As soon as you say “I messed up and I gotta do something to clean up my life before I can go back to Christ and be received by Him.” You should rather rise up and run straight back to the Father.
Now why would you want to go back to the law? That doesn’t mean there isn’t a righteous standard to follow. That doesn’t mean Jesus didn’t give commandments to live and abide by. But it’s this idea of, I’ve got to go to the law to get acceptance. And as soon as you say this, as soon as you say, I messed up and I’ve got to do something to clean up my life. Before I can go back to Him, before I’ll be received by Him before I can go on with my life.
Then you have fallen into the trap. As soon as you add anything to Christ as far as your acceptance. You see how freeing it is? You see how freeing it is when a Christian falls?
When a Christian falls there is absolutely zero reason not to run straight back into the arms of your Father. But the devil will come and say you are not welcome there and you know what? We feel in our conscience that we’re not. We have this, we have this feeling: I’m dirty, I’m unclean. But I mean look, even if dirtiness comes in, was Christ ready to say when Peter said wash all of me, He said well, no, if you’ve already been cleaned only your feet need to be cleaned. Did Jesus say, “well, and because they do, I want nothing to do with you? Hit the road. You guys are disgusting.”
I mean when every little dirtiness He found there, even though they had been cleaned as a whole, whatever little dirtiness He found there, did He abandon them? Did He want nothing to do with them? Is that the message we get from Scripture? Rather just the opposite. He girded Himself with a towel and played the part of a slave and went to ministering to them. He showed perfect love, He showed perfect attention to them.
Listen, you get your feet dirty? Remember that. There’s nothing in that to show you you’re not welcome immediately back into His presence, immediately back to look for His help, immediately to run to Him and see what manner of love He bestows upon the children on God that He would even gird Himself, take up the part of a slave and show such an example of love.
Do you think that back then when they had dirty feet that if you dirty your feet now He won’t respond just the same? It’s the devil or it’s a wrong view on your part that speaks in your ear and says to the Christian after you falling into sin that you’re not welcome. We feel that sometimes. We don’t feel welcome because we feel like we have to make amends. But listen, He came to bring salvation to sinners and you staying away from Him one moment of time isn’t going to make you better, purer, cleaner at all.
Christ is the balm in Gilead. Christ is the Lord thy God that healeth thee. Christ is the only place that we can recover. He’s the only medicine. Spiritually He’s the only food. He’s the only repairer, He’s the only one that makes all things new. He’s the only Savior. What are you going to gain by staying a moment away from Him? Not a bit. And all your cleaning and self-effort only makes you more filthy. It’s like trying to clean yourself with a dirty rag.
