Zestfully Clean

An old soap commercial that is referring to a soap called Zest says it best when it says in the commercial "You're not fully clean until you're Zestfully clean!" What is Zestfully Clean? The soap is so good it cleans beyond comparison. I know of a level of cleaning that is much better and more effective because it is soul-cleansing. This cleansing is only offered by God as written in Titus 3:4 But— When God our Savior revealed his kindness and love, 5 he saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit. 6 He generously poured out the Spirit upon us through Jesus Christ our Savior. 7 Because of his grace he made us right in his sight and gave us confidence that we will inherit eternal life.

What does it mean to be "cleansed" by God? One definition of cleansed is as follows: make it thoroughly clean. Another is as follows: free someone from sin or guilt. When we are born again in the Spirit we are cleansed. Some cannot understand what that means because the "deceiver satan" tries to hedge on what God has done to cause us to think we are "marginally clean" and not fully clean. What God does in His kindness is what the scripture says in Titus as listed above, God saves us and cleanses us, not because of what "we" have done but because of His mercy. To deny that is to say that God is not a merciful God and that is true heresy in doctrine. John takes this a step further to nail it down in the following verses in 1 John 1:7 But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.

Guess what? If you are born again you are living in the light because the darkness has been replaced with a new heart because of the blood of Jesus. You are no longer yourself, but the person God has turned you into. You are born again and it is a new person in control and He is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit causes all who are born again to be connected into a holy fellowship and those cleansed people respond and work together. Paul wrote these words in 2 Corinthians 5: 17 This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! God's cleansing makes that new life happen and that life continues to grow in God's grace into the person Jesus intends us to be. It is more than just "doing." It is "being" and God is the one who is the initiator of that "being" coming alive. All of this begins at "soul level" when we are made clean and "holy." To remind us of the verse above and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.

When we take a shower or bath we walk out of that believing we have washed the dirt right off our body and we believe that because of the soap and our ability to "hit all the dirty areas." When we are cleansed by the blood of Jesus we walk out of that cleansing knowing we are totally clean because God did the cleaning and He works on every area of our life and it changes us. "A new creation!" The problem comes when we want to humanize it all by thinking we can clean ourselves. NOT GONNA HAPPEN. We will always fall short if we try to do it ourselves. It is used soap and it only smears the dirt and doesn't totally get rid of it. Just keep yourself out of the forgiving part and let God's great mercy reign in your life and you will realize a new way of living in the wonderful grace of a loving God. It will cause you to grow in your faith and you will look at other people in a different way, with grace-colored eyeballs.

Do not live a judgment-filled life that doesn't show the true, full cleansing you have experienced. Let the grace in your life be something others are drawn to and let the light God has given you light the way for others to come to Jesus. That kind of cleansing is noticeable and everything God intended it to be.

Vesselogical Out,

David Warren