Water: pure, clean, clear water can do so many things. It can cover as far as the eye can see, go deeper than our technology can reach, create such beautiful scenery, heal, calm a roaring fire, and even become a raging sea. Water can give life, but it can also destroy it.
Water can be tainted. Something so clear can become murky, causing it to be seen as different than it once was...less clean, even dirty. Something that once could heal the body could become harmful when contaminated.
Water can even be underestimated, considered just a liquid that you drink. The beautiful water droplet sitting daintily on a spider’s web is the same water droplet that thrashes through the air, causing damage to life and property in a hurricane.
Water has not only a physical meaning but also a spiritual meaning. 1 Peter 3:21 says:
And this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
This water that you drink that is clear and heals the body has the “symbolic power” to wash away sin and create a new you. But after we are made new, are we able to become “dirty” again? Like water, can we become murky—no longer seen as clean? No one wants dirty water to drink or to bathe in. Some water is even called “wastewater” because no matter how many times you filter that water, over and over until it becomes like new, people still remember what it once was…dirty, good for nothing.
Jesus says that, though once we were dirty, we are now clean—made new, free of sin, and pure like perfect water. Now, will we believe, then, that we are wastewater, just because the world says we are? Will we believe that our “water,” which once was dirty but now is washed clean, is still not good enough? Acts 22:16 says:
And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away,
calling on his name.
Seems simple enough, right? Becoming clean should be as simple as getting dunked by a couple of people. Then come back up into the world after that second underwater that feels like a lifetime to see the people you love and care about cheering you on as you start your new life as a new believer…only to come up short of God’s standard later that day, week, month, year. You decide you will never be good enough since that’s what everyone keeps telling you: friends and family, even those who are closest to you. The water that washed you is still the same water, but suddenly you don’t feel so clean anymore. You feel like “wastewater,” good for nothing. You aren’t seen as so clean anymore. What happened? That water was supposed to wash away your sin and make you new—that was your break, your redemption. So what now? You try to hide that the water didn’t clean you up. The same thing happens over and over again. People come to church and hear a pastor preach on salvation and redemption, on how Jesus saves. They repent and confess to others, but only what they feel is acceptable to share. They get caught up in the church “social club,” coming back every Sunday acting as if they are clean on their own, but all the while dealing with the dirt on the inside.
Galatians 3:27 says:
For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ…
When we are baptized into Christ and believe in Him, we are now clothed with Christ. We are born again as a new creation—clothed with Christ and no longer slaves to sin. We don’t have to sin anymore! Then why do we go back? Why do we go back to feeling dirty?
Part of the problem is that we confuse what really washes away our sins. It was never about the water. It wasn’t about what felt right in the moment—coming up out of that water wasn’t what freed you from sin. No! The water is not the thing that saves. Jesus is the one that saves. Romans 10:9 tells us:
If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God
raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
The first step to becoming a believer and what really washes you clean is the recognition that God is God, and you are not—that Jesus, the Son of God, died to take away your sins and bridge the gap between you and God, which we could never bridge on our own merit. Baptism is merely a picture of what has already happened when you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior. Baptism is an outward declaration of an inward change—essentially proclaiming to the world that you’re with Jesus now. That water your body gets slammed into is not just a pool of water, it’s a statement that you will follow Christ and live a life free of sin now, that you are made new, just like it says in 2 Corinthians 5:17:
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
Baptism is not what saves. Baptism is not the end. Faith in Jesus is what saves, and following Jesus is a daily choice you make to get up and carry your cross—to not just believe but to act like the new creation that you are. It’s not going to be easy or perfect, but you are not a quitter, you are not worthless or weak, but strong and courageous. And in the times when you feel dirty again, when the world tries to say you haven’t been made clean, then you look in the mirror and remind yourself that the muddy water you may see is actually the clean water God made you to be all along. Our filters may not get everything out, we may still have some dirt or sin in the mix, but God’s filter is what purifies all! He has the power to overcome all!
It’s not about the water. It was never about the water. How Reckless is the love of God that He sent His Son to die on the cross for us and our sins? To wash us clean once and for all. No dirt is mightier than the purifying love of Jesus.