Do I Have to Wash Up First?!?!
Sep 16 2022 - Adam Seitz
Certain accidents of my children are seared into my memory. One winter I took my daughter to one of Kansas City’s best sledding hills. It was her first time sledding so I was cautious but, after a few trial runs, I set her off down the hill on her own. Big mistake. She was so light weight there was no friction to slow her down and I watched the whole thing like it was in slow motion. Down the hill at breakneck speed, through the flat area where everyone else slowed to a stop, and directly towards the street where a Jeep was parked. BAM! She hit the Jeep directly with her face and, by the time I untangled her from the Jeep’s undercarriage, I could see lots of blood and deep cuts to her face. Similarly, my son was riding a Hot Wheels bike one day when he flipped over the front and landed on his face. He hit the ground HARD right on the bottom of his jaw. Once the blood was cleaned up we could see the force of the crash had made him bite through his bottom lip, which was now barely hanging on.
The question of what to do in these situations is easy. You go to the hospital. Don’t pass go. Don’t go home. Don’t do anything except rush to the hospital. As my kids were crying I kept telling them, “we’re going to the hospital, the doctor will be able to make this all better.” It provided a measure of comfort to my kids to know help was coming and they welcomed the help to come. Not once did my son or daughter ever suggest “I can’t go to the hospital until I clean myself up…you know…try to get these injuries cleaned up first before I see a doctor.” What an absurd thought that my kids would refuse to get help until they cleaned up and “fixed” the very thing they were utterly incapable of fixing themselves! But when it comes to bringing our messy life to Jesus to lay at his feet and cry out for help, this absurdity becomes the reality.
Men, how often have you thought “I can’t give my life to Christ, I need to fix this porn problem first.” Women, how common is the thought that “Jesus won’t take me as I am. I don’t even love myself. How could God love me until I get my head right?” The thought that we need to fix our problems before we come to God is pervasive and, ultimately, sinful. Why is it sinful? Because a stubborn sense of pride is at the center of these thoughts. We make ourselves god and then decide what standards we would apply for how “clean” someone would have to be before approaching us. But God is nothing like this! Instead, God knows “it is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.” (Matthew 9:12). And God welcomes us in our sickness when we come to Him with a heart that knows we are doomed without Him.
In the book of Zechariah, the prophet is shown a vision of the high priest Joshua, who has been brought before God in his throne room. (Zechariah 3). Satan also is there, “standing at his right hand to accuse him” and he has LOTS with which to accuse Joshua! You see, Joshua was standing before the Lord’s perfect, holy, untouchable throne covered in “filthy garments.” These filthy garments weren’t just grass stained robes. No, not even close. The Hebrew word that is used here for “filthy” is one of the strongest words in the Hebrew language for an utterly vile and loathsome character. Joshua, the high priest of the Lord, was utterly unworthy of God and had done nothing to clean himself up. And Satan was right there doing what he does best—accusing us of being unworthy to serve God and unfit to even stand before Him. But God reminds Satan who is in charge and then turns the entire situation on its head.
Instead of telling Joshua to “come back when he’s clean,” God commands the angels to “remove the filthy garments from him.” Then the unthinkable happens! God tells Joshua “behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments.” (Zechariah 3:4-5). Joshua didn’t just have his vileness removed. No, God is far bigger and more merciful than that. In addition to removing his vileness, God clothed Joshua in God’s own garments. In other words, God removed Joshua’s sin and gave him God’s own righteousness! Sound familiar? It should. It’s the story of the prodigal son in Luke 15 where the son returns a filthy, poor beggar. Instead of telling him to “wash up first,” the Father greets him with hugs and kisses, and clothes the dirty son in his own robes and jewelry. This is the great (and unthinkable) exchange of the Gospel! Our sin for God’s righteousness!
“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)
For those of you who think you need to clean yourselves up before you go to God, do you see what God is telling you? He cleans you up! He takes our sin away. And when He’s done cleaning you up, then He clothes you in His own righteousness! The thought that we need to clean ourselves first before God will accept us is nothing more than a lie from Satan himself. Stop buying the lie and come now, just as you are, to the God who heals all! God will take care of the rest.