Have you ever had some stubborn stains on your favorite clothes or your nice tablecloths, and you wish they could look as good as new?. On a rare occasion, you can actually get those stains out and say, "It's finally clean. It's been washed, treated, and all the dirty spots came out!"
That could be a description of you! Those words describe what Jesus Christ did for you; something no religion could have ever done. You could say, "I'm clean. I've been washed, and all my dirty spots came out." Actually, that's the testimony of every person who has ever trusted Jesus to forgive their sins, based on what He did on the cross for them. It could describe you before this day is over.
In 2 Kings 5, God tells the true story of a man who is an example of how this dirty-to-clean miracle works. Naaman is a Syrian military leader who, for all his fame and success, can't do anything about the terminal leprosy he has suddenly developed. Hearing about Elisha, God's prophet, Naaman travels to Israel with his entourage to try to find a cure. He tries to buy the cure with money and gifts, but the man of God won't touch what Naaman brought with him for payment.
Then, speaking through His prophet, God tells Naaman in verse 10, "Go, wash yourself seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will be restored and you will be cleansed." Naaman was not about to humble himself and bathe in the muddy Jordan. He tells his servants he should just go home and do it his way, but they urge him to give this strange prescription a try. Here's the outcome in verse 14, "So he went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, as the man of God had told him, and his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy."
The main point of this story is: if you will go to the place where God says you can be cured of your terminal sin-cancer and do what He says, He will make you clean and new. You can't buy His forgiveness by giving Him money or gifts. You can't earn His forgiveness by doing great things. You can only receive His forgiveness by going, in your heart, to Jesus' cross and completely trusting His mercy and His love. He's the only One who can make you clean because He's the only One who would or could pay the death penalty for all your sin.
This can be the day you bring to Jesus all those mistakes, the wreckage, and the regrets of a lifetime, so you can be clean inside for the first time in your life. He's waiting to hear from you, "Jesus, You died to pay for my sin, and I've never really grabbed you in total trust to be my Rescuer from my sin. Beginning today, I'm Yours."
There is no greater peace and no greater freedom than to be able to say from this day on, "I'm clean! I've been washed, and all my dirty spots came out!"