Eradicating Sin’s Stain Starts With Stepping Towards God

The stain. It had been there for months, if not years. On the side of the couch a terrible dark brown blot that ran all the way from the arm to the ground. Someone had spilled some awful dark goo and left it. When I rearranged my favorite chair such that it faced that side of the couch, I discovered the stain. Who knew how long it had been there. No way on earth was that stain ever coming out.

So day after day I sat in my favorite chair reading my Bible and happy...until my eyes fell upon the stain. That terrible ugly stain I knew was permanent, forever marring my beautiful couch.

I had choices. I could move my chair so every day I would not need to look upon the stain. I could turn that side of the couch against a wall or end table so the stain would be concealed. I could accept the presence of the stain and learn to live with it. Or, I could do my best to remove the impossible stain.

I knew God was setting a challenge before me. He often speaks to me in daily events, that seem mundane but hold symbolic relevance. I prayed first, and then I gathered my supplies. A scrub brush, soap and water, a bucket. Frankly,  I was not hopeful. That is why I had not bothered for so many months to tackle the stain. The stain was a dark and ominous stain on a light blue couch. What I was likely to do at best was smear the stain, which could make the whole issue worse. I had no hope of eradicating the stain, but finally the day came when I could stand it no more.

I loaded my scrub brush with soap and thought of all the terrible stains collected during my life. All the sins that became so dark and ominous, hovering in my heart such that all hope and light was blotted from my life. There were times, terrible times, when my memories of those sins were so overwhelming that I thought I would drown in all the sorrow. Before I was a Christian, I tried to rationalize the sins. I tried to justify the sins. But inside, the stain on my conscience grew deeper and darker. Crushing, terrible weight of regret and remorse. It was not possible for me to lift that burden that lay so heavily upon me. It was too weighty, too heavy, and had been there for so long.

Yesterday, one of the pro-choice folks on the sidewalk wanted to chat with me. He often likes to engage in discussion with our Cities4life team members as we offer abortion- minded women hope and help so they will make a choice other than abortion. He hopes to distract us, but it doesn’t work. I stop talking with him instantly when a woman emerges that I can speak with.  At that particular time, I was alone on the sidewalk, as my other team members had not yet arrived. The man was talking to me about his car, and that one day it would stop working since it was very old. He knew he could not trust it. But then, he noted, one cannot trust anything at all times. Everything will ultimately disappoint.

I quickly hopped on that line. “You can trust Jesus. He alone will not disappoint.”

“You seem like a very nice person. I bet you don’t disappoint.”

“Oh, I have no trouble understanding that I DO disappoint, and I especially disappoint God whose standards are not man’s standards. I have no problem knowing that I am a sinner and that I deserve God’s wrath.”

I thought about the terrible stain on my couch. The terrible stain that had been my life before I knew Christ.

“All have sinned, right?”the man said, with a smile. I know he was toying with me but as there were no women yet lining up at the abortion center door, I was happy to talk about God with him, no matter how mocking he might be.

“Yes, but when we trust and believe that Jesus paid the penalty for our sin, we are set free.” (I am recounting the conversation as well as I can remember.)

“That would be great,” the man said, “But you are talking to an atheist.”

“I don’t think you really are an atheist,” I told him. “And you know, it takes far more faith to be an atheist than to believe in God.”

“Well I am an atheist. I don’t need faith. I don’t believe in God.”

“Can you prove He doesn’t exist?” I asked.

“No. Can you prove He does??”

“No. So we both have faith. I have faith He exists and you have faith He doesn’t. You can’t prove He doesn’t exist so you DO need faith. You are not an atheist, but an agnostic because you have no assurance He does NOT exist. Once i was just like you. I asked the same questions you ask me, but I came to discover it took more faith to not believe in God than to believe in Him.”

I wish I had time to talk about the evidence for God of all creation, including the intricate, impossible design of even the smallest portion of DNA and how it points unmistakably to a designer. But the women began pouring out of their cars and marching their innocent unborn babies to destruction so instead I called out to them, praying God would open their hearts and their ears to Him. 

I had spoken with that same man the week or so before about the truth of Jesus’ sacrifice for us on the cross. I told him the stain of sin is washed completely clean in the sight of God when we put our hope and trust and life in Jesus. When we proclaim Jesus as Lord, and accept the free gift He offered to pay the penalty for sin that we deserved, He scrubs the ugly black sin till it is gone, forever erased from God’s sight. He does not hold that sin against us. It is eradicated. Forever.

Back to the couch story. 

I began scrubbing. Yes, just as I feared, the stain began to spread. But then...the miracle. As I continued to dip the scrub brush in the soapy water and scrub the awful stain, it began to lighten. The blue of the couch began to shine through. Over and over again I washed the brush in the bucket and returned to scrubbing and scouring the side of the couch. 

I blotted it dry. The stain was gone. The couch looked new. Pristine. A miracle. This is not a perfect symbol since  I cannot remove the sin of stain from my life. It is only by Jesus’ atoning death on the cross that the penalty for my sin is paid and the stain of sin lifted. However, it is not a terrible analogy. That stain MUST be dealt with. One cannot hide sin forever. There will come a day when all will be exposed to the light, and those stains will either be cleansed by Jesus blood, or we will be held to account for their presence.

Six women chose life at the abortion center yesterday. Four told us they had changed their minds and two others left before the abortionist arrived, and we are fairly sure they chose life. The ones that stopped to tell us all had tears in their eyes. Tears of relief. Tears of the struggle waged and won. 

They were grateful for our offers of help, and one even apologized for being rude to us earlier. We are used to that. Sometimes the ones who fight our message hardest end up joyfully embracing God’s truth. Another told us she had looked through the pictures of the unborn babies in the literature that we hand out as she waited for the abortionist to arrive. That is what changed her heart. She saw the unmistakable humanity of the child in the womb and knew it would be a grievous sin to destroy it.

“You have chosen to honor God today,” I told her, “This day will always be remembered as a day of great blessing. Call me so we can talk more and so we can help you.”

The woman smiled, as though a huge burden had been lifted from her heart. I pray this is the beginning of Jesus scrubbing her heart clean. It often starts with one step towards God.

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John 1:29 

The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

Isaiah 1:18 

“Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.

Psalm 51:1 

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba. Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.