The Loop

Getting the Stench Off

Have you ever had something stick to you that you just couldn't get off? I'm not talking about a piece of tape or a stubborn sticker. I'm talking about something that gets into your very being - something that follows you around no matter how hard you try to shake it.

A couple of months ago, I was out in my backyard with one of my sons doing what every Indiana homeowner knows well - burning tree limbs in a burn pit. "One of my sons loves doing that with me. And, like, when I tell him, hey, I got a bunch of tree limbs I got to burn, he, like, can't wait to go to the store, get marshmallows and hot dogs and s'mores in the whole nine yards."

But here's the problem: "When you've been out there for any length of time, and then you have somewhere you want to go later in the day, it's really, really hard. Like, you come inside, and you stink. You know what I'm talking about?”

The Coat That Couldn't Cover

"So, I have this coat that I almost always wear around the campfire. It's like my campfire coat. But when I took that off, it didn't help. I still stink. Do you know what I'm talking about?"

This led me to a question that I believe we're all asking in different ways: "How do I get the stench off me? Now, you might replace the word stench... with the word stain. How do I get it off? I can't just take off my coat. It's on me. It's stuck to me. Have you ever felt that way before?"

We're not just talking about campfire smoke here. We're talking about that deeper thing - that sense that something is fundamentally wrong, that we don't measure up, that we're carrying around something we can't seem to shake.

A Call That Changed Everything

This question became even more personal for me this week when my phone rang. I thought it was a staff member calling, but "it was somebody that I haven't talked to in at least, I think, 15 years." Their story had been difficult - "some of it brought on by themself, and some of it just life has been hard. When their marriage fell apart, they turned to an alternative lifestyle and now identify in a completely different way. A lot of alcohol and rehabs eventually led to this place of hopelessness and despair. And in that place, tried to end it all not long ago, but failed by God's grace to succeed."

When I asked why they were calling me after all these years, "the best that I could put together is because this person is grasping for Jesus. And in many ways, I represent that to them."

Maybe that's your story today - you're looking for something, but you can't find what you're looking for.

God's Answer: Isaiah 1:18

This is where God's voice breaks through with incredible hope. Isaiah 1:18 says, "Come now, let us settle the matter, says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they will be white as snow. Though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool."

But how does this actually happen? How do we get from scarlet to white? Let me take you on a journey through Scripture to show you God's consistent plan.

The Beginning: When Covering Became Necessary

Going back to Genesis, we find Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. "He told them, be fruitful and multiply. And it says in Genesis 2:25, they ran around and they were naked and had no shame." But then sin entered the story when they disobeyed God by eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

"The moment that Adam and Eve sin, what they do is they go into the bushes and start hiding from each other... Can't you and I relate? I mean, you don't have to like tell anybody. Please keep your elbows to yourself. But when you do something you weren't supposed to do, don't you go and hide?"

We all try to hide our failures, don't we? "Have you ever been speeding and the police officer pulls you over and says, 'Do you have any idea how fast you were going?' And you lie." Or when you're late to a meeting and "you come up with the most extreme thing that ever happened to explain why you were late."

God's Solution vs. Our Solutions

Here's what's fascinating: "While in the bushes they make fig leaves... they make leaves that cover themselves." But after God pronounced judgment, "it says in Genesis 3:21, the Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them."

"What's interesting is they're walking around with these man-made coverings to hide their failures... But God said, no, we're going to take away your fake coverings, and I'm going to give you a real covering."

This was likely "the first-time death ever entered the story... God killed one of his other creations to cover them." Here's the first principle: God changes our identity by covering our sin.

"See, our covering is about hiding. That's what Adam and Eve did. God's covering is about healing. And there's a huge difference between hiding and healing, even though both involved a covering."

The Day of Atonement: A Picture of What's Coming

Fast forward to Leviticus 16, where God instituted Yom Kippur - "literally, it means the day of covering." This was an elaborate ritual involving the high priest Aaron entering the Most Holy Place once a year with animal sacrifices.

But here's what made this day special: there were two goats. "One's going to be for the Lord. That's for a sacrifice. But the scapegoat, that's a whole other fascinating thing."

The first goat was sacrificed, its blood sprinkled on the mercy seat. But the second goat - the scapegoat - had all the sins of Israel confessed over it, then "the goat will carry on itself all their sins to a remote place, and the man shall release it in the wilderness" (Leviticus 16:22).

