What does the Bible say about past?
Bible Topic · WEB
The Bible teaches that believers need not be ruled by their past, because God forgives sin, makes His people new in Christ, and calls them to press forward in faith. Isaiah 43:18-19 declares that the Lord is doing a new thing, while 2 Corinthians 5:17 grounds this hope in union with Christ: the old has passed away and the new has come. Through confession, God faithfully forgives and cleanses His children (1 John 1:9), and Romans 8:1 assures them that there is no condemnation in Christ Jesus. Yet grace also summons repentance and perseverance. Like Paul in Philippians 3:13-14, Christians forget what lies behind and strain toward the heavenly prize, trusting God to restore and sustain them.
Top passages, ranked by readers
Rankings: OpenBible.info Topical Bible (CC BY) · Scripture: World English Bible
- Isaiah 43:18-19
[18] Don't remember the former things, neither consider the things of old. [19] Behold, I will do a new thing; now shall it spring forth; shall you not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.
- Isaiah 43:18
Don't remember the former things, neither consider the things of old.
- 2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new.
- Luke 9:62
But Jesus said to him, "No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the Kingdom of God."
- Philippians 3:12-14
[12] Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect; but I press on, if it is so that I may take hold of that for which also I was taken hold of by Christ Jesus. [13] Brothers, I don't regard myself as yet having taken hold, but one thing I do. Forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before, [14] I press on toward the goal for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
- 1 John 1:9
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us the sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
- James 4:7
Be subject therefore to God. But resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
- Psalms 71:20
You, who have shown us many and bitter troubles, You will let me live. You will bring us up again from the depths of the earth.
- Philippians 3:13-14
[13] Brothers, I don't regard myself as yet having taken hold, but one thing I do. Forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before, [14] I press on toward the goal for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
- Romans 8:1
There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who don't walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
Related topics
Go deeper
Ask Explain Bible AI about past and get a fuller answer from a Reformed theological perspective.
Ask what the Bible says about past