Monday, July 12, 2021

1 Corinthians 6:11

Our Life Lifter today comes from 1 Corinthians 6:11. The Apostle Paul had told the people there in Corinth that some of them were sexually immoral, some of them were thieves, they were greedy. Some of them were slanderers, swindlers, and drunkards. He painted the blackest picture he could of who they were and what they were like. But then he tells them this, "And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God."

What he was telling them was that even though they were dirty with all of this sin, they had been washed by God. I remember a commercial some years ago for a famous detergent. The wife in the picture was constantly trying to clean her husband's shirt. His neckline was constantly dirty, and she was trying to wash it out, scrub it out, clean it out. And I remember a comedian on television saying to the wife, "Why are you scrubbing that shirt? Tell that filthy man to clean his neck!" Well, when God cleans something, or when you are cleaned and washed in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, how many of you know that that washing is clean, and pure, and without spot? Some of you who used to be these evil people have been washed clean by Christ Jesus. All of us who have put our faith in Christ Jesus for our salvation and the forgiveness of our sins have been washed clean by Christ, and through the spirit of our God. We have been sanctified, which means we've been made holy. That's a difficult one to believe because typically we don't think of ourselves as being holy. But what has happened is when we came to Christ Jesus, that old life, and all of those things that made us up and defined who we were, those things are gone. We have now been made holy in Christ Jesus. And we have been justified. We have been declared not guilty, not simply because God declared us not guilty, but because he made us not guilty in Christ Jesus.

That is really good news. What the language of this particular text of Scripture says is that in Jesus Christ, and by his Holy Spirit we have been made all of these things right now, we have been washed, we have been sanctified, we have been justified in Christ Jesus. That means no matter what has happened to you, no matter how you have sinned in the past, even yesterday, or today, or even in the future, you've been washed, you've been sanctified and made holy. You've been justified because of your faith in Christ Jesus, and by his Holy Spirit.  No matter how you think you failed, because you're in Christ, all of these good things are true of you. Therefore, when you look at your life now, and throughout this day, you can go throughout it rejoicing in Christ Jesus because of what he's done for you. And my hope for you today is that because you go rejoicing, because you realize what Christ has done for you, it will be that lift for your day.