Jesus: The Time-Traveling Deliverer

Unshackling the Chains of the Past: How Jesus Redeems Our Whole Lives

To be a disciple of Jesus is to entrust one's entire life to him, allowing him to bring one into his redeeming love and salvation. In the present this requires one to live by faith. For the future it requires one to live with hope. What about the past? What about the times before one even knew about Christ? Doesn't that count as a part of one's entire life? If so, how can one include that in their discipleship.

One might be quick to say that's what forgiveness is for. I agree, but I believe we have not fully understood how it is that Jesus forgives and redeems our past. This is evident by just looking at a majority of modern Christians. Many walk around with the chains of the past keeping them from advancing in holiness and Christlikeness. Instead they are weighed down by the chains of their past. To be sure, past experiences are the things that form us into the kinds of people we are. For some this is a great thing, but for others it is lamentable; and the way the modern church has spoken about forgiveness—God doesn't count it against you—has not been sufficient to break these chains.

Recently I've been re-reading some of the works of C.S. Lewis, Agnes Sanford and Leanne Payne. In all three I was struck by an understanding of God that helped me see Jesus' power to forgive in a new and mythical light. I came to see that he can forgive our past sins and bring healing to old trauma because he is not bound by time; he is Jesus, the Time-Traveling God. (If this were a movie some awesome background music would've started right there!)

Where psychologists, pastors, counselors and others can help people cope with events of the past and their implications—and for such people I thank God—Jesus is able to deal with the pain of the past in the moment that it happened, and bring the kind of healing needed so that its impact is felt in the present. This is far fetched for many because of the way they understand time.

This is where I find Lewis helpful. In Mere Christianity,* he wrote,

“If you picture Time as a straight line along which we have to travel, then you must picture God as the whole page on which the line is drawn. We come to the parts of the line one by one: we have to leave A behind before we get to B, and cannot reach C until we leave B behind. God, from above or outside or all around, contains the whole line, and sees it all.”

He goes on to say, and this is most important for the purpose of this article,

“All the days are ‘Now’ for Him. He does not remember you doing things yesterday; He simply sees you doing them, because, though you have lost yesterday, He has not. He does not ‘forsee’ you doing things tomorrow; He simply sees you doing them; because, though tomorrow is not yet there for you, it is for Him."

This means that Jesus, who now lives and reigns with the Father and the Spirit outside of the limitations of time, has access to every moment in human history as a present moment. Even in his earthly life we had glimpses of this. He knew, through the Holy Spirit, that Judas would betray him. He didn't cause Judas to betray him, but God had already experienced Judas' betrayal and made it known to his time-bound Son. Stay with me, please.Now that Jesus is no longer bound by time it adds a whole new meaning to the phrase, give your life to Jesus. For from his vantage point he doesn't only want your present and future, but your past as well—your entire life! He wants it all because his aim is to redeem it all.

Here is where Agnes Sanford (The Healing Light) and Leanne Payne (The Healing Presence)* come in. Both of them had powerful healing ministries and part of their ministries were to help people receiving the healing of memories. That is, someone would be suffering from something and didn't know why they weren't able to receive healing. Sometimes it would be discovered that there was a past memory that, like an old football injury that never properly healed, was still manifesting itself in the persons life.

Through the Holy Spirit they would help such a person see the risen Lord with them in the moment of their trauma. They would ask him to bring his healing light and receive the healing by faith. (It's important to note that they would help the people see this happening with their imagination.) Many times these people would actually experience/feel lightened, as if a burden fell off. Then, having received this healing of memory, they could experience a present healing in the body.

Perhaps an example may help. Imagine a young lady whose parents were divorced when she was a child. As she watched her father leave the house a feeling of abandonment settled in. This feeling of abandonment translated to her seeking acceptance in ways that were not always good for her and as she grew older she developed a thick callous about her. "I'll never allow anyone to make me feel like that again," is the motto she subconsciously lived by. Because of this she has struggled to maintain any relationship because she will not open herself up to receive love.

Now imagine that one day this young lady prays, "Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts. See if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting" (Psalm 139:23-24). The Christ that hears her prayer will look at her entire life and may show her that one grievous way that is in her is due to her experience of abandonment as a little girl. Now imagine that this young lady, from a heart that yearns for wholeness, asks Jesus to heal her and enable her to forgive her Father. I believe that since Jesus is not limited by time, he can and does go to the moment in question—a moment he experiences as Now—and provides the needed healing. He does not change what took place, for that would remove our freedom of the will, but he redeems and heals the trauma experienced. Now this young lady, having been healed, is free to forgive her father and begin living a life no longer based on the abandonment of her earthly father, but the love and embrace of her Heavenly Father.

Perhaps I've been reading to many fairy tales, or maybe you've been reading too few. But I believe it's important to interact with Jesus according to his power. We shouldn't think of forgiveness only as him forgetting what was past, anyone can do that, but he can do more, he can bring healing and redemption to the past, because the past is as open to him as the present and future.

As a pastor that constantly hears of people suffering from addictions, some small and some great, I believe people need to hear of Jesus, the Time-Traveling God. For he can go to the moment the addictions (drugs, pornography, praise, food, whatever) began and bring healing. He is mighty, we should let him show us his might.

Now all of this isn't to say that a person will not need to learn how to live in the freedom that Jesus gives, but, remember, we have entrusted our lives: past, present, and future to him. With him and the community of disciples, we will learn how to live in the freedom and power of God. In Psalm 31:14-15, King David says to the Lord, "But I trust in you, O Lord; I say, 'You are my God.' My times are in your hand; deliver me from the hand of my enemies and persecutors."

"My times are in your hand." Timesssssss. Past, Present, and Future.

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