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Matthew 23:27-28
In Matthew 23:27-28 Jesus continues to reiterate the fact that it is the inside of man that needs to be cleansed. He declares to the scribes and Pharisees in Matthew 23:27b (NKJV), “For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness.”
This is a promise that we cannot be “superficial” Christians.
We cannot be superficial Christians – there is no such thing. We can put on the appearance of a Christian by going to Church on Sunday and then returning home to live the rest of the week willfully in sin, but if this describes you, you will still have the inner pain of sin ruling your life. Satan will make you feel like simply being in the congregation on Sunday is enough to “earn” your salvation and eternity in heaven, but you cannot “earn” your salvation – it is a gift that you have the right to accept or deny, but earning it on your own is not an option. The Apostle Paul teaches us in Romans 3:23, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”. Being in a sinful state prevents us from ever “earning” our salvation and being righteous from our own works because sin cannot redeem itself – it is sinful. We need a sinless solution to help us; we need a sinless power to confront sin and defeat it for us; we need a Savior who lives and feels our pain in human form. We need God to come and heal us and save us from sin as He is Almighty God capable of creation and accomplishing anything He desires. We need Jesus, who is God coming to earth to save us from sin. The Apostle Paul goes on to declare in Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
We all have a desire to be accepted in life – by our peers, by our families, by our co-workers, and anyone we may come in contact with throughout our lives. We offer our friendship to others in hopes of gaining new friends, and we offer our love and dedication to the one that we hope will become or has become our spouse. The point is that we put out an offer, an invite to others that we would like to become our friends with, and a special offer to the one in which we make our spouse. None of these people are required to accept our offer of friendship or marriage, we can only offer and show our caring and love for them as we strive to grow our relationship with them – it is their choice to become our friend, and for the special one – our spouse.
God offers His love to us and shows us how much He cares for us as He came to our rescue and took upon Himself our sins and paid the price for them so that we may be set free from them. He did the work for us – there is nothing left for us to “earn.” His offer is there waiting for us to accept or deny. But He offers us much more than friendship or marriage, He offers us a cleansing from the inside – a cleansed heart and conscience – a new life of forgiveness and eternal life. The choice is yours to make – and it is free of charge – in Christ! Romans 10:9-10 states, “that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God had raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”
Dear LORD,
We are learning that the only way to salvation is through Christ Jesus – the One who paid our price for sin so that we may live freely of it and begin a new life as guided by Your Holy Spirit that You have promised to be within all who will put their faith in Jesus (John 14:15-18, 26). Please open our eyes to the fact that we cannot earn our salvation as it is a gift offered to us by You through the death, burial, and resurrection of the One and only Savior Jesus. Please help us to see that salvation is a gift, and help us to see that we must open our hearts to You to have them cleansed from sin as we accept the gift of forgiveness and eternal life – in Christ. In Jesus name I pray, amen.