Tan had a blended family, with children from two marriages. The two mothers hated each other and banned their children from meeting. Then Tan passed away.
At his funeral, his now grown children reached out to each other tentatively—and were pleasantly surprised to discover that most of them were now believers in Jesus.
“Let’s forget the past,” said one of the sons to his siblings. “Whatever has happened was from the past generation.”
Reconciliation is hard, and forgiveness may seem impossible until the source of dissension is taken away. That’s what happened when human beings sinned. Our wrongdoing marred our relationship with God, who is holy and must address sin.
So God sent His Son Jesus to die on the cross, “reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them” (2 Cor. 5:19). On the cross, Christ’s atoning death not only removed our guilt and spared us the punishment that we deserved, but also made us acceptable to God, allowing us to be reconciled with Him.
Now, we can come into His presence freely and joyfully, completely forgiven. Jesus’ resurrection makes us a “new person” (V. 17) who is no longer tainted with the crimes of the past.
How amazing, that God tells us: “Forget the past, you will be with Me forever!”
