The moment I was baptized, I was washed by the blood of the Lamb. I was clean for the first time in my life. I was guilt-free and sinless, spotless like Jesus. I look back now and realize God had moved Mona to say those things to me about baptism. I was thirteen. I was of the age of conscious choice. God knew it was time I started on my journey from newborn to mature Christian.
God has shown me the way throughout my life, and I finally learned the reason Christ had to die on that cross so painfully. I finally asked, and I was finally given a straight answer. So simple, yet I hadn’t known. Somebody had to pay for our sins, MY sins. Either it would be me, or someone else. Jesus was the only One with enough power, enough perfection, and enough love to take the punishment for our sins. He had to do it. He chose to do that for us. In the Old Testament, the sacrifices made to purify the people of their sins had to be perfect, blemish-free, the best of the lambs. If you can’t give up your best to God, give up something you want/need/love, then what is the sacrifice? Jesus was the only human to have never sinned. He was spotless, without blemish. It had to be Him.
I knew Jesus had suffered on the cross, but I hadn’t realized the full extent of that suffering until I went to see the movie “The Passion of the Christ” with Jim Caviezel. With people all around me in the theater, I wept. I had never known. My Lord, my Jesus went through all that—for me! What had I ever done for Him? This movie changed me. It matured me in my faith. It upped my game.
I’m still a sinner, though I honestly try not to be. The more I grow in Christ, the less I desire to sin. He loves me. Just like my mom, I don’t want to let Him down, but instead of hearing her words, “I just hope you’re ready,” I hear His, “I will make you ready,” and through every struggle I face, He is making me ready.
Are you waiting to be ready? To be spotless? Well, the wait is over. You will never be ready on your own accord, but come to Jesus, and He will cover you with His righteousness and make you spotless.
Walker Lane 