Revelation 22:14 talks about bathing, in a sense. It’s the
ticket to get inside the gate, to get the blessing, and to be made whole once
and for all.
You might think that this means that if you’ll just do enough
of the right things then God will take notice and let you into Heaven. Well,
there’s a problem with that – John 3:16. In that verse, we do see that God
loves the ones He invites to live with Him. But the only requirement is belief,
not good works. Romans 3:23 reminds us that we’ve all sinned and that keeps us
outside the city gates.
The futility of cleaning ourselves is evident in the physical
world. Sure, if you take a shower, you’ll be more presentable and probably have
more friends. But if you rely on one shower to last a week or even a month,
you’ll find that the effects of that washing are by no means permanent.
So am I saying you shouldn’t bathe? Hardly. Indeed, you
should. But when it comes to the spiritual world, the important cleansing, in
fact, all of the cleansing, God does - not you.
When you come before God and confess your sins, you tell the
truth because you sin daily. We all sin whether we trust God or not. The
difference between the believer and the nonbeliever is that he is more aware of
and sorry for his sin. The reason for that is that he has experienced the
all-sufficient grace of a loving God. This frees the believer to confess when
he has taken grace for granted and used it as a license for sin. It also frees
him to admit that he is weak and really does need Christ every hour, every
minute of the day.
The ones who get the blessing and enter the holy city are the
ones whom God washes. When they get there, they experience the depth of that
cleansing. The shackles of sin finally fall off forever. Temptation will be a
distant memory. Every act of people there will be uninhibited acts of worship
for a worthy and generous God.
And God will be nearer to them than ever – forever.
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