"Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."
2 Corinthians 5:16-17
These are some interesting verses warning us of the perils of assuming that we know someone's story, just from things of the flesh. What we observe or experience we often take as the full measure of a person, but we can't possibly take into account the spiritual aspect.
The absolutely amazingly cool thing here is that God allows us to effectively edit our stories as we go along... and that changes them, and changes who we are. We can't know the ending, or even have a full understanding of every chapter until the story is all written and our lives are over. That's the effective publish date. Until then, we can and do change, if we are repenting and looking to God.
Doctrine and Covenants 58:42 is an incredible verse that fits with these ones. It says "Behold, he who has repented of his sins, the same is forgiven, and I, the Lord, remember them no more." The idea of God *forgetting* something seems kind of insane. I mean, we KNOW that he is all-knowing... how could he not know our sins? ... And that's the miraculous part of all of it, right? This life is an in-between part in the midst of our eternity with specific parameters and rules, and it is set up *expressly* so that we can learn who we are and choose who we want to be. The whole idea of it is choice and decision-making--composition and editing if you will. We don't die after our first sin because God didn't want us to have to live forever with that first draft. We get to learn better how to write, how to put out beauty into words... how to help and develop other characters and side plots. If we get to chapter five and the hero is irredeemably lost already, we get to throw that chapter away and effectively start again... because God can help us figure out how to redeem the character anyway. We don't have to rely only on our own wisdom and knowledge of how to construct a plot, because he is there, our eternally wise co-author, helping us to learn the craft.
That's why he doesn't remember our sins... because we rewrite ourselves, and we change, and we are different now. We don't have to be those people anymore once we learn to be better.... just like people hopefully forget our scary selfishness as children as we grow into adults. Today, let's remember to edit, and repent, and become better. Let's take the opportunity that Christ has given us to become new.
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."
2 Corinthians 5:16-17
These are some interesting verses warning us of the perils of assuming that we know someone's story, just from things of the flesh. What we observe or experience we often take as the full measure of a person, but we can't possibly take into account the spiritual aspect.
The absolutely amazingly cool thing here is that God allows us to effectively edit our stories as we go along... and that changes them, and changes who we are. We can't know the ending, or even have a full understanding of every chapter until the story is all written and our lives are over. That's the effective publish date. Until then, we can and do change, if we are repenting and looking to God.
Doctrine and Covenants 58:42 is an incredible verse that fits with these ones. It says "Behold, he who has repented of his sins, the same is forgiven, and I, the Lord, remember them no more." The idea of God *forgetting* something seems kind of insane. I mean, we KNOW that he is all-knowing... how could he not know our sins? ... And that's the miraculous part of all of it, right? This life is an in-between part in the midst of our eternity with specific parameters and rules, and it is set up *expressly* so that we can learn who we are and choose who we want to be. The whole idea of it is choice and decision-making--composition and editing if you will. We don't die after our first sin because God didn't want us to have to live forever with that first draft. We get to learn better how to write, how to put out beauty into words... how to help and develop other characters and side plots. If we get to chapter five and the hero is irredeemably lost already, we get to throw that chapter away and effectively start again... because God can help us figure out how to redeem the character anyway. We don't have to rely only on our own wisdom and knowledge of how to construct a plot, because he is there, our eternally wise co-author, helping us to learn the craft.
That's why he doesn't remember our sins... because we rewrite ourselves, and we change, and we are different now. We don't have to be those people anymore once we learn to be better.... just like people hopefully forget our scary selfishness as children as we grow into adults. Today, let's remember to edit, and repent, and become better. Let's take the opportunity that Christ has given us to become new.
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