John 13:9-10 “Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” Jesus said to him, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean,”
For a long time in my Christian life, I’ve been moaning and groaning the words of a Jennifer Knapp song:
Lord, come with your fire
burn my desire
refine me…
please come and free me
and rescue this child
for I long to be reconciled to yo-ooo-ooo-ooo
I was singing this song and thinking about John 13 and realized something.
I’ve already BEEN RECONCILED! And you know what else? I don’t need to have my desire burned. When Christ died on the cross, God reconciled Man to God. My sin was cleansed and when Jesus was raised from the dead, we who are in Christ were raised with Him.
It seems to me that there is this hyper-pious teaching that tells us to cry out to God to be made holy. Another song:
Holiness, holiness is what I long for
holiness is what I neeeeed
Holiness, holiness, is what You want from me.
it even says at one point
Righteousness, righteousness, is what You want from me.
God doesn’t want our righteousness or our holiness any more than I want my 2 year old to give me a dirty diaper for a Christmas present!
The fact is, a person that has had a bath only needs to wash their feet. We have been made clean by the life and death of Christ. Sure, our feet still get dirty as we walk around in the world, but the part of us that matters the most to God, the part that is out of this world (which David Crowder says as soon as you leave the ground you’re in the sky, right?!) has been made clean.
So let’s change these silly songs.
Let’s quit yearning for holiness when it’s already been served up to us on a platter!
Give up on your silly, dirty-diaper holiness and have faith in Jesus!