I was having lunch with a friend yesterday and enjoying the laughter when it happened. I spilled the last bite of loaded potato soup down the front of my blouse. I hate doing that. I feel so klutzy when I spill and drop food and drink on my clothes. Especially since I intended to wear that blouse into the evening meeting I had scheduled. All I could think about was the stain I was wearing; it began to define me.

At home I changed blouses and dropped the soiled, dirty blouse into the laundry. I have plenty of products for stain removal and spot cleaning laundry. It has been part of my regimen for a long time. In fact, I am not alone. The average family spends $854 a year on cleaning products. The grocery store shelves are lined with cleaning products for every imaginable need. There is a desire within all of us to deal with the stains, the dirt and the mistakes that define us. We want to be clean and we cling to the hope that there is a way to redeem the mess we have made.

Spiritually this is true also. Sometimes we don’t have as much hope for a spiritual cleansing as we do for a natural cleansing. We think the stain is too deep and the dirt is too ground in. Often when I share God’s forgiveness with a person they reply, “But you don’t know what I’ve done.” They have become defined by the sin stains of life and they have little hope that cleansing can be realized.

This is a wrong mindset because the scripture clearly states otherwise. Consider the following passages that reference cleansing and restoration.

Psalm 51:7-10 (NLT) “Purify me from my sins, and I will be clean; wash me and I will be whiter than snow. Oh, give me back my joy again; you have broken me — now let me rejoice. Don’t keep looking at my sins. Remove the stain of my guilt. Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me.” King David cried out to God for forgiveness and cleansing from adultery and murder. God answered.

Isaiah 1:18 (NLT) “Come now, let’s settle this,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, I will make them as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, I will make them as white as wool.”

I John 1:7-9 (NLT) “But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.”

These are but a few of the scriptures that share the hope and the certainty of spiritual cleansing. The gospel, “good news” is synonymous with stain removal and restoration. It is the reason Jesus came to this earth; to be the final sacrifice for our sins.

Natalie Grant, one of my favorite contemporary Christian artists, explains it this way in her song, “Clean”.

I see a shatter, you see whole

I see it broken, but you see beautiful

and you’re helping me to believe invented by Teads

you’re restoring me, piece by piece.

There’s nothing too dirty, that you can’t make worthy,

you wash me in mercy I am clean

there’s nothing too dirty, that you can’t make worthy,

you wash me in mercy

I am clean

What was dead now lives again

my hearts beating, beating inside my chest

oh, I’m coming alive with joy and destiny

oh, cause you’re restoring me piece by piece,

oh, there’s nothing too dirty, that you can’t make worthy

you wash me in mercy

I am clean,

oh, yeah there’s nothing too dirty, that you can’t make worthy

you wash me in mercy

I am clean

Washed in the blood of your sacrifice

your blood flowed red and made me white

my dirty rags are purified,

I am clean

Washed in the blood of your sacrifice

your blood flowed red and made me white

my dirty rags are purified

I am clean, I am clean,

oh, washed in the blood of your sacrifice

your blood flowed red and made me white

my dirty rags are purified

I am clean, I am clean, I’m clean

Oh You made me, You washed me clean. You made me clean.

There’s no better way to start the new year than with the revelation that the blood of Jesus cleanses our sins stains. We have a new joy and a new destiny in Christ.