One recent afternoon I was doing a little craft project for which I used a hot glue gun. The glue stuck to my fingers, along with the matted residue of what I was gluing, making quite a mess of my hands!
It reminded me of the time I was using superglue as a kid, and the nozzle was clogged. Naturally, I used a pin to unclog it, but then the pin got stuck. It made sense to me to use my teeth to pull the pin out by its head. That worked like a charm, except the now-flowing glue went right up the pin to my teeth and lips, sealing them tight. If my parents ever had an opportunity, that was it! As it turned out my dad thought my ability to eat again was worth more than the newfound silence, and he freed me with the aid of acetone.
But back to my soiled and sticky hands. I looked up what would remove hot glue, and surprisingly, it was simply soap and water. A few minutes later, my hands were clean once again.
Water is called the universal solvent because no other liquid can dissolve more. It’s nice to have clean hands.
One Old Testament scripture agrees, saying:
Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD? And who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood and has not sworn deceitfully (Psalm 24:3-4).
I used to read that years ago and worry whether my hands were clean enough and my heart pure enough to approach God. Many struggle to believe God would talk to them because they see themselves as dirty and unworthy.
Faced with God’s holy presence, Isaiah called himself a man of unclean lips, and when Peter recognized Jesus’s miracle-working power, he fell at His feet and cried, “Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man!” (Isaiah 6:5, Luke 5:8).
But thank God, where there was a universal problem of sin and separation from Him, He provided a universal solvent–the blood of Christ. The good news of the gospel tells us that by accepting Jesus’s perfect sacrifice on our behalf, believers are forgiven their sins and made clean once and for all (Hebrews 10:2,10,14).
But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God (1 Corinthians 6:11b).
Once cleansed, you need never feel unclean again! As the old hymn declares, “Oh, the blood of Jesus, it washes white as snow!”
Will you mess up from time to time? Yes. But Jesus took care of that in advance by paying for every sin we would ever commit. That’s why He never condemns you (Romans 8:1). If you fall, just get right back up and thank God that He set you free from sin. Remind yourself of your new nature that looks like Jesus. That will influence the choices you make next.
You can always come boldly before the throne of grace because you’ve been washed and made acceptable to God. In His eyes, your hands are always clean.
