle, and thus giving Satan the undisputed

power so much desired. In like manner he comes to the pardoned soul, and whispers, "If those sins you repented of were indeed pardoned, you would not think about them." The newly pardoned soul, who has once believed the word already spoken, is led by the deceiver to go to the Lord again, and ask for the pardon, thus telling the Lord, "I do not believe you meant it before." He is seeking for a pardon that will not permit his past sins to come into mind. Satan exults over the victory he has thus gained. He knows he can keep the past sins of such ever before him. He will ever be by his side suggesting this sin or that transgression, to keep the soul doubting God's word, and by his continual confessing of past sins, he is telling the Lord that he has lied about his forgiveness of his past sins. Poor soul that thus serves the Lord!

The child of faith never goes back of his pardon. If he falls into sin, he still believes that God forgave him, and this encourages him to return and bring the unconfessed sins and receive pardon for them. When Satan whispers the doubts in his ear, it is closed, for it hears only the words, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins." When Satan tries him and reveals his weakness he acknowledges he is the chiefest of sinners, but Jesus Christ came to die for such. When the adversary brings his confessed sins to his mind, he only praises the Lord there was power in the blood of Christ to cleanse them all, and clothe him with the robe of Christ's righteousness. He is humbled as he thinks he should ever have been so weak, so thoughtless, so ungrateful as to have committed them. He feels that he was not only pardoned by grace, but now he lives by grace.