Pure? But I feel so dirty. (Part 2)

Since God calls us pure, and we can’t oppose it (see our conversation yesterday: Part 1) then a deeper question swells. How does He call us pure, and how do we feel it?

As we stay connected to Rahab, I mentioned yesterday that she and her family were kept outside the camp for a prescribed time because they were “unclean” according to God’s laws. On this side of the Cross, we go from unclean to clean with salvation. And we are never allowed to call ourselves unclean again. All our impurities were laid on Jesus. Isaiah explained this as he described Jesus, the suffering Servant to come.

We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isa. 53:6)

While we were astray, going our own way, Jesus took on, wore, and became our impure sin. And, according to the truth in 2 Corinthians 5:21, when Jesus became sin for us, we became the righteousness of God. There is no unclean, impure, stained thing in the righteousness of God. So while Rahab had to wait outside the camp for a time under the old rules, that is not for you and me. We have been declared clean, and if God says it, then who are we to think we can oppose it?

You might ask, “How can God just call something pure? He just says it and that’s it? It seems too easy. I don’t know if I can just accept that. ‘God, do you know how bad my sin is?’” That was my cry, my concern, and the slippery sides of the pit I was trying to climb out of in my own strength. He reveals to us in Isaiah 53 that for Jesus, our purification was not easy. It was costly. It cost His torturous death on the cross. It took God’s strength to conquer death and raise Jesus out of the grave. (Isa. 40:10; 51:5; 53:1, 4-6; 59:16) God, being the truest of true, has no hesitation or trouble declaring truth. In fact that’s the only language He speaks. Because through Christ it is so very true, He can “easily” say, “You are pure.”

When we find out it’s as simple as the Gospel, sometimes we have trouble with that. Oh, in our heads we know it's right, but in our souls we silently struggle. Some of us think there has to be some sort of long journey of hard lessons and spiritual hard labor that earns us the heavenly title of pure.

Haven't we have labored under our own efforts long enough? Can we see where that got us? How many times have we stood looking in the mirror after a memory of sexual sin rushes through our minds and feeling the weight of our own uncleanness, trying hard to shake that feeling, or perhaps fully indulging it? Have you found yourself pierced, crushed, applying personal punishment, struggling with gaping wounds, the weight of sin heaped on you?

And yet, Jesus took all of that for us.

But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed. (Isaiah 53:5)

Do you believe that Jesus endured the hardest labor, the greatest humiliation, the worst bodily torture, the most vast separation and abandonment by the Father, and rose again? Do you believe then that we could do anything better or farther to be made and called pure?

What He explains in 1 Corinthians 1:26-30 brings together called pure and believing you’re pure so you can live pure. Read it with me.

Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things--and the things that are not--to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God--that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.

According to these verses, what or who did He choose?

Do you notice He doesn’t state what comes after the word “not”? I love that! He chose the things that were not pure and not clean. He chooses Rahabs like you and me to show off that He knows best what to call things, and how to make the “things that are not” the things they actually are in His eyes. And He can, because we are in Christ.

It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, Who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.

All of those things are pure. All of those things are you.

Is there blame or shame talk happening in your head which calls you impure or unclean? If you have trusted Christ as your Savior, then you have new strong words to refute that.

God says I am not allowed to call anything unclean or impure that has been made clean. In Christ, I have been made righteous, holy, and has been redeemed. That means clean and pure forever. There is no opposing God on this. I am pure.

Whenever accusations of “unclean” or “impure” come into your head or heart, you stand firm in Christ on this truth. When you put Truth over feelings again and again, you will silence the old feelings and begin to live—and feel—as you really are.

Pure.

Just another seed of my faith,

Ginny