A common idea among Christians is that Jesus came and wiped our slate clean, washed us of our iniquities, cleaned us with his blood. It was recently pointed out to me that that's not really accurate, or at least it's incomplete, through a communion message by Mark Suyat (I hope I spelled that right, Mark), our new campus minister.
He used 2 Corinthians 5:16-21:
From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
You see, God didn't simply wipe sin from our slate clean of the sin we had carved into it, leaving it blank, clean and feature less. Not only has the old passed away, the new has come and we have become the righteousness of God. So, after wiping our sin off of our slate, making it clean as it was when we were born, he then wrote in the deeds of Jesus, filling it up with his righteousness and goodness, so that when he looks down, he doesn't see our broken, sinful selves, or even a sparkling clean soul with no sin, but no righteousness either. Instead, when he looks upon us, he sees in us the goodness of his own Son, with His righteousness infused into our very soul through our contact with his blood.
How amazing is that! I mean, a clean slate is more than we deserve and plenty to rejoice about, but it wasn't good enough for God. He strove not to simply give us a new start, because, frankly, even with a million chances to start fresh, we'll fail to finish well. Knowing our weakness, he erased our past and filled in our future with the good deeds of Jesus, providing us with a fresh start and the perfect ending as well.
I often think about 1John 1:9 from the Amplified bible:
If we [freely] admit that we have sinned and confess our sins, He is faithful and just (true to His own nature and promises) and will forgive our sins [dismiss our lawlessness] and [continuously] cleanse us from all unrighteousness [everything not in conformity to His will in purpose, thought, and action].
I love that the cleansing is a continuous one even when we do not know we have sinned He is faithful to cleanse us from it.
Hi Doug,
I know this post goes back a bit - first time I've looked at your blog in a very long time.
Anyway, for a very different take on that passage, you may find this article worth a read:
http://www.ntwrightpage.com/Wright_Becoming_Righteousness.pdf
In Him,
Mick
Hey Mick, long time. Haven't been around your place in a while either.
I gave that link a quick look and my eyes started to glaze over. Seemed over my head, but maybe when I get more time I'll dive into it. Thanks for sharing it.