What Did God Do to You?

Some of you were once like that. But you were cleansed; you were made holy; you were made right with God by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

1 Corinthians 6:11

What happened when you first put your faith in Jesus Christ? When you became a believer, what did God do to you?

Most of us would think first of our salvation. What did God do to me when I became a Christian? He forgave my sin and gave me the gift of eternal life. This answer is true, thanks be to God. But it isn’t the whole answer. More happened in the moment of your conversion than forgiveness, however wonderful and important that might be.

In 1 Corinthians 1:11, the Apostle Paul explains what happened to us when we trusted Christ, using three verbs that read in our translation: “you were cleansed; you were made holy; you were made right with God.” “You were cleansed” renders the Greek verb apolouo which means, literally, “to wash away something.” “You were made holy” translates hagiazo, a verb that means “to set apart something for a special purpose.” “You were made right with God” comes from the Greek verb dikaioo, which means “to make right” or “to justify.” All three of these verbs use a Greek past tense that emphasizes the once-for-all nature of the activity (aorist). All three are in the passive voice. We do not wash away our own sins. We do not set ourselves apart for God. We do not make ourselves right with God. God alone can do these things, and he has done these things by his grace in the name of Jesus Christ and through the agency of the Holy Spirit.

Here is great news for us. What did God do to you when you confessed Jesus as Lord and Savior? He washed away the stain of your sin, so that you might stand before him without shame or fear. He set you apart to be in relationship with him and to do his work. He brought you into right relationship with himself, declaring that you are “not guilty.”

The Christian life is receiving these good gifts of God and then living them out each day. As people who have been washed, we seek purity. As those who have been set apart, we live for God in all that we do each and every day. As people who have been made right with God, we do what is right and just in our relationships with others.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION: Which of the activities of God described in 1 Corinthians 6:11 do you need most to be reminded of today? How might you live out the truth of this verse in all that you do today?

PRAYER: I hear the Savior say,
“Thy strength indeed is small;
Child of weakness, watch and pray,
Find in Me thine all in all.”

Jesus paid it all,
All to Him I owe;
Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow.

For nothing good have I
Whereby Thy grace to claim,
I’ll wash my garments white
In the blood of Calv’ry’s Lamb.

Jesus paid it all,
All to Him I owe;
Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow.

And now complete in Him
My robe His righteousness,
Close sheltered ’neath His side,
I am divinely blest.

Jesus paid it all,
All to Him I owe;
Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow.

Amen.

“Jesus Paid It All” by Elvina M. Hall, 1865. Verses 1-3. Public Domain.