Scar Tissue

Hundreds of years ago, princes had whipping boys to take their punishment for them. They messed up in school, the whipping boy would get hit. They lashed out at the servants, the whipping boy got the belt. They talked back to their parents, it was the whipping boy who got stripes. No matter what the young prince did, he was pretty much immune to being punished himself, at least as far as corporal punishment. One result of this was that princes had few scars. Oh, they might get some from sword practice or from any rough-housing they may have started with siblings, and perhaps one from clumsily tripping on the stairs or falling off a horse, but their sins weren't punished. This meant that not only did they not feel the pain of what they did wrong, but they didn't bear the marks of it, either. We have a volunteer whipping boy, who has already taken the punishment for our sins. His name is Jesus. We may still face correction from God or the results of our actions from the world, but the penalty for our sins has been paid already. The stripes have been taken by someone else. This means that we shouldn't be bearing the scars of our sins. So many of us, however, bare our scars to the world, almost proudly. We talk about our past, not just when it will help bring people to God, but anytime a related topic is brought up. We mention them not just with the hurt that our sins caused us and how far they took us from God, but with a certain longing for those good times that we left behind. Some of us, on the other hand, are so ashamed of our past that we don't bring it up to anyone. We act as though our past can never be erased, like we are tarnished for all time. If you do either of these, I'm not judging. I have been guilty of both myself, especially the latter. What I'm saying is that God doesn't want you to live this way. He doesn't want you wearing the scars, whether you show them to the world or keep them hidden. He wants you to remember where you came from, but not to live as though the past is your future. You don't have to bear the pain from what you did because He already bore it for you. To continue to claim those scars is to say that His blood isn't good enough, that it can't wash away your past. God the King made you His adopted prince or princess, and then Jesus volunteered to be your whipping boy so you could be presented without scar or blemish before God. To do this, though, you have to let go of your past, forgiving yourself for it, whatever you've done, and walking away from it. No more shame or berating yourself and no more boasting of all that you did and got away with. You have to let it all go, or you take only half the gift that Jesus offers you.