Finally Clean

  

Salespeople don’t usually do well at my house. They hardly start their pitch before I turn on my plastic smile, say I’m not interested, and close the door. This time, though, things were different. I’m not sure why they guy got past my front door, but I can tell you what convinced me I needed his product. It was the dirt.

 

I thought my rug was clean. I vacuumed it once a week and swept the heavily trafficked areas more often. But when I ran my top-of-the-line department store vacuum cleaner over the carpet and the salesman did the same with his machine, I almost gagged when he showed me hair, grit and who-knows-what-else my machine left behind. I attacked two other areas, just to satisfy myself it wasn’t a fluke. It wasn’t.

 

I bought his machine on the spot.

 

That evening, as I brooded over the realization I’d been living for decades with so much hidden filth, my thoughts turned to a spiritual parallel.

 

For years, I'd presumed I was clean. When I did something wrong, I usually washed my conscience with self-rebuke. And when I compared myself with others, my life seemed as clean as the next person’s. Maybe cleaner.

 

Then one day Jesus knocked on my heart’s door, and I was sickened when He showed me how dirty I really was. My slanders, thefts, lies, sexual sins, drug abuse . . . . The list of secret (and not-so-secret) sins stuck hard in my throat. I’d thought I was doing well, but He uncovered the truth. I thought I was in good shape, but He showed me I was poor, wretched, miserable, naked, and blind. For years I’d been attempting to clean myself with religious practices, top-of-the-line philosophies, and doing good works that made me feel good. But I couldn’t see the dirt beneath the surface.

 

When I caught a glimpse of how God saw my life, I immediately fell to my knees and repented for every smear and grain of dirt I could remember. And it was then I received Christ’s priceless cleansing and forgiveness.

Finally clean!

 

But that’s not all. From that day forward, as I have walked with Him in faith and repentance, His blood has continued to wash me, making me as clean in His sight as a mountain top stream.

 

Scripture is so clear I don’t understand how anyone ever misses it. Nothing can wash away our sin – not religious rituals, or good works, or self-rebuke, or philosophies. Nothing can make us clean in God's sight – nothing but the blood of Jesus.