We have been cleaned

Today's readings
Tomorrow's readings

"For a majority of the people, many of them from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun, had not cleansed themselves, yet they ate the Passover otherwise than as prescribed. For Hezekiah had prayed for them, saying, “May the good Lord pardon everyone who sets his heart to seek God, the Lord, the God of his fathers, even though not according to the sanctuary's rules of cleanness.” And the Lord heard Hezekiah and healed the people. " 2 Chron 30:18-20

I have been thinking about salvation a lot the last few weeks as I have been preparing for my teaching at the church I attend. Specifically I have been thinking and meditating on the fact that we (I) resist talking about being clean and being unclean. Not in the sense of the OT unclean with its ritualistic nature but being unclean in spirit through our sinfulness. There is something to be said to talking bluntly among ourselves about our sins. So often I hear people say things like "it was just a little white lie" and "I only took paper and pencils from my job for my kids to go back to school, no one misses that stuff". The fact of the matter is that we lie and steal all the time. But we dont want to talk about that because we try to make ourselves better than we are and definitely better than that tax collector over there. And we appear unclean before the Lord again and again and console ourselves with the fact that we really are not that bad and we are saved arent we? Yes we are saved and praise be to God that we are. But we are also sinful and to try to diminish that is not only to cause harm to us and those around us but to cheapen God's Grace as well. God's Grace is a wonderful awesome thing and not something that is a bandaid for the minor cuts that we think we have. It is the only thing able to raise us from the dead, which we were apart from Christ. And so we continue to appear unclean and think that there is nothing wrong with that, building incense altars all around us and saying "well everyone else is doing it". We should be brought to our knees with tears in our eyes when we look at what we do each and every day: not from our perspective but from His. And like the Scripture quoted above we have hope. If we confess our sins than God will forgive us. Our penalty has been paid in full and we can rejoice that it is so. This is hard stuff to deal with but God has shown us that the ransom has been given. We need to do our part and realize who and what we are and thank Him for His Mercy.