Let there be Light

"But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin." 1 John 1:7

So, have you ever gone into a restroom at a restaurant or in a train station and washed your hands? You've obviously done something that has caused you to "feel" dirty, or you have been made aware that your hands are dirty. With this knowledge, you go to the sink, turn on the water, get some soap, and scrub away the germs and filth on your hands. You put great effort into cleaning each finger, the palms, the tops, and even under the nails to ensure that you have removed the dirt. Once you are sure that your hands are clean, you rinse away all that remains down the drain; now you are clean! Immediately, you turn to the paper towel dispenser, reach out with your now clean hand, and push the lever to dispense a paper towel to dry your hands. A nice brown thin strip of cardboard appears before you to the length of your desire. You are now free to reach forward, tear it off, and finish cleansing your hands and return to your business.

The problem with this is that as soon as you touched the dispenser, you were dirty again. Germs, bacteria, and who knows what else, are on that handle! All of your effort was in vane. Your scrubbing, your rinsing, your meticulous grooming is all for nothing because you are instantly dirty again in spite of your own efforts to stay clean! But there is hope!

While in a rest room the other day; the Lord showed me something! After I washed my hands, I turned to get a paper towel to dry off. It was an automatic dispenser. All I had to do is wave my clean hand in front of a little red light and it gave me a clean, white, perfectly sized piece of clean paper towel! When this happened I instantly thought of Jesus!

You see, under the law we can work all we want and try as hard as we can to "wash" away our sin, but it's just not good enough. The result, of our own effort, is a filthy mess to God. Like the brown paper towel, it did something, but not enough. When we surrender to Christ's cleansing sacrifice on the cross however, it is perfect. It is a gift, it is given to us, not pulled from Him! All we have to do is wave our hands (hearts & minds) under the blood of Christ and instantly we are given the exact amount we need! We are dispensed a clean, perfectly sized, white robe of righteousness from the healing power of the blood of the Lamb!

While we do need to do some work to clean the "germs" out of our lives, we must realize that it is only the healing power of Christ's redemptive blood that truly keeps us clean! Our sin only allows the grace of Christ to SUPER-ABOUND in our lives! So next time you go to a public bathroom, watch out, because God may just be waiting in there to show you something!