Have you ever noticed how easily we see the dirt in our own lives? One impatient word. One jealous thought. One lingering grudge. One selfish decision. One more failure in an area where we thought we were finally making progress. We confess it, repent of it, and thank God for the forgiveness in Christ. Then, sometimes before the day is over, here we go again. If you've ever wondered why the Christian life can feel like such a frustrating tug-of-war, you're not alone.
But here's a wonderful question: What will it be like when God finally removes every trace of sin from our lives? Not just forgiven of sin. Not just fighting sin. Not just making progress against sin.
CLEAN…Completely. Finally. Forever!
Think about a fish swimming in water. If you asked, “How's the water?” the fish might be confused because it's never known anything else. That's a picture of our relationship with sin. We've been swimming in it our entire lives. Our problem isn't simply the sin around us; it's the sin within us. Jeremiah 17:9 describes the human heart as deceitful and desperately sick. Something is wrong at the very source of our desires. Augustine called our hearts “a diseased power plant in which our thoughts and motives flow.”
Think about an ordinary Monday. A friend gets a promotion, and instead of celebrating, we feel jealous. Somebody cuts us off in traffic, and suddenly we're auditioning for a role in a road-rage documentary. Someone overlooks us, and our wounded pride starts writing a courtroom drama in our heads. We are easily offended by the slightest remark. We say we forgive someone, but we keep the offense on life support. The next thing we know, all of this is spewing out of our mouths to someone…somewhere. Jesus tells us this: “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Luke 6:45). And that's just before lunch!
Sin isn't always an explosion; it’s often ordinary. It slips into our attitudes, reactions, conversations, and desires. We may look respectable on the outside while an entire committee of selfish motives is meeting on the inside. Sin isn't merely a problem with our behavior. It's a problem with our hearts. So, what will it be like when the battle is finally over?
Here's something we need to understand: If you belong to Jesus Christ, you are already clean in God's sight. That may sound strange because we know ourselves pretty well. We know the thoughts we shouldn't entertain, the words we shouldn't say, and the attitudes we wish we didn't have. So how can God call us clean when we still struggle with so much uncleanness? The answer lies in the difference between our standing before God and our ongoing growth as Christians.
The New Testament calls believers saints. Paul addresses the Christians in Ephesus as saints. He wasn't writing only to spiritual all-stars who had mastered the Christian life. He was addressing ordinary believers in Christ. The word saint means a holy one, someone set apart as belonging to God. We hear saint, and we think Billy Graham times a 1000. If you're in Christ, however, you are a SAINT. Not because you've earned the title, but because Jesus has given you a new standing before God.
In 1 Corinthians 6:11, Paul reminds believers that they have been washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of God. These aren't merely goals we're working toward. They describe what God has already done for us. Your sainthood doesn't depend on how successfully you're living the Christian life today. It depends on what Jesus Christ has accomplished for you. That doesn't mean our behavior doesn't matter because we belong to Jesus; we want our lives to reflect the holiness he has given us. We are becoming in practice what we already are in our standing before God.
Our growth fluctuates. Some days we take two steps forward and three steps backward, but our identity in Christ isn't a spiritual report card updated every evening. You're not more of a saint on your best day or less of one on your worst day. Claiming this identity isn't arrogance. It's taking Jesus at his word. Our confidence rests not in our performance but in his performance on the cross- “it is finished.”
Right now, there's a painful gap between who we are in Christ and what we experience in ourselves. But one day, that gap will disappear. We are positionally clean now; then we will be experientially clean. Revelation 21:27 promises that nothing unclean will enter the New Jerusalem. Think about what that means. Imagine waking up in a world where temptation has no pull on you. Not a little pull. Not a manageable pull. No pull at all. Imagine no envy when someone else is honored, no resentment when someone hurts you, no pride demanding recognition, no pouting when you don’t get your way, no anxiety insisting you control everything, and no selfishness competing with love. Imagine never having to confess another sin because you have no sin left to confess.
No regrets to haunt you. No shame to hide. No exhausting battle between what you know is right and what you feel like doing. We can scarcely imagine it because we've never experienced life without sin's presence. When Christ finishes his work, we will finally be free. The holiness God has already declared ours will become our unbroken experience.
Remember Martha in Luke 10? Jesus told her she was anxious and troubled about many things, while Mary sat at his feet, listening to him. How often are we Martha? Our minds race. Our hearts wander. We worry about tomorrow, replay yesterday, compare ourselves with others, and spend enormous energy managing our little kingdoms. But imagine the day when all that inner noise stops. Our anxious preoccupation with ourselves will give way to wholehearted adoration of Jesus. Nothing will compete with him or draw our hearts away. We will love him without distraction, worship him without caution, and enjoy him without interruption.
There will be only one frustration left: our inability to praise him adequately for the mercy that brought us there, and even that will be a happy frustration! Our hearts will overflow with gratitude for Jesus, the One who washed us, carried us, kept us, and brought us safely home.
So, what do we do today? We keep confessing sin. We keep repenting. We keep pursuing holiness. We keep asking the Spirit to change our hearts. We don't make peace with the very things Christ died to free us from…but we fight from a different place. We aren't fighting to earn the identity of saints. We're fighting because, through Christ, God has already made us his saints. When we stumble, we don't have to pretend we're cleaner than we are. We can bring our mess into the light because our hope rests in the Savior who has already washed us. One day, the battle will be over. The sinful desires that trouble you now will be gone. The distance between who you are in Christ and what you experience in yourself will be gone. You will finally feel as clean as God already declares you to be.
Until then, remember this: God isn't finished with you. And one day, he will finish what he started.