I Am Washed and Sanctified

But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. 1 Corinthians 6:11 (b)

Last week I found out that someone I have known my entire life, a relative that I was once very close to was saying very hurtful things about me behind my back.  I’m not talking hurtful as in she was making fun of my clothes or hair or even my personality.  She was speaking negatively against me as a mother.   I believe the words were, “….is a bad mother and she has no business mothering (insert my daughter’s name).”  Wait just a minute!  I haven’t spoken to this person in over a year!  “How dare they… “they don’t know what’s going on” … “they have their own issues to worry about” …These are the thoughts that have been going through my head since I found out about this wrong done against me.

“This wrong done against me.”  Hmm.  It would be considered gossip at the very least.  Gossip is a sin.   It’s not the first time someone has done something wrong against me.   It’s not even the first time someone has gossiped about me.  And gossip is a sin.   Let’s see…there has also been anger against me.  Quick to anger is a sin.  There has been pride thrown in the mix.  Pride is a sin. There has been adultery.   Adultery is a big sin.  I can so easily classify levels and varying degrees of sin.  Some are just barely a sin while others are really bad ones.

Luckily, it’s not up to me or anyone else on this earth to judge other’s sins.  I’ve got my own to worry about.  Wait, is worry a sin? I’ve been just as guilty as the next person when it comes to gossip, quick to anger, pride, envy and worry.  I have not been guilty of a “big sin” like murder, but it doesn’t matter to God.  It’s all the same to him.  My quick to anger is right up there with murder in His eyes. 

Britannica defines sin as moral evil as considered from a religious standpoint.  It is the deliberate and purposeful violation of the will of God.  Deliberate and purposeful?  That seems very harsh.  I don’t set out to purposefully sin daily, but I do anyway.  I am human.  But I’m also redeemed, by Christ. 

Twice this past week, the Holy Spirit has led me to 1 Corinthians 6.  Verse 8 and following reads: Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, and you do this to your brothers and sisters.  9 Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who have sex with men, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor slanderers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And that’s what some of you were.  But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God (NIV).

This was written by Paul to the church in Corinth.  The Christians in the city were surrounded by a corrupt society full of idolatry and immorality, not unlike our society today.  Paul, who once persecuted Christians, was reminding Christ’s followers that they were washed and sanctified after living a life of sin. I say this because we are all sinners if we are human.    I am not Paul, but can God still use my sinful self for His glory?  God used sinners in the blood line of Jesus.  He used Saul, the persecutor, before he became Paul.  He used Matthew, the tax collector.  He used Peter, who denied Christ three times.  The list goes on.  

 I don’t know exactly how God will use me yet.  I’m still waiting for Him to finish my story. I have a small tattoo on my wrist that is a simple cross and semi-colon.  I get asked about it often.  I just smile and say that it reminds me that through Christ my story is not over, it is still continuing.  I’ll still sin, others will sin against me, but God forgives us all and Christ died for our sins and to wash us clean. My word for 2022 will be ‘sanctification,’ the process of being set apart, made holy, full of the Holy Spirit of God.   What an amazing goal for a sinner who wants to glorify God!