If Paul Can, So Can We November 16, 2016

³ I thank God whom I serve, as did my ancestors, with a clear conscience, 
2 Timothy 1:3 ESV 

Paul was writing this letter to his friend Timothy while chained in a cold, harsh jail cell.  No more house arrest for this greatest of apostles.  While his surroundings may have been filthy and bleak, he writes with a clear conscience.  What makes this so remarkable is remembering Paul's life before his conversion.

Before Paul's reckoning with God on the road to Damascus, he was a hunter of Christians.  Acts 9 describes Paul as "still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord."  He "went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem."  We don't know how many Christians had been imprisoned or put because of Paul's activities, but he had a very unfavorable reputation with the early church.  "And when he had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples. And they were all afraid of him, for they did not believe that he was a disciple." Acts 9:26 ESV

Even with his track record of death and persecution, near the end of life Paul writes that he has a clear conscience.  He had accepted the forgiveness and cleansing of the blood of Christ.  Paul realized that God's grace was greater than all his sins.  The miracle of rebirth through a saving relationship with Christ obliterated all condemnation and guilt.

I imagine Paul spent many hours in prayer throughout his ministry fighting the temptation to wallow in the swamp of his past.  No doubt Satan tried often to remind Paul of his evil, heinous career of tracking down Christians.  But Paul emerged victorious because he allowed the promises of God to shatter the recriminations of Satan.

If Paul is able to look back on his life with a clear conscious, how much easier should that be for us to do.  Few of us have been responsible for the death and imprisonment of innocents.  Sure we have our list of sin, but just like for Paul, through Christ's sacrifice, God's grace and mercy release us from guilt.  If God's no longer condemns us for our past, why should we?