Dust Free, Debt Free

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.—1 John 1:9

Really?  I just dusted two days ago!  And there it was—sunbeams penetrating the blinds bringing it to light—a trail of dust once again making its home on my picture table.

I abhor dusting—all that moving items to dust beneath and then dusting the items themselves.  I guess that’s why it’s always at the bottom of my list.  But I knew I couldn’t put it off any longer and set out to conquer the thick coating on my furniture. What a chore it was dusting all those picture frames.  And now to have the dust return in two short days makes my work seem in vain. 

What is dust anyway?  While some may disagree, others say that dust is chiefly made of human skin.  But whether it is the chief ingredient or not, it is certainly an ingredient—along with hair follicles, fabric fibers, pet dander, pollen, insect husks, pollutants, and the list goes on.  Dust is a product of living.

Dust and living were connected at the beginning of time.  The book of Genesis explains “the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being” (2:7).

So I’m responsible for all this dust? It would seem so.  Dust leaves behind a trail of dust. Try as hard as I might, I will never live dust free.

Trying to clean up my dust is like trying to clean up my sin. I may work real hard and think I’ve done a good job, but once the Light breaks through my blinders the truth is revealed.  Sin remains.  I can never work hard enough to live sin free.

When Adam and Eve sinned, they tried to clean up by covering up—with fig leaves. But they could not hide anything from God. Neither can we.  We cannot cover up nor clean up good enough to eradicate sin and its destructive trail from our lives.  We cannot work hard enough to wipe it out.

“All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away” (Isaiah 64:6).

All my attempts at cleaning up my sin—all my hard work and righteous deeds—are like my attempts at eliminating the dust from my picture table. 

Matthew Henry says, “Our deeds, whatever they may seem to be, if we think to merit by them at God's hand, are as rags, and will not cover us; filthy rags, and will but defile us.”

I swipe the dust.  And what remains?  A filthy rag. I swipe again, and the filthy rag leaves but a defiling trail of dust in its wake.  My efforts are in vain.

But there is a solution.

The shedding of blood. Okay, before you check out, hear me out.

The writer of Hebrews explains that “without shedding of blood there is no remission" (9:22).

God instituted the blood sacrifice for the remission of our sins in the Garden of Eden. “The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them” (Genesis 3:21). Obviously, God sacrificed animals in order to use their skin.

Throughout the Old Testament, we read about blood sacrifices for the atonement of sin in accordance with the first covenant.

Then Jesus came.  And He said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will” (Hebrews 10:9).  Jesus came to do the will of the Father.  He came to be the blood sacrifice for our sin.

“And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Hebrews 10:10).

Once and for all, sin free. A slate wiped clean. All for the asking. All for confessing.

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

His invitation is waiting.

"Come now, let us settle the matter," says the LORD. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool” (Isaiah 1:18).

Come now, to the table. Let us settle the matter today. Let us confess our sins and accept the Lord’s forgiveness, once and for all. A table—a slate wiped clean.  Picture-perfect.

Dear Father, thank You for sacrificing Your One and Only Son (John 3:16) for the remission of my sins.  Thank You for Your forgiveness and the gift of eternal life. Amen.

He paid a debt He did not owe;

I owed a debt I could not pay;

I needed someone to wash my sins away.

And, now, I sing a brand new song,

“Amazing Grace” all day long,

Christ Jesus paid a debt that I could never pay.

—Ellis J. Crum