"In other words, one goat gets sacrificed, its life is dead in order to cover over the sins of the people. But the other one is to take the sin away from the people."

The Scarlet Thread Through History

Here's where it gets really interesting. The rabbis would tie "a red scarlet ribbon to the horn of the goat. And then they would take another red scarlet ribbon, and they would tie it to the gate. And the rabbis actually write that for years, hundreds of years, on this day when it was reported that the red ribbon tied on the gate would mysteriously turn white."

But something changed. "According to the rabbis and something called tractate 39, in 70 AD the temple was destroyed. But 40 years before the temple was destroyed, one day, for reasons nobody can explain, the scarlet ribbon stopped turning white."

When was that? "40 years before 70 AD, it was the year that Jesus was crucified. And this is coming from rabbinical sources that don't believe in Jesus."

The Problem We Can't Fix

Here's our dilemma, as God says in Jeremiah 2:22: "Although you wash yourself with soap and use an abundance of cleansing powder, the stain of your guilt is still before me, declares the Sovereign Lord."

"See, the problem is I can't fix this on my own. And all of my best efforts to change my color from red to white are not going to get it done. It can't. I can't do enough good deeds to make up for the evil that I've done, even the evil that nobody else knows about, that I try to hide and cover. But God can."

Christmas: God's Ultimate Solution

"In fact, Christmas represents God entering the scene to change our story. Everything about it." Think about the shepherds who first heard the good news. "The irony of the shepherd story is that because of the work that the shepherds do, they're considered ceremonially unclean. They can't go to the temple and offer sacrifices because they're unclean because of the work they do. But the very animals they're watching over are the animals that would be offered in the sacrifices."

Yet the angel told them in Luke 2:10-12, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all people. Today in the town of David, a savior has been born to you. He is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be assigned to you. You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."

How Jesus Changes Everything

This brings us to what theologians call "penal substitutionary atonement." Let me break that down:

• Penal means penalty. "Paul tells us in the book of Romans, the wages of sin is death... So because of what I have done, I've earned something... My sin and my rebellion... equaled a wage. What was the wage? Death."
• Substitutionary just means substitute. "It should have been me on that cross. That's what I earned from my rebellion against God."
• Atonement literally just means to be made one again with God by covering our sin.

As Isaiah prophesied 750 years before Jesus: "But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was on him. And by his wounds we are healed" (Isaiah 53:5).

God Changes Our Clothes

Here's the beautiful truth: "God changes our identity by changing our clothes." Just like He replaced Adam and Eve's fig leaves with proper covering, just like Aaron had to change clothes before entering God's presence, God wants to clothe us differently.

Galatians 3:27 says, "For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ."

"When we go into the waters of baptism, there is something happening there. He is taking off the old me, and he's putting on a new me that looks like Jesus Christ."

The Promise for Everyone

Paul addresses this directly in 1 Corinthians 6:9-11, listing various sins - "the sexually immoral... nor the idolater, nor adulterers, nor men who have sex with men, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor slanderers, nor swindlers will not inherit the kingdom of God."

But then comes the hope: "And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God."

• You were washed - pointing to baptism as the Marker of new life
• You were sanctified - made holy, with God seeing Jesus' righteousness instead of your sin
• You were justified - declared righteous in God's courtroom

The Final Picture

In Revelation 7:13-17, we see the ultimate fulfillment: "These in white robes, who are they and where did they come from?... These are they who have come out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb."

How do you get white robes from blood? Only God can perform that miracle.

Putting It Into Practice

So how do you get the stench off? How do you get the stain out? "Well, guess what? If you're at a campfire, you do it the same way. You got to go in, you got to strip it all off. You got to wash and get dressed anew. It's the only way."

FOR THE BELIEVER

If you've already accepted Christ, remember: "You need a Savior, and God loves you so much he sent one. His name is Jesus." Don't take grace for granted. "Come now, let us settle the matter, says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow."

FOR THE SEEKER

Maybe you're like my friend who called after 15 years, grasping for Jesus. "What are you waiting for? He's good." God wants to change your entire identity, to clothe you with righteousness, to clothe you with Christ.

The promise stands: though your sins are like scarlet, they can be white as snow. Though they are red as crimson, they can be like wool. That's not just a dream - that's God's Christmas gift to you.

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