Once More Through The Wringer

We can make fun of people of other religious faiths all we want to but there is very little difference between those who believe in novena’s and absolution, and those who believe that just going to church, or just working for the Lord, or just doing good works will be enough. We can cover the outside with good works all we want, but if Jesus isn’t in your heart, you are still clothed in “filthy rags” of self-righteousness and that’s how you will stand before God.

Every time we try these sequences of events, it’s like we throw ourselves into the washing machine, agitate around for a while and go through the wringer once more time and still come out as filthy, if not more so, than when we first went in.

I don’t know about you but don’t like going through God’s wringer. We should be tired of trying to be holy enough or righteous enough. We should be tired of God having to hang us out to dry with all the filth of the world still clinging to us. We should be tired of the downward spiral of living a life of self-righteousness and never coming clean, no matter how much God agitates us and wrings us out. I want to have true righteousness! I want to live in true Holiness before God! But how can I do that?

Let’s continue to read in Zechariah for we have the answer there if we want to hear it!

Zechariah 3:2-5, "And the LORD said unto Satan, The LORD rebuke thee, O Satan; even the LORD that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee: is not this a brand plucked out of the fire? Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and stood before the angel. And he answered and spake unto those that stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy garments from him. And unto him he said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment. And I said, Let them set a fair mitre upon his head. So they set a fair mitre upon his head, and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the LORD stood by."

Joshua represented you and I as we stand before the Lord being accused by Satan, but I love the answer that God gives to Satan.

It’s as though God says to the devil, shut up! I am God! I am the one who has chosen this one who stands before me! (Put your name in the place of the word Jerusalem. The meaning is still the same.) I am God, and I have chosen this one who stands here, and I have plucked them out of the fire! God saved us! God chose us! God did the choosing and He won’t let go and no man can pluck us out of his hand!

Yes, Joshua had on his filthy garments! You and I have no righteousness within ourselves. We have no holiness within us. We have no power to deliver our soul from the grips of sin – but Jesus does!

God spoke out to the angels who stood around, listening and watching for His command – TAKE AWAY THE FILTHY GARMENTS! NOW GIVE HIM A NEW GARMENT AND A CHANGE OF HEART! CLOTHE HIM IN RIGHTEOUSNESS!

I know that Joshua didn’t deserve to be clothed in righteousness but neither are we. None of us will ever be worthy enough. It has nothing to do with worthiness but everything to do with choosing to follow Jesus and allowing him to give us his righteousness by his own choice.