From dirty to clean

Jo Black July 01, 2026 1 1

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Romans 6: 12-23 (NIV-UK)

12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13 Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. 14 For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.

15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means! 16 Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey – whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. 18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.

19 I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness. 20 When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. 21 What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Salt and light do a lot more than change our perceptions of the things that they touch. Just as a salt water soak can lift stubborn stains to create treasures from things otherwise likely to be binned, the discovery that UV light can kill harmful microbes can ensure contaminated hospital equipment is saved from the incinerator. Powerful shifts indeed and all through purification.

Stain removal does not happen by accident. It requires the identification of something as being out of place and the active choice to do the necessary work to resolve it. Usually stains are much easier to cause than to clean! Similarly, hospitals are not sanitary by default — there is a constant ongoing work to battle against encroaching germs with particular attention given to vulnerable areas where infections proliferate. Muck and death do not have the final say!

Sin too wants to render us as waste and tells us that our souls are stuck in our spiritual dirt as slaves to evil; condemned to being cast away. Unless we seek the solution in the right place. We need to be willing to acknowledge those unsightly things that we ‘offer ourselves as slaves to’ (verse 19) and instead ‘offer ourselves to God’ (v13) for his salt and light treatment. It’s not something we can do ourselves — we often choose to make things dirtier!

However, through the redemption purchased on the cross, Jesus cleanses all those who choose Him as their saviour from the sullying and destructive power of sin. Sin may make its mark in our hearts and lives and but it is lifted by His love. It may insidiously grow in the areas of our lives vulnerable to temptation but it can be covered by His grace.

This not only sets us free to shine for our righteous master but readies us for the incredible gift of life through Jesus that we previously ruled ourselves out of.

Prayer:

Such love. Thank you Jesus. Cleanse me afresh today. I choose you.