I begin today in a gruesome manner by giving you a picture of what the memories of sins that haunt us are like or how continuing habitual sin looks like as Heaven observes our lives—the lives of born again ones that are supposed to be free of sin and its nature.

The following is a fact of Roman criminal punishment and one that perhaps the Apostle Paul had in mind at † Romans 7:24.

† Romans 7:18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. 19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. 20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. 21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. 22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: 23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. 24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

What is that strapped to your back? : One of the most brutal and deadly practices of the Roman Empire was its treatment of condemned criminals. Those who had committed crimes against the empire were brutalized by being nailed, naked to a cross for all to ridicule, spit on and mock. However, there was still one punishment which was reserved for the worst of the worst. It is almost unimaginable for us to think about. Those people who were especially hated for their crimes, were sentenced to carry around “dead weight”. This term has come down through the generations, and to us it means to carry that which has no benefit or purpose and it can actually causes harm. However, to the Romans, the term referred to practice of strapping a dead body to a criminal. They were forced to live out there last few weeks in a walking punishment by carrying a maggot infested corpse strapped to their bare back. During the process of decomposition, it slowly leaked poisons into the criminal, making them sicker and sicker until they finally died a very slow, painful, stench-filled death.

Where God is concerned as He views your born-again life and mine, we have no past behind the cross.

When I say “behind the cross”, I refer to the blood-stained front side of the cross where Jesus was crucified and died and where you and I were crucified and died to the sinful nature, according to what the Bible says. The other side of the cross, the back side, in a manner of speaking, is where our new life in Christ began and where we are to live day-by-day from that day on. The back side of the cross has no blood stains, no nail marks, and no shame associated with it but represents these Bible passages recorded for us:

† Matthew 16:25 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.

† Psalm 103:10 He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. 11 For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. 12 As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.

† Galatians 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. 21 I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. . . 5: 24 … they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts [on the death side of the cross]. 25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit [this is the resurrection side of the work of the cross].

† Hebrews 10:16 This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; 17 And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.

† Romans 5:1 Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. . . 8: 1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

If we have been to the cross, and not just once at the time of our being born again, if we have confessed faith in Jesus and repented of our sins, asked for forgiveness and to be cleansed by the shed blood of Jesus, and we take our salvation seriously, the memories of our past sins, no matter how terrible they were, are only to teach us and warn us of what to avoid at all cost.

† Hebrews 9:13 For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: 14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?. . .

† 1 Peter 3:10 For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile: 11 Let him eschew (shun, avoid, decline) evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue (pursue, press forward in) it. 12 For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil.

The premise of these two messages is that if you have been born again all those sins that you were guilty of committing were washed away by the divine bleach that is the blood of Jesus. The history of your sins on the bloody side of the cross are gone—you have no past of such things as you step beyond the cross and into your new life in Jesus.

If the history of that sin is gone where God is concerned, the guilt you had of those terrible things, any remaining guilt and shame of those same things also needs to be stripped of their haunting power.

But in part one I also mentioned present sins, sins since that first encounter with the cross, habitual sins and those that somehow happen seemingly accidentally. Yes, those things do come up, and repentance and the blood of Jesus is the means to clear them before God, but the still hanging-on nature to sin must also be brutally confronted—seen for what it is, “a dead man walking”, by coming to terms with the divine decree that your and my nature of sin was condemned by God, was sentenced to death, and was taken to the cross to die there.

To get free of our habitual sins, we must ask God to make our historical and factual death on the cross with Jesus (according to His Word) and make it actual in our lives and we will sin less and less and less.

Most of you have heard me say in the past that by God’s grace and your faith in the blood of Jesus that your sins are forgiven and removed from the record of your life. But—I must remind you of this: It is the blood that washes clean but it does not put to death the sinful nature that leads us to sin.

The blood of Jesus washes away our sins but it is the power and work of the cross of Christ that must be brought to bear upon your and my old nature of sin, which continues to have life and some power over us even after we are born again from Heaven.

