Clean

I was applying for a job that required a print out of my driving record. That's when I got nervous. You see, I hadn't been enjoying the best of driving careers (to put it mildly). Yes, I'd been pulled over for speeding. Yes, I'd gotten in a few accidents (well, maybe more than a few). And yes, (I'm embarrassed to say it) I was even arrested for drunk driving at the bright young age of 18. (I was a wretch before Jesus rescued me.) With this type of background you can see why I was a little bit nervous going to the DMV. I thought it was a forgone conclusion that my record was a mess.

So there I was as the woman behind the counter started to hand me my print out. "It's clean, Mr. Campagna," I can remember her saying. I thought I was hearing things. I thought I was dreaming. "Are you sure?" I was saying as I scanned it over with my own eyes. "There must be a glitch," I was thinking in my mind. But, indeed, it was clean. It really was. (Selah ~ pause to reflect)

And so is our "record" before God if we've received Christ into our heart and life and pledged to live for Him with everything within us. (Oh, how I wish this might sink down deep in some of you!) No matter what our past, no matter what we've done ~ every last piece of bad ~ there's nothing there. It's all gone. It's been wiped/washed away. (That ought to put a skip in your step and remove a load off your back.)

"'For I will be merciful to their iniquities and I will remember their sins no more.'" (Hebrews 8:12)

"As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us." (Psalm 103:12)

"[T]he blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin." (1 John 1:7b)