We Are Clean!
On this Easter weekend I am reminded of many things. The sacrifice my Savior made so that I may be wiped clean from all my guilt and shame. The excruciating pain that my Creator placed upon His Son that was mine to endure. The fact that I may now freely approach the throne of an Almighty God and be embraced by Him and to be called His daughter.
A lot of things have been going through my mind this Easter Weekend.
It might seem odd, but I get it now. I get Easter. It took me almost 22 years of being in the church to actually understand it. Easter is not an excuse for me to eat those delicious peanut butter and chocolate Reese eggs or Cadbury Mini Eggs. Easter is about something much, much bigger.
A few days ago I was looking through an old journal from my time in the Middle East three years ago and found the words of 1 Corinthians 5:54-55 messily written across the page
"Death is swallowed up in victory.
Oh Death where is your victory?
Oh Death, where is your sting?"
(I've written an entire blog post on the song inspired by those verses last year which you can read here if you're so inclined)Those verses have always been quite powerful to me. Christ's work on the cross has removed all the power that death had over us. Because of His death we no longer die. Yes we die to sin, and yes are to die to our old habits and sinful ways but we no longer have to fear death. Because of His death and because of His resurrection three days later and because He is alive and sitting at the right hand of the Father we are no longer dead but alive and we can face tomorrow with that assurance.
Because of Christ's work on the cross our sins are no longer remembered by the Father. They are blotted out from God's mind. Our slate is wiped clean. We are no longer seen as worthless, filthy rags but as beautiful garments worthy of the King.
We are clean!
Take a minute and rest on that truth. We are clean.
Think of all the horrible things you've done in your life. I know for myself I don't have to think that hard. We all have those horrible things that we regret. Those things that if we had the power we would not hesitate to undo. But we no longer need to be ashamed of what we've done and how we've failed. The Father no longer sees us like that. We are as clean as Christ when He walked this earth two thousand years ago.
We know how the story ends. Christ has won! We know that He is not in the tomb as the angel told the women who went there, "He is not here, for he has risen!"
He has risen indeed!
He is alive!
Death has no sting. Death has no victory.
We are no longer bound our sin. We are clean.
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