We are still responsible before God to deal with sin that can arise in our lives, get forgiven of it and put it, too, on the other side of the cross. But we are to stop sinning according to what Jesus declared and the apostolic writers reinforced. We are to want those things to not happen again, so-much-so, that we seek death to that which is within us that leads us that way. That is the work of the cross—to put to death the sinful nature that cannot be tamed or mastered—it must be killed.

These Scriptural examples teach us this

† John 5:14 Afterward Jesus findeth him in the temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.

† John 8:10 When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? 11 She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.

† Matthew 16:24 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. 25 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.

† Romans 6:11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. 12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. . . 14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

We have a responsibility before God to deal with the issues of sin in our lives and that requires that we not take sinning for granted. How you have lived your life once becoming a true Christian will show up once you stand before God in only one of the two possible places of the judgment of your human life—either the Judgment Seat of Christ (as a follower of Him) or at the Great White Throne Judgment (as an unbeliever or backslidden believer) at the end of the 1,000 year reign of Christ.

As far as I have been able to determine by the Scriptures, there are three kinds of books being meticulously kept in Heaven—essentially keeping the record of each person’s life. First, there is a book recording the name of each person that has been redeemed by faith in the shed blood of the Lamb of God and given eternal life, which book is called the Lamb’s Book of Life. A second one is the Lord God’s very special Book of Remembrance, and thirdly, there are the books of deeds and works of all men’s and women’s lives.

For the Christian, the books will be what disclose the works of gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay or stubble when Jesus asks each redeemed one, “What did you do with the Life I gave you” ??? For all others that stand at the Revelation 20 judgment that have not been to the cross in repentance, forgiven for and washed clean of all sins, and born again from Heaven, it is the books of their lifelong deeds, including all unforgiven sin.

† Romans 5:8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.

For all the benefits of having been born again from above, your name must be written in the Lamb’s Book of Life before you physically die. In addition to one’s name being in that Book, one can be included in the Lord God’s collection of rare jewels, if his or her name is also inscribed in the Lord’s personal Book of Remembrance.

However, if there is no genuine faith in Jesus Christ, no record of having been forgiven and pardoned through His blood, those names have their own individual book, which documents one’s lifelong works which, by the obvious absence of the blood of Jesus effectively upon that life, is very-bad-news!

† Psalm 56:8 Thou tellest (inscribes [records] to recount later) my wanderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle: are they not in thy book?

† Revelation 21:27 And there shall in no wise enter into it [the holy city, the New Jerusalem] any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life. (also mentioned at Phil. 4:3, Rev. 3:5, 13:8, 17:8, 20:12, 20:15, 21:27, and 22:19)

† Malachi 3:16 Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name. 17 And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels (peculiar treasure); and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.

† Daniel 7:9 I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. 10 A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened.

† Revelation 20:11 And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. 12 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books (biblion: writing, bible [of men’s lives]) were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. 13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. 14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. 15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. . . 21: 8 …the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.

I remind you again, there is no recorded history of your sinful past where God is concerned behind the cross; there is no record of wrongs and sin if you have been to the cross for forgiveness and cleansing and also for the putting down of your old nature of sin that causes you to sin. Sin is why Jesus died a horrific and painful death on that Roman cross for us and therefore, we must hate sin to such a degree in our lives that we repent of it when-it-happens, get clean of it in the record God is keeping, and ask for the cross against the zombie nature of sin apparently still partly alive within us, and then deny, deny, deny ourselves the indulgence to sin in our tomorrows.

Otherwise, know this: “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living God” († Heb. 10:31).

For the past sins you have been forgiven of that might shame you, forgive yourself. For the sins that might come up in the course of your life since being born again, do not hesitate to repent of them, be forgiven and washed of them in the record of your life, and get free of that body of death, the sinful nature that is full of lusts and unclean affections. Deliverance from these things is what God through Jesus has done for you and for me. Do not continue be shackled to the old, dead, sinful nature with its poison, foul smell and sentence of death!

† Romans 7:24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? 25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.