After a person is saved, his old way of living and his old conduct of the past should come to an end. Before he received salvation, he was a sinner living in sin. He was also a man of the old creation, behaving in the way of the old creation. But now, having been saved, he has become a man of the new creation with the life of the new creation; as such he should have a new beginning, a new start, and live a new life spontaneously. Therefore, his former living and conduct should be ended.
In the Old Testament, when the children of Israel were saved by their keeping of the Passover, they immediately left Egypt, forsaking all Egyptian ways of living and fully ending, concluding, all the Egyptian things. From that day, the life they lived was new, the way on which they walked was new, and all the things they did were new. The things of the past and the living of the former days were completely ended. This is a distinct type of the clearance of the past.
Although the Bible contains no plain teaching concerning the clearance of the past, it does include some passages that are pertinent to this matter. According to these passages, we may extract the following four points:
The clearance of the past is not a requirement for salvation. This is because God’s salvation is complete. No matter how grievous or deep our sins might be, they are all under the precious blood. There is no need for us to do or add anything, such as clearing the past, before we can be forgiven by God. God’s forgiveness is based upon the precious blood of the Lord Jesus, and it is also the issue of our repentance and faith. It is not necessary to add our good works and virtues or our zeal and love. Therefore, the clearance of the past is not a requirement for salvation.
Once a person receives the Lord Jesus as his Savior and thus obtains God’s salvation, the power of this salvation causes him to clear away and end his former life. This is plainly illustrated in Zaccheus’ action as recorded in Luke 19. At the moment God’s salvation came to Zaccheus, it caused him to deal with his material possessions and to clear away his past sinful life. In like manner, because of our enjoyment of God’s salvation, God’s life in us causes us to have a change in our mood, taste, and feeling toward the world. Even our taste toward daily necessities, such as eating and clothing, is changed. Therefore, we spontaneously put an end to our old way of living, that is, we clear away the things in our living which have evolved from the past to the present, no longer allowing them to persist or continue. Such a clearance is an issue of our enjoyment of salvation.
Once a person is saved, if he desires to have a good testimony for the Lord and to go on with the Lord in a pure way, he should completely clear away the things of his past. Suppose a casino operator is saved. Of course, his past sin of operating the casino has been forgiven by God. Moreover, the many dark and evil things he did in the casino have also been forgiven. However, if he desires to be a good Christian from now on and to follow and go on with the Lord, he has no choice but to close the casino. If he does not close it down, though we may not deny that he is saved, we may say that he has no way to live as a Christian. If he desires to have a good Christian life, he must close the casino. This is the clearance of the past.
If after he is saved an operator of a casino or a night club does not close down his business, how can he lead people to the Lord or witness for the Lord? Even if he tries to witness for the Lord, it will be difficult for anyone to believe. If after we are saved we desire to walk on the Lord’s way and to witness for the Lord, we need to clear away our past life and the former things. We should regard this matter as highly important. This is not a legal requirement, and there is no fixed rule or regulation as to how we should make the clearance. Nevertheless, there is a principle here: if we, the saved ones, desire to have a better Christian life, to walk properly on the way of the Lord, and to witness for the Lord, our past life must be brought to an end.