A New Clean Room
- Sin Has Been Removed As Jesus Has Made Us Clean
Written by Eileen R. Jacobs
“Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” - 2 Corinthians 5:17
It's 31 degrees and the snow is climbing around your ankles. You walk with care as you scuff the snow away from your feet in order to create a return path. Such a wintry scene is great to imagine in the middle of a hot summer. I'm cooling down already! However, the image more closely relates to my experience of trying to traverse my daughters' messy bedroom.
I was ankle-deep in toys just trying to swoosh a clear path to get to the dresser to put away clothes. I managed to cross the room without breaking anything, of my own, that is! As I finished my mission and prepared to make my way back, I saw visions of crossing the Red Sea with a great wall of toys on either side. "We need to talk about getting this room clean, girls!" was my response. What a mess!
I took the girls back to their room to show them the mess that they should have already been aware of. It's amazing how we can become blind to the conditions before us or completely overwhelmed by them. All three of us stood in the doorway stifled by the degree of clean-up required. Where do we start?
Many times I've taken an honest inventory of the messes in my own life and stood bewildered. How do I clean this up? Where do I start? I’m too deep into this mess! Perhaps you can relate. Most people are just as burdened with messes in life, as they would be in a messy room.
The good news is that God took the messy rooms of my life and cleaned them Himself.
“Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols.
Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.
You will live in the land that I gave to your forefathers; so you will be My people, and I will be your God.” - Ezekiel 36:25-28
Notice all the times that God says, "I will." He did all the work in cleaning my messed up life. He did not require me to clean up my own mess. He did it all for me. You might be asking, “How did He do it?” In His great love, He sent His Son to be the Savior of the World; to shed His precious blood; to take my messes, my sin and yours, upon Himself.
“He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” - 2 Corinthians 5:21
He took my sin and my punishment, so that I could have His righteousness. I am righteous today because He gave me His righteousness. What an awesome Divine exchange.
But you might say, “What about the mess I still see in my life? There are still broken relationships I'm dealing with. There are still temptations I succumb to. I still feel depressed.” The answer is...stop looking at the mess! Yes, that’s right, take your eyes off of yourself and all the messes, and look intently at Jesus and behold Him; look instead at all He has done to set you free from the messes of life.
The Bible tells us that if we behold Jesus, and look at what He has already finished as verified in the Word of God, instead of looking to ourselves to clean our own messes, we will be changed into the likeness of His glory. We become as righteous and holy as He is. It happens automatically when you believe, by faith, that in Jesus Christ, righteousness comes as a gift. (Romans 5:17, Philippians 3:9) The only effort we exert is to believe what the Word declares and to "behold Him." ("Beholding" is defined as: to gaze with wide eyes, like at something remarkable.) Looking at Jesus in the Word is like looking in the mirror. You look and you see Jesus in all His glory, how remarkable He is, what He is like and what He does, then you discover that you’re looking at yourself in Him. That’s when everything changes!
“But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.” - 2 Corinthians 3:18
The moment we take our eyes off of ourselves and start looking intently at Jesus in His Word, He will show Himself personally to us. The truth of His finished work on the cross, His shed blood, and His resurrection power will become real in our lives, touching every area that needs His grace. Transformation does take time, but it does not come by our own efforts. You can't read a book or take a class on how to fix your life. You can't try to obey the 10 Commandments in order to set things right either. Transformation begins when we recognize our need for a Savior. He has already redeemed every area of our life by the shedding of His blood. We simply need to believe the good news and receive His grace.
When I looked in to see that my girls were helpless to get their room clean, I decided to do it for them. When they came in to discover their room had been cleaned completely and everything was in perfect order, the joy and excitement we shared together was totally worth it. Jesus cleaned up the messes in our lives by taking them to the cross, burying them, and giving us a brand new life: His life. In Ezekiel 36:25-28 (above), we learn that God gave us a brand new heart: His heart. He gave us a brand new spirit: His Spirit. In a sense, He cut off our messy room from the house and built us a brand new room altogether. You see, Jesus has made it possible for us to be completely clean and living life in a totally new and refreshing way, with power and love from His heart and His Spirit. Now who wouldn’t want to get all excited and believe God for that!
Now that, dear friends, is GRACE!
“And I pray that the fellowship of your faith may become effective through the knowledge of every good thing which is in you for Christ's sake.” - Philemon 1:6
“Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” - 2 Corinthians 5:17
written by
Eileen R. Jacobs (August 2009)
Copyright © 2009 Eileen Jacobs Ministries. All rights reserved.
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