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“And when God is personally present, a living Spirit, that old, constricting legislation is recognized as obsolete. We’re free of it! All of us! Nothing between us and God, our faces shining with the brightness of His face. And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like Him.” (2 Corinthians 3:17-18, The Message)
What is it about boys and mud? It attracts them like bees to honey! If there was any mud to be found in our back yard, my four boys would find it. They would never carefully step around a mud puddle. Oh no, they would stomp right into the middle of it! I can’t tell you how many times I would go out to the backyard and find them playing in a mud puddle and rubbing mud all over each other. They would often try to clean themselves before I found them but that only made matters worse. The only way to get them clean was to spray them down with a hose and get them into the bathtub for a good soak.
The problem was not that they had trouble getting dirty but that they were powerless to clean themselves up. Hence, spraying these muddy boys down was my job as their mother. Isn’t this true of our spiritual lives as well? We are plenty capable of getting ourselves dirty but are incapable of cleaning ourselves up; no matter how hard we try because that is God’s job.
Before we accepted Christ’s gift of salvation we were enemies of God. Our sin separated us from any type of relationship with Him. Scripture describes it as a “veil” between God and us. It’s like an impenetrable wall that we could do nothing to remove. Before the veil was torn, we were forever destined to live in the dirt and mud of our own making—separated from God.
But God in His mercy was not satisfied with leaving us to wallow in our dirt and mud. He desired for us to know Him and to have an intimate relationship with Him. So He sent His one and only Son to take on human form and live a perfect life, so that He could be the perfect sacrifice for us. Jesus took our place, bore our sin on the cross and made it possible for us to have an intimate, personal relationship with the God of the universe. The veil that separated us from God was removed!
In the Bible translation called The Message, we read in 2 Corinthians 3:16 that, “Whenever, though, they turn to face God as Moses did, God removes the veil and there they are—face-to-face! They suddenly recognize that God is a living, personal presence, not a piece of chiseled stone.” Do you see it? When we turn to God, we see that He is living!
God is living and active; He is not dead and obsolete. He doesn’t just watch us from a distance; He is intimately acquainted with all our ways. He is not a statue that we carry around from place to place or a god we have made in our image. He has come near to us because of the shed blood of Jesus Christ. This means there is absolutely nothing between God and us—Nothing!
When we invite Jesus Christ to come into our life and forgive our sin, His Spirit comes to dwell in us and He transforms us. He washes us clean of our dirt and grime and we become brighter and more beautiful than we’ve ever been before. All of this is possible not because of who we are but because of who He is!
Are you wallowing in the mud and dirt of your own making? Have you tried to clean yourself up and failed? Take heart, Jesus wants you to come to Him just the way you are. Come to Him, surrender your life to His work and allow Him to transform you from the inside out. It really is possible!
Father, Thank-you for sending Your one and only Son to take away my sin, my guilt and all my shame. Thank-you that I can turn to You and that when I do the veil is taken away. Lord, Thank-you that nothing can separate me from Your love because You have made a way. I choose to come to You right now even when I feel unworthy and unclean. Thank-you that by Your Spirit You make me clean. Thank-you for Your love that washes over the entirety of my life. In Jesus’ Name I pray, Amen
Questions: Are you tired of trying to clean yourself up? Do you think it’s impossible to be clean?
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