In the beginning, there were the special hand soaps. The antibacterial kind. We bought them for our sinks at home, and you probably did, too.

Next came the germ-killing countertop cleaners.

Over time, more and more antimicrobial products popped up on the market. Then finally, to the delight of housecleaners everywhere, there appeared a house that can actually clean itself. Yes, that’s right: An entire house. The Washington Post reports that the AK Steel Corporation has unveiled a complete house made with special stainless and carbon steels. These steels are coated with a compound that actually kills bacteria and mold.

It’s the perfect house for Adrian Monk, don’t you think? Monk is the hero of a hit TV series about a detective with an obsessive compulsive disorder. He’s a clean freak, a germaphobe, a neatnik. Detective Monk goes out of his way to avoid dirt, disarray, bad smells, and loud noises -- but the surprising twist of the show is that his disorder actually helps him to notice important clues that other detectives overlook.

Perhaps, in an upcoming episode, Adrian Monk will move from his immaculate apartment to a self-cleaning house.

But just how does this self-cleaning house work? The AK Steel home has a silver-based coating that does its disinfecting by interfering with various biochemical pathways in microbes. This microbe-resistant compound covers kitchen appliances, door handles, and the heating and air-conditioning system – places where little nasties like to live. It’s an innovation that creates a wonderfully germ-free environment, and it introduces a whole new meaning for the expression “cleaning house.” (Rick Weiss, "The Germ of a Home Design," The Washington Post, October 6, 2003, A9)

So, the day may come in which none of us will have to worry about microbes on our microwaves … but what about the presence of sin in our lives? That’s tougher infestation to fight. There is never going to be a silver-based substance we can apply to our souls. There is never going to be a sin-killing compound that we can use to coat our hearts and minds.

The question for all of us, for you and for me, is this: How do we clean house internally, instead of externally?

Fortunately, the apostle Paul has the answer.

Writing to the Galatians, Paul lays out an innovative solution to sin contamination. He knows that our human sinfulness has polluted our relationship with God, so much so that it has actually built up a barrier between ourselves and the Lord. While you might expect a religious guy like Paul to recommend that we use the laws of the Bible to scrub ourselves clean, he takes a very different approach. He stresses instead that “a person is justified not by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ” (2:16).

We clean house, he says, not by harder scrubbing, not by greater effort to purify ourselves, not by an obsessive-compulsive attachment