Clean and Righteous

Have you ever given thought to the phrase, "Clean up your act?"  From various sources online, it means to behave in a better way.  It means obeying laws and improving your behaviour in a socially acceptable manner.  There is one critical issue I take with this concept from a biblical perspective.  While improved behaviour is likely to benefit an individual and those around them, it does not address the source of our sinfulness--our hearts and minds that are intimately known by God.  Even if you are successful in adjusting your behaviour, it is like tearing off the tops of weeds and leaving the root of sin alive to grow back thicker and stronger.

This brings up another point:  the Bible establishes plainly by the 10 Commandments and countless other passages that all human beings are fundamentally corrupt and sinful.  We are unable to change ourselves on the inside, even as a leopard cannot change its spots on its fur.  Animals can be trained to modify their behaviour, but they retain their original nature.  There are marks we make that are impossible to remove; there are stains that cannot be washed away.  In a similar way, we are incapable of changing ourselves permanently for the better.  Things have happened to us that have shaped our perspectives, and habits form so easily we can spend a lifetime working to shift them.  We can put forth much effort to shift our habits from one thing to another while we remain enslaved to some manner of addiction.

Is this what God desires, that people "clean up their act?"  Is God fond of actors, of hypocrites who appear to be living a clean life but are spiritually dead inside?  Absolutely not.  I have heard some people say they need to clean up their lives and then they will seek God, but this will be an exercise of futility when man cannot overcome or cleanse himself from sin.  Cleansing from sin is what only Jesus Christ can do!  He demonstrated His power over sin when He raised a paralytic to perfect health by speaking the word, and Jesus proved His power over the results of sin (death) when He rose from the dead.  Jesus does not call us to clean up our act and follow Him, but to believe in Him which makes us born again, new creations by the Gospel.  Then we are divinely enabled and helped to follow Him!  As it is written in Galatians 6:15:  "For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation."  Removing a bit of skin will not change you into a new creation, but faith in Jesus does.

By the indwelling Holy Spirit, God begins to transform us from within and refines our outlook and behaviour because He is our source of purity.  No longer do we need to "act tough" but we can "be strong in the LORD and in the power of His might" (Ephesians 6:10).  By faith in Jesus we now have a choice if we will yield to our flesh or to Jesus Christ who is holy, righteous and pure.  Because Christians are alive unto God by faith in Jesus, Paul wrote in Romans 6:12-13:  "Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. ¹³ And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God."  Having been washed free from sin within, we are to present ourselves as instruments of righteousness to God.  In Christ we now have a choice and strength to refuse to submit to sin we never had ourselves before, and God help us to walk in wisdom and righteousness.