February 4
February 4
By the loving miracle of God’s grace, unclean hearts are made new and pure.
Leviticus 13:45–46 says, “The leprous person who has the disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head hang loose, and he shall cover his upper lip and cry out, ‘Unclean, unclean.’ He shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease. He is unclean. He shall live alone. His dwelling shall be outside the camp.” These words remind me of David’s prayer after committing adultery: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, / and renew a right spirit within me” (Ps. 51:10). Although the laws surrounding leprosy had to do with God’s lovingly and wisely protecting his people from a deadly infection, they also point us to something profoundly deeper.
Sin is the ultimate infection. No one escapes this disease. It renders us all unclean. It separates us all from our Maker. It cries out for the ultimate cure, one only the Messiah can provide.
Like a bad stain
on white linen,
like a black smudge
on pure vellum,
like wine spilled
on a new dress,
like paint drips
on window glass,
like mud
on a new shoe,
this stain won’t just go away.
It won’t fade into
nothing.
You won’t wake up one
morning to discover
it has suddenly
disappeared.
The deepest, darkest,
most penetrating
stubborn stains
must be cleansed.
Denying that they’re there
never works.
Doing your best to hide them
doesn’t remove them.
Living with them
is foolishness.
Hoping no one will notice
is vain.
Worrying about them
changes nothing.
Whatever has been stained
must be cleansed
to be new again.
So it is with the human heart.
It is sad to admit,
but no one has a
pure,
perfectly clean,
unstained,
pristinely beautiful,
heart.
No one.
Every heart of
every person
comes into this world
stained by sin.
Sin is immorality’s
permanent ink,
sinking into the deepest regions
of the thoughts,
desires,
motives,
purposes,
worship
of the heart.
This tragic sin stain is
humanly unremovable.
No matter what you try,
no matter how many times you try,
it is there to stay
without something that has
cleansing power.
You can look at your stains with hope
because
there is a cleansing stream.
It flows through the righteous life,
the substitutionary sacrifice,
the victorious resurrection of
Jesus.
He came so that sin-stained hearts
would have the hope
of being clean again,
new again,
spotless in his sight again,
ultimately pure again,
forever.
If we confess that we are
stained,
he is faithful,
he is righteous,
he will forgive our sins,
he will cleanse our hearts
and thoroughly wash us
from all unrighteousness.
Step out from the shame of your
stains.
Refuse to put your hope in things
that do not cleanse.
Walk away from a life of
denial.
Confess that you have no
cleansing power of your own.
Quit blaming your stains on
other people,
other things.
Humbly bring the garment of
your heart
to him.
Put your stains in his hands.
He will wash you in his grace.
He delights in doing for you
what you could never do for
yourself.
He delights in making you
clean.