Beyond Former Failures and Successes, Children of God

"By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter;" (Hebrews 11: 24)

Now, Moses did not initially choose to follow God's call on his life. He could not help but defend his Hebrew brethren when they were attacked:

"11And it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown, that he went out unto his brethren, and looked on their burdens: and he spied an Egyptian smiting an Hebrew, one of his brethren. 12And he looked this way and that way, and when he saw that there was no man, he slew the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand. " (Exodus 2: 11-12)

When Pharaoh learned that Moses had killed this Egyptian, he fled for his life.

Yet the writer of Hebrews does not describe Moses as a self-preserving coward, but rather highlights that he was stepping into God's call on His life.

The blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin (1 John 1: 7) and wipes away all our failures, so that we can trust that He will be a God to us, and remember our sins no more (Hebrews 8: 10-12)

When we recognize all that Jesus has done for us at the Cross, we stop identifying with who were in Adam, with our sin and our failures, but we also stop identifying with the great things that we accomplished in ourselves:

"15But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. 16And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification. 17For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ." (Romans 5: 15-17)

Paul had arrived at the point where, in spite of all that he had accomplished as a devout Jew under the law, it was nothing compared to Jesus and all that He had done for Him:

"But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. 8Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, 9And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:" (Philippians 3:7-9)

Today, because we are sons of God in Christ (1 John 3: 1-3), we can reject the failures of our old man, and also turn away from our former successes. In Christ, we reign in life, living by His faith (Galatians 2: 20-21), and His grace (1 Corinthians 15: 10)