Nothing Like A Good Cleaning

“… cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”
– Hebrews 9:22 (NIV)

When I was in elementary school, I remember having our school nurse come to my class to discuss good dental hygiene. Every student was given a new toothbrush and a small sample size of toothpaste (all donated to the school by some toothpaste company). She also gave us some special little tablets that we could chew after brushing our teeth which would show us how well we cleaned our teeth during brushing. Through a demonstration with one of my classmates, the nurse showed that if we didn’t brush our teeth well, the little tablets would stain our teeth red. Apparently, my classmate didn’t brush his teeth very well because he grinned a bright red smile at the class to our delight.

What we learned was that we needed to do more than just go through the motions of brushing our teeth in order to get our teeth really clean. We needed to accept the instructions we were given by the nurse and follow the procedures in order to have clean and healthy teeth.

I am thankful that our lives, which are stained by sin, can be cleansed and made as white as snow, not because of following some religious rituals but because of accepting the cleansing that comes from what Jesus did for us on the cross.

The prophet Isaiah records an invitation by God to come to Him in order to be cleansed from sin. “‘Come, let’s talk this over,’ says the Lord, ‘no matter how deep the stain of your sins, I can take it out and make you as clean as freshly fallen snow. Even if you are stained as red as crimson, I can make you white as wool!’” (Isaiah 1:18 – Living Bible).

The writer of Hebrews describes the inadequacy of ritual sacrifice and how the death of Jesus Christ completely covered the requirements for the forgiveness of sins and the provision of salvation. The author writes, “If that animal blood and the other rituals of purification were effective in cleaning up certain matters of our religion and behavior, think how much more the blood of Christ cleans up our whole lives, inside and out. Through the Spirit, Christ offered himself as an unblemished sacrifice, freeing us from all those dead-end efforts to make ourselves respectable, so that we can live all out for God. … Everyone has to die once, then face the consequences. Christ’s death was also a one-time event, but it was a sacrifice that took care of sins forever. And so, when he next appears, the outcome for those eager to greet him is, precisely, salvation” (Hebrews 9:13-15, 27-28 – The Message).

Imagine what would happen in your life if there was some type of spiritual “tablet” you could take that exposed whether you were going through the motions of devotion and commitment to the Lord or if you had been thoroughly cleansed by blood of Jesus Christ? Ultimately, we will have to stand before the Lord and give an account of our lives based on what we did with Jesus (see Revelation 20:12-15). Only those who have trusted Jesus for forgiveness and salvation from sins will be with God for all time after this judgment (see Revelation 21:1-8, 27).

Praise God we can pray now to Him and ask Him to wash away our sins and make us clean through Jesus Christ. First John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (English Standard Version). And God promises, “I will cleanse them from all the sin they have committed against me and will forgive all their sins of rebellion against me” (Jeremiah 33:8 NIV). We can simply pray to God by faith what David prayed in Psalm 51: “Wash me clean from my guilt. Purify me from my sin. … Purify me from my sins, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow” (Psalms 51:2, 7 – New Living Translation).

To quote some of our hymns of the faith: “Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing power? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?” And, “Jesus paid it all, All to Him I owe, Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow.” Praise God we can receive a good and thorough cleaning from the stains of sin through Jesus Christ.