How God Does Laundry

Nov. 4

Read: Titus 3

How God Does Laundry

“But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us…by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior…” (v.4-6)

I wonder what it would be like to be a pair of jeans in the wash? Have you ever looked in there when the washing machine is running? I looks a little violent. Water sloshing around, suds frothing, the clothes tumbling over one another. I imagine it must be quite an experience. At the end of it all, the washing machine drum spins and the water drains out… leaving the clothes to be dried and pressed to be worn. They go in “dirty” and they come out “clean” but not without a lot of action in-between!

It is an offensive idea at first - the notion that we are “dirty”… that we need to be “washed”. It is slightly easier to think in terms of needing to be “cleansed” of the “dirt” that has gotten on us from the world around us… all those “dingy people” and “crummy places” soiling our otherwise “clean” selves. HA! The truth is that we are in need of a cleansing from the INSIDE out! The real “dirt” that we need to deal with does not come from outside of us… but rather WITHIN: “For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.” (v.3)

This is why “when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us” by “washing” us. God’s “goodness and loving kindness” led him to care for us - his children - by giving us a “washing of regeneration and renewal”. (v.5) I imagine the experience is like being a pair of jeans in the washer…

At first the comforting warm water fills the drum as the “Holy Spirit of God is richly poured out on us in Jesus Christ our Savior.” (v.6) At first we just “soak”… taking in all of the love, forgiveness, and new understanding given us through the Lord. But sooner or later, the agitating part of the wash cycle will begin. There is a certain spiritual “jostling” that happens as we are broken free from the “various passions, pleasures, and foolishness” that we were once “slaves” to. The “dirt” needs to get knocked off. We go from soaking in the Spiritual to being put into action, moving, tumbling, bumping into others that are being washed as well… the spiritual “suds” of action all around us. There comes a point when the filthy water needs to be drained… when the dirt that once stuck to us gets cared away. As we are “spun” there is a certain “pressure” that we feel exerted upon us… it is a good thing… pressing out of us the water and the dirt with it. The end result is that we are ready to be dried, pressed, and looking clean and “like new” again … this is “re-newal”.

God loves you as his child and is showing his kindness to you through pouring our his Spirit upon you through his Son - Christ Jesus our Savior. He loves you enough to not leave you like a dirty pair of jeans crumpled in the corner. You are not stained, torn, or wrecked in such a way that you cannot be “made new” by the “washing of regeneration”. The process is calm, comforting, turbulent, and dizzy-ing all at the same time. There is time to soak, time to tumble, and time to spin off all the “dirt” that is being drained away. You have been made NEW. This is the process of REGENERATION. It happens once and for all when Christ dies for us and justifies God’s children. (Justification / “Salvation”) It happens over and over again as we grow in Christ-likeness. (Sanctification) We can boldly go out into the world around us, knowing that God cleanses us from within, and washes us clean of anything else that comes from the outside. We cannot be “stained” or “torn beyond repair” because of the Saving work of God through his Spirit and his Son - Jesus.

Where are you in this cycle of “washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit”? Are you soaking? Are you being agitated, tumbled, tossed, and worked over in the “suds”? Are you being spun fast, under pressure, draining the “dirty water” out? Are you waiting to be dried, pressed, and “blessed”? You wash and wear the clothes you love… and you are loved! In a way, Jesus “puts us on” by calling us his “body” working in the world to do the good works he has for us to do. (1 Cor. 12, Eph 2:10) In the end… you will always come out feeling fresh, clean, and like new! That is how God does laundry. Love you guys. JDP