The Obvious Answer is No One

“Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin?” (Pr 20:9 AV)

 

The obvious answer is no one.  There is nothing we can do to make ourselves clean.  This is an operation of the Holy Spirit.  There is no penance we can do.  No good works to cancel out the bad.  There are no contrite words that will cleanse away our sin.  As the father of the above author said,  “Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.” (Ps 51:2 AV)  There isn’t a soul ever born that could say they had made themselves clean from their sin.   I can honestly answer to the question above, “Not me!”  Not by a long shot.  There is no price that I could ever humanly pay that would absolve me from all my sin.  The account is simply too overwhelming.  It is too large.  The list would go on for eternity.  The only hope I have is the same as anyone else has.  They only hope we have in the blood of Jesus Christ that cleanses us from all our sin!

What strikes me as odd is the audacity it would take for someone to suggest that.  Who in the world would be so bold as to say they were completely clean from all their sin?  No one who is honest can.  Have you ever tried to simply wipe off a motor oil spill from your entire body?  No matter how many rags one uses, there is still a residual slick that remains.  The more one tries to wipe it off, the more it merely smears.  Only when we disrobe and jump in the shower with a soap that can cut oil do we feel clean.  Until then, all our efforts to be absolutely clean are in vain.  There must be an outside agent introduced to get that oil off.  One cannot scrap it off.  One cannot evaporate it off.  There has to be a detergent applied with the ability to dissolve the oil to be clean from it. 

The same is true of our sin.  There is nothing we can do to wipe it off.  Only by the cleansing agent of the blood of Jesus can be we completely cleansed from our unrighteousness.  Like a defendant standing before a judge, he cannot plead innocent.  Not guilty is the more appropriate plea.  No one is innocent.  He may or may not have done the crime of which he is accused, but he by no means is innocent.  He stands before the judge and pleads his case.  Only the judge had the power to declare him absolved of all wrongdoing.  Jesus Christ is our advocate.  He stands before the Father and when we are accused of the adversary, He shows the Father His nail-scarred hands.  His blood covers that, too.  We cannot say what the writer asks.  We cannot claim innocence.   We are guilty as the day is long.  We cannot wipe away our own sin.  We cannot undo a wicked choice.  But there is One who can and His name is JESUS!