All Washed Up Parable

2 Corinthians 7:1
2 Timothy 2:20-26

A muddy hand or hands cannot be cleaned by simply rubbing them against each other. They must be placed in running water to get truly clean. Likewise the filth of our sins cannot be cleaned by our efforts and good deeds. We must be immersed in the Living Water of Jesus Christ to become truly clean in the eyes of God.

One summer, as Ben Simms took a slow walk around the lake, he ran into a Christian brother who shared his inability to experience the abundant life promised by our Heavenly Father because of recurring guilt over the very sins which had brought him to repent and seek Jesus in the first place. Ben asked his friend if he wanted to participate in an activity that would reveal to him just how God views the sins of Christians. They used a sheet of bark off a dead pine (however, anything on which a layer of sand can be placed will do). Then they added enough sand from the lake or stream to cover the bark to a thickness of about 1/2 inch or more. Next they smoothed the sand out to provide a writing surface and, using a small stick, the friend was able to write just enough words to describe the sins that had been troubling him. (Ben told him to feel free to use more than one tablet/piece of bark to be sure that the list was complete.)

He then was asked to pray and thank God that, even though He knew he would be committing these acts and the many others that he could not recall, God loved him so much that He sent his only son, Jesus, into the world, the beautiful world that surrounded them, so that God could continue to fellowship with all of us. The next step was to take the sandy records of his sin, place them in the water, and wash them all away. The man saw immediately that the record of his sins could no longer be recognized and were completely washed away by the water. After considering how thoroughly eliminated from the sand is the record of your sins by the washing of the water, he fully recognized the spiritual cleansing of the blood of Christ.