Car Wash Blues

Nº 366

August 5, 2025

See how red your guilt is. Mark the scarlet stain. But plunge into the “fountain filled with blood, drawn from Immanuel’s veins,” and in an instant you are whiter than snow. Every speck, spot, and stain of sin is gone, and gone forever. - Charles Spurgeon

My freshly washed car looked good. The tires gleamed, the windows shined, and the road grime was gone. I came back a few minutes later and a bird had made my windshield his target! A perfectly clean car with one ugly spot!

So, was my car clean or dirty?

James tells his readers, “for whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.” (James 2:10) The issue at hand was favoritism, showing preferential treatment. What could be so bad about that? To emphasize the point, James goes on to more scandalous sins of adultery and murder.

Whether little sins or big sins, the reality is all the same – we are lawbreakers. And we need to be cleaned. We cannot do it ourselves; we need to run through the “car wash” of God’s mercy and love.

God’s message through Isaiah still rings true today: “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.” (Isaiah 1:18)

Whether your life has only a spot or two or if it is covered with mud, God’s gift of cleaning, through His Son Jesus, can wash it away!

Excelsior,

Dan Bolin

Author & President