NEVER BACK TOGETHER

We Are Never, Ever, Ever . . .
"We are never, ever, ever getting back together…" — Taylor Swift

"Do not fear! Stand by and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will perform for you today; for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you will never see them again, ever. The Lord will fight for you, while you keep silent." — Exodus 14:13-14
 
Breakups can be tough. Just ask Taylor Swift.

For a while, our culture ran a joke that whenever Taylor broke up with someone, they'd end up immortalized in a song. One of those songs declares with absolute resolve that she is never, ever going back to someone she'd left behind.

I've only broken up with one person in my life. And I was so confident about it that I wrote in her yearbook, "You and your spouse will always be welcome in my home." That was Heather. The prophecy came true — I am welcome in my own home. God has a sense of humor, and I am deeply grateful for it and for my wife, Heather.
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While visiting our son in the Netherlands, I had the chance to hear a sermon on Exodus 14 — Israel's crossing of the Red Sea. As I read along, something hit me I hadn't noticed before. Moses tells the frightened Israelites that the Egyptians they see that day, they will never see again, ever.

Sounds like something Taylor might have written.

But Moses isn't talking about an ex. He's talking about everything that enslaved them.

The New Testament treats the Exodus as a picture of the Christian life. In 1 Corinthians 10:1-4, Paul says they were all under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all baptized into Moses, and all ate and drank the same spiritual food and drink — "for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ."

The pattern maps directly onto our experience:

• Released from slavery through the blood of the Passover lamb → We are freed from sin through the blood of Christ.
• Baptized through the Red Sea → Our identification with Christ in death and resurrection.
• Wandering in the wilderness → The carnal Christian, alive but not free.
• Entering the Promised Land → The believer who, through faith, walks in God's rest.                                  

In this picture, Egypt — and the Egyptians pursuing them — represents the sin that once enslaved us. And God's promise at the Red Sea is staggering: you will never see them again, ever.

That's not just relief. That's finality.

Colossians 2:14 puts it this way: Christ "canceled the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us, and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross."

Micah says God "will tread our iniquities under foot" and "cast all their sins into the depths of the sea." (Micah 7:19)

The depths of the sea. Just like what swallowed Pharaoh's army.

Your sin has been dealt with. Completely. Finally. God is not going to bring it back up — He has removed it "as far as the east is from the west" (Psalm 103:12). If you have trusted Christ, you are eternally forgiven. The Egyptians are gone.

But here's where the story gets uncomfortable.

The Exodus generation knew they were free — and still spent forty years wandering in the desert. Paul continues in 1 Corinthians 10:5: "Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased; for their dead bodies were spread out in the wilderness."

God's grace had freed them through the blood of the Passover lamb. The Red Sea had swallowed their enemy. And yet they spent the rest of their lives craving the food they had in Egypt. Because of their unbelief, everyone over twenty years old — except Joshua and Caleb — died without ever entering the rest God had prepared for them (Numbers 14:29-30).

They were free. They just never lived like it.

Here's the point: if you have trusted Christ, your sin is gone. You don't have to go back. You don't have to keep rehearsing it, feeding it, or living under its weight. At the judgment seat of Christ, anything built from "wood, hay, or straw" will be burned away, and what remains will be rewarded (1 Corinthians 3:11-15) — but your standing before God is as secure as the foundation it’s built on, which is Jesus (1 Corinthians 3:11).

The question isn't whether you're forgiven. The question is whether you're wandering.

You have been set free from slavery. The Egyptians are at the bottom of the sea. So stop looking back at the shore — and start walking toward the rest that can only be found in Christ.

Are you wandering in the wilderness, or are you pursuing the rest God has promised? You don't have to go back. You were never meant to.