Car Wash

Something I enjoy doing (but don’t do as often as I should due to its time-consuming nature) is washing my car. Knowing how dirty, grimy, bug-encrusted the exterior body was before, it’s always nice to look back and see it looking sparkly and shiny. Clean once again, if only for a little while. 

I tell you this because, as I was washing my car recently, I thought that a lot of Christians probably think that this is what salvation is like. We come to Jesus and He washes our sins away, but we will soon become dirty again and we must work to become clean again and to remain in that state. 

There are verses that talk about the washing away of sins, and this is a beautiful, Biblical truth. However, when our sins are washed away, they are gone once and for all. 1 John 1:9 says that “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” When we confess our sins to Jesus, He forgives us and cleanses us from all of them. 

However, many people may walk under the false assumption that we weren’t completely cleansed, or maybe that we have to keep trying to stay clean. This, however, is an inaccurate picture of the gospel. While we are called to confess our sins to Christ, when we come to Him in faith for salvation, Jesus once and for all cleanses us of all of our sins. 

The Bible says that we “were dead in the trespasses and sins in which [we] once walked” (Ephesians 2:1-2a). See, we weren’t just a car with a few dirty spots on it; we were a broken-down car, incapable of running and sitting in the junkyard. What good would it do to wash a car like that? Sure, it might look a little better, but that doesn’t change its condition. A car like this doesn’t need to be cleaned up; it needs to be made new. 

Now, I am not a car person. I don’t know the first thing about motors, engines, or different models. But I have heard people talk about the process of restoring a car. They take off all the old parts and replace them with new ones. They essentially rebuild the car so that it is like a new vehicle. This, I believe, is a more accurate portrayal of Christ’s work when someone comes to Him for salvation. 

Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” But why is this possible? If we are so sinful and in this broken condition where we cannot clean or fix ourselves, why can we can be made new in Christ? This is because Jesus took on our sin so that we could have His right standing with God. “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin (Jesus), that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Stop trying to clean up your own life. Stop trying to work to be washed. The Bible says that we are saved by grace through faith, “not a result of works” (Ephesians 2:9a). All you have to do is come to Christ, confess Him as Lord and believe in Him, and He will make you new, restore you, and redeem you, once and for all.