I was reminded this morning of something that happened when our son was little. We had friends who owned a dairy. We took the kids down to see the new calves and were helping bottle feed the ones that couldn’t be fed by their mothers. Our son was running down the lane between the pens when he stumbled and fell.
When he stood up he was sobbing. I was concerned that he had hurt himself and I ran to see what was wrong. I got to him and he was looking at his hands saying “get it off”. His tears still flowing, I was trying not to laugh. He wasn’t hurt but he was distraught because his hands were dirty; they were covered with mud and other such things as you find in a calf yard.
Of course, we got him to the nearest water spigot and washed him up.
That’s the way it is when we come to Jesus.
I only washed our son’s hands but Jesus cleanses us completely.
“But if we live in the light, as God does, we share in life with each other. And the blood of his Son Jesus washes all our sins away.” I John 1:7 CEV
“The Law was given by Moses, but Jesus Christ brought us undeserved kindness and truth.” John 1:17 CEV
Both these verses were written by the same person, John. He wanted everyone to know that Jesus had washed ALL our sins away; we are cleansed because of what He did. He brought us undeserved kindness, or in other words Jesus brought us grace.
Every once in a while I find myself looking at my “dirty hands” and bursting in to tears. In fact, I used to let the dirt of my sins overwhelm me! But the more I studied God’s word, the more I learned about grace. And the more I learned about grace the more insight I got into the Father’s love.
I’ve been cleansed! God gave me His word to cleanse my thoughts of guilt.
“Sprinkled with the blood of Christ, our hearts have been made free from a guilty conscience, and our bodies have been washed with pure water. So come near to God with a sincere heart, full of confidence because of our faith in Christ. 23 We must hold on to the hope we have, never hesitating to tell people about it. We can trust God to do what he promised.” Hebrews 10:22-23 ERV
The cleansing agent that removes our sin is the blood of Jesus and grace is the washing that applies it to our hearts. We don’t have the power to clean our own lives but by grace we have been cleansed.
“I mean that you have been saved by grace because you believed. You did not save yourselves; it was a gift from God. 9 You are not saved by the things you have done, so there is nothing to boast about. ” Ephesians 2:8-9 ERV
Thank you Father for washing me with grace!