The Apostle Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:17–19:

So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; look, new things have come into being! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.

In his book My Bright Abyss, poet and theologian Christian Wiman wrote something that struck me as profound: “Being saved involves embracing rather than denouncing one’s past. It is true that Christ makes a man anew, that there is some ultimate change in him. But part of that change is the ability to see your life as a whole, to feel the form and unity of it, to become a creature made for and assimilated into existence, rather than a desperate, fragmented man…”

There are definitely aspects of my past I would rather forget, even whole chapters I’d just as soon leave behind. And yet, I know the mistakes and failures of the past, the suffering and struggles I’ve faced, have developed in me a deeper sense of compassion, forgiveness, and grace.

Salvation is often described as leaving the old life behind, as though faith were a clean break from everything that came before. But Paul speaks of something more spacious and more honest. “If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation,” he writes—not a new person with no past, but a life made whole and new through reconciliation.

He goes on to tell us that in Christ, God was “reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them.” In other words, reconciliation does not erase history. It restores relationship.

What if being saved is not standing over our past in judgment, but learning to stand within our lives in grace? What if new creation does not mean becoming someone with no history, but becoming someone who can finally see their life as a whole—its wounds and wisdom, its losses and growth—held together in Christ?

And if God is not counting our trespasses against us, how might that change the way we see ourselves—or the way we extend grace to others—as people learning, slowly and imperfectly, to belong?

Let us pray: Reconciling God, we thank you that in Christ you accept us as we are, and that you gather even our past into your grace. Where we carry regret, grant forgiveness; where we bear scars, awaken compassion. Teach us to stand within our lives with trust, and to live as people reconciled to you and to one another. Through Jesus Christ, our peace. Amen.