God’s Laundry

Doing laundry is therapeutic. I know, some of you might think I’m crazy. But for me, there’s just something about the ritual of taking a dirty, messy pile and transforming it into a clean, neat stack. There’s something deeply satisfying about bringing order to chaos.

While I was folding laundry the other day and contemplating the satisfaction that it brings, I started thinking about spiritual laundry. No, I’m not talking about literal clothes; our spirits don’t need clothed in the way that our bodies do. But like He so often does, God uses clothing and even laundry as an analogy in Scripture to help us understand a profound truth about salvation. So let’s step into God’s laundry room and see what we can learn.

When the Lord met with the Israelites at Mount Sinai prior to Moses’ trip up the mountain, He instructed them to prepare themselves for the meeting. Because God was so holy and the people weren’t, they needed to take precautions lest they be killed. One of God’s gracious instructions was for the people to wash their clothes (Exodus 19:10). Like so many things in the Old Testament, we see here a physical picture of a spiritual reality—we as humans who have been born affected by the Fall are unclean, but in order to survive in God’s presence, we need to be clean. Therein lies our problem.

The Israelites could obey God’s command to physically clean themselves before approaching His presence at the mountain, but what they couldn’t do on their own was clean their spiritual garments so that their souls could abide in His presence for eternity. And just in case we weren’t clear that our spiritual selves are dirty, God uses Isaiah to explicitly state our predicament:

We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. (Isaiah 64:6, ESV)

In other words, the best we have to offer God is still just a dirty, soiled pile of bloody clothes (the Hebrew word literally means menstrual rags—a disgusting description, I know, but effective). He’s that holy.  So what are we to do?

There’s nothing we can do. That’s the point. Our best, most perfect efforts will still be stained by our sinful nature and are unworthy to be presented to God. But the good news—the BEST news really—is that despite the fact that we can’t do anything about our problem, God has already done something about it! God is the One (the only One) with a 100% effective, eternally-long-lasting stain remover. And that stain remover is the perfect, flawless, completely holy and righteous life that Jesus earned and lived and the sacrificial, undeserved death that He died, whereby He took our filthy clothes on Himself and can give us His sparkling white robes instead.

One of my favorite passages in the Bible paints a picture of this reality. Written while the Israelites were in captivity for their rebellion against God, God’s words through the prophet Zechariah illustrate the transaction that takes place at salvation:

Now Joshua [the high priest] was standing before the angel, clothed with filthy garments. And the angel said to those who were standing before him, “Remove the filthy garments from him.” And to him he said, “Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments.” And I said, “Let them put a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the LORD was standing by. (Zechariah 3:3-5, ESV)

Technically speaking, I suppose it would be more accurate to say that instead of cleaning our clothes, God gives us brand new ones—clothes that were earned by Jesus Himself. And all we have to do is agree to accept them, leaving our filthy laundry behind and stepping into the pure, clean garments Jesus offers us. Even still, God’s transformative cleaning power is unmatched, and for this He is worthy of praise, as Isaiah acknowledged when he declared:

I will greatly rejoice in the LORD; my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with jewels. (Isaiah 61:10, ESV)

So the next time you’re doing laundry, take a moment to remember your helpless dirtiness apart from Jesus. If you haven’t acknowledged your filth before God yet, I pray you turn to Him and let Him clean you and clothe you in the righteous deeds of Christ. If you’ve already put on those sparkling new clothes, don’t let a day go by that you don’t rejoice in His goodness and grace and praise Him for His supernatural cleaning power that makes it possible for you to live today and always in the company of His matchless beauty.  

PC: Pam Galagan. Used with permission.