Cleaned After the Calling

I hear people say all the time that they need to clean up their lives before accepting Christ, or that they’re afraid that once they follow Him, they won’t be able to keep doing the things they do now.

Now, the second part is true in a way. Once God calls us and saves us, we should want to become a new creature. We should want to look more like Christ instead of the sinful world around us. But that’s a devotion for another day. Today, I want to talk about that first thought, the idea that you have to clean yourself up before coming to God.

I remember being in college on a mission trip and talking to a girl who told me she didn’t think she could clean up her life enough for Jesus to accept her. No matter how much I tried to explain that salvation doesn’t work like that, she just couldn’t fully grasp it.

She, and so many others, maybe even you, believed that you have to make yourself clean before falling at the feet of Jesus. But God doesn’t see it that way.

Last week at a Wednesday night service, the preacher spoke from Exodus 19, and something really stood out to me. In verses 10–11, God tells Moses to have the people clean themselves and prepare before He came down on Mount Sinai. At first glance, you might think, “Well, doesn’t that prove you have to clean yourself up first?”

But look at the context.

God had already brought the Israelites out of Egypt before He asked them to clean themselves. He didn’t tell them to clean up before He rescued them, He told them to do it after He had already set them free.

That’s exactly how salvation works.

Egypt represents our sin and our life before Christ. God doesn’t ask us to fix ourselves before coming to Him, because we never could. All He asks is that we accept the gift of salvation through what Jesus did on the cross and trust Him. He’s the One who brings us out of sin. He’s the One who saves us and keeps us from hell.

Then, after salvation, comes the cleaning.

Once we’re saved, God begins changing us. He calls us to grow, to lay down sin, and to become more like Him.

So for those who aren’t saved yet, don’t wait until you think you’re “good enough.” You never will be, and that’s the beauty of grace. God meets you where you are and brings you out of the mess you’re in. All you have to do is accept the gift He’s offering and trust Him.

And for those of us who are saved, we need to ask ourselves something honestly: are we cleaning ourselves up the way God has called us to?

We’ve been brought out of Egypt. We’ve accepted His salvation. But are we still living like we’re stuck back in the same sin He rescued us from? The people around us should be able to see a difference. We aren’t called to sit still after salvation, we’re called to grow, become more like Christ, and go where He leads us.

So take a look at your life. Read your Bible. Pray. Ask God to show you the areas where you still need to grow. Because salvation may happen in a moment, but becoming more like Him is a daily walk.