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by Katie Erickson

If you’ve had a really rough time in your life, you may want to break away from that past and have a completely fresh start. You want to forget that difficult time in your life and move on from it to a new future. But is that possible, and if so, how?

The answer to that question partially depends on what exactly it is from your past you’re breaking away from. For example, if you made bad choices and ended up with a disease that can’t be cured, then you can’t break away from that. If someone close to you has passed away, there is no fresh start that can bring that person back to this earth. There are some choices or occurrences in life that can't be undone.

So physically, it is difficult or impossible to completely break away from the past and start a fresh future. But spiritually, there IS a way to completely break from your past and have a fresh future! That way is only through Jesus Christ.

We’ve written on this blog before about how Jesus is the only way to heaven. Jesus is also the only way to true forgiveness of your sins, and the only way to wipe out everything you’ve ever done wrong. You may still experience some earthly consequences of those sins, but they will be completely gone from God’s memory.

Psalm 103:9-12 says, “He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.” Similarly, Micah 7:19 says, “You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.”

Both of these verses point out the completeness of God’s forgiveness of our sins. When we are forgiven, He so completely removes our sins that it’s like they’re in the depths of the sea, or as far as the east is from the west. That is the new start that God has to offer to each one of us!

But how do we break free from our sins and claim that fresh spiritual start? Only through Jesus Christ. Jesus is both fully God and fully human, so he was the only worthy sacrifice to provide us with forgiveness of our sins. Read this post for most explanation on that.

Jesus had to come to earth as a human and die so that our sins would be paid for. He then rose again from death, never to die again, so that we can experience that forgiveness and new life through Him. He is the only person who could have ever paid, and did pay, the penalty that each of us deserves. When His Spirit works in our lives to help us to have true faith and belief in Him, then we can claim that forgiveness and have that fresh spiritual start that we crave.

You may be able to make a temporary or a partial fresh start from physical things that have happened to you, but the only way to have a permanent and truly fresh future is through the grace and forgiveness of Jesus Christ. Make today the day that you truly embrace that forgiveness!