Use Your 'Sanitizer' Today?

In this Spiritual Life UPGRADE, Dawn Wilson asks us to consider how God "sanitizes" us, and whether we are willing to come to him for that cleansing process.

With the Coronavirus, fear has gripped many hearts. Doctors urge people to wash their hands for at least 20 seconds with soap and water, and when that's not possible, to use hand sanitizer gels.

As I used my hand sanitizer yesterday while out in public, I had this thought:

"Everyone is so concerned about protecting themselves from the virus. Wouldn't it be wonderful if Christians were as concerned about protecting themselves from sin?"

Our heart, the Bible says, is "desperately sick" (Jeremiah 17:9))—desperately wicked and humanly beyond cure. We are all sin-sick from birth and cannot meet His holy, glorious standard (Romans 3:23),

Our heart before God is the issue.

We need to seek and know Him, and follow His plan for transforming our heart—first, in salvation, and second, in sanctification.

1. We Need to Be Cleansed in the Blood of Jesus.

This is all about our salvation and our position in Christ.

Again, no attempts at self-improvement work when it comes to our "sin problem" (Ephesians 2:8-9). It's not by "works of righteousness" (Titus 3:5-7) that we are cleansed in God's sight.

Our cleansing is all about God's mercy and grace!

It is the blood of Jesus that "cleanses us from sin" (1 Peter 1:19). We need to receive what He accomplished for us on the cross.

Old Testament Jewish saints followed God's strict laws for purity and cleansing (Isaiah 1:16), but they needed cleansing that went far beyond keeping the law.

God wanted His people to understand the state of their hearts.

They needed new hearts!

Their inability to keep all the law reminded them to look forward in faith to the coming Messiah. And the Messiah finally came.

Jesus did what no one else could do. He lived righteously, keeping all the law (Hebrews 4:15; 2 Corinthians 5:21)—allowing Him to be our sinless Savior (Romans 8:3-10; 10:3-4). He established a way to be right with God (Hebrews 9:13-14), and our conscience was cleansed so we can "serve the living God."

When God cleanses us in Christ—when we call on Jesus' name for salvation—we are pronounced ceremonially clean (Titus 2:14; 3:5). We are declared righteous in Him (Colossians 2:14; 2 Corinthians 5:21).

That is what happens at our moment of salvation. We are right with God. Our standing before Him is changed forever, because when He looks at us, He sees our Mediator, Jesus (1 Timothy 2:5; Acts 4:12). We have eternal life with God (John 3:16-18).

Our sins are "washed away" (Acts 2:21; 22:16)

Have you ever watched the joy of baptism? The person being baptized smiles and sometimes even jumps with joy in the baptistry! Baptism is a outward picture of what has already happened within us. In God's sight, we are now "whiter than snow" (Isaiah 1:18; Psalm 51:7).

2. We Need to Be Cleansed by the Word and Spirit

This is all about our continuing sanctification, or being made holy like Jesus—conformed (Romans 8:29) to His righteousness. If we say we are alive and abiding in Christ, we should be walking like Him, imitating Him (1 John 2:6; Ephesians 5:1; 2 Corinthians 5:17).

There are different kinds of contagious "viruses" that spread too easily among Christians—sins like greed, gossip, grumbling and a graceless spirit, to name a few!

This should not be.

Until we go to live with the Lord in eternity future—where our righteous Judge has already declared us justified (Romans 8:33)—we will still struggle with temptations and the ugly presence of sin in our lives on earth.

We need to be working out the salvation that God has already worked in, in Christ (Philippians 2:12).

Think about it.

A hand sanitizer does nothing for us when it sits in our glove compartment, pocket or purse. We need to take it up and use it.

We need cleansing DAILY!

We need to wash our hearts every day with the "sanitizing" power of the Word of God—reading it, meditating on it, delighting in it and memorizing it (Psalm 51:10; Psalm 119:9-16).

The Holy Spirit—who moved on men to write God's Word (2 Peter 1:20-21)—will continue to use scripture to clean up and protect our thoughts, attitudes, conversations and behavior (1 Corinthians 2:9-16; John 16:12-13).

As we saturate our lives with God's Word, we begin to have the desire to live out in our lives practically what God has already declared positionally (2 Peter 3:18; 1 John 3:3). We learn to walk in "the light" (1 John 1:7), and the power of Jesus' sacrifice continues to cleanse us. We are increasingly transformed in our thinking and conduct (Romans 12:1-2).

God has provided for daily forgiveness as part of that cleansing (1 John 1:9), and the indwelling Holy Spirit teaches us (John 14:26) how to walk in the Word, will and ways of Father God.

Have you used your spiritual "sanitizer" today? If not, why not?

Dawn Wilson, founder and President of Heart Choices Today, is a speaker and author, and the creator the blog, Upgrade with Dawn. She is a contracted researcher/reviewer for women's teacher and revivalist, Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, at Revive Our Hearts, a blogger at TrueWoman.com, writes wiki-type posts at  Christianity.com, and is a regular columnist at Crosswalk.com. She and her husband Bob live in sunny Southern California, and Dawn has traveled with him in Pacesetter Global Outreach. They have two grown, married sons, three granddaughters and a rascally maltipoo, Roscoe.