CLEANSING THE TEMPLE

Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross would be sufficient for all time. His saving, forgiving, cleansing power and victory are available to every person in every era, from the most devout believer to the most hardened sinner.

Even as a young boy, I understood my need for Christ’s gift of salvation. I knew that when I accepted Jesus, His saving work on my behalf had been achieved once and for all. But not long after I accepted Him my anger erupted at one of my siblings, as happens so often among kids. Suddenly I was aware that I needed Jesus’ cleansing blood in my life all over again. I felt utterly lost, wondering whether my salvation was real.

Eventually I learned that I needed not only Christ’s salvation but His cleansing power in my life daily. Jesus demonstrated our need at the Last Supper when He took a towel and basin and began washing His disciples’ feet. Peter puzzled over this symbolic act, saying, “Lord, if You’re going to wash my feet, why not clean my head too?” (see John 13:9). Jesus answered, in essence, “Peter, you’re going to be saved by My blood. But you still live in a dirty world, and as you walk through it you’ll get dust on your feet. You’re going to need Me to wash your feet just as much as your heart.”

It’s true that Jesus has made us new creatures, having justified us once and for all. But as we walk through the mire of a dark and evil world, we can’t avoid picking up flecks of its anger, lust and hardness. Jesus says to us, just as He told Peter, “If your life is going to be pleasing to Me, I have to rid you of these things daily.”

To walk in His holiness, we must realize that Jesus wants to drive things out of our lives. In Matthew 21:12-13 when He ran the moneychangers out of the temple, He was ridding the church of a certain callousness that had overcome them. It wasn’t so much the exchange of money that upset Jesus; that practice had existed for years, as a convenience to faithful believers who traveled great distances to Jerusalem. What upset Jesus more was the focus on commerce, which had overtaken people’s passion for God. In their hearts, a house of prayer had been turned into a house of trade.