Stay Out of the Mud

We have a mud hole in our back yard. Our little boys love to play in it. The other day our four year old rode his tricycle into the puddle and got stuck. His five year old brother found a light log chain, hooked it onto the trike and was trying to pull him out. Earlier the three year old wore his mom’s cowboy boots into that same hole and got them all dirty. Of course she was not happy about that.
-
Not only did Crystal have to wash her boots, she also had to wash our boys. We finally had to put limits on playing in the mud puddle. We told them to just stay away from it because they were making too much of a mess.
-
The problem is that little boys really like mud holes. Still, their love for mud holes does not make their disobedience okay. The three year old especially has trouble staying away. His lack of maturity is reflected in his disobedience.
-
As a father, I get discouraged when my children disobey, but then I am reminded of my heavenly father and my own disobedience. As Christians we are saved by grace, not our works, yet God still expects us to obey Him. Romans 6:1-2 says, “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?”
-
I Corinthians 6:9-10 gives a list of sinful activities that would keep us out of heaven if it were not for God‘s forgiveness, but then look at what verse 11 says, “And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.”
-
Just as the boys get all dirty in the mud hole, our lives are dirty with sin. “As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one” (Romans 3:10). “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). The dirtiness of sin has consequences-death. Still, because of God’s grace, we have the gift of life. “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 6:23)
-
We are all dirty with sin and need to be washed by believing in Jesus Christ as our savior. Once we are washed we should not continue to sin just so we can get grace, yet that grace is still available to us when we do sin. Like our little three year old, we should be growing in maturity so that we sin less. “Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby” (I Peter 2:1-2).
-
Sadly, too many people return to the mud hole of sin. “But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.” (II Peter 2:22)
-
As believers, we should not go back to the mud hole of sin, instead we should recognize that we are washed through the blood of Christ and then stay clean because we love Him and want to obey Him. “And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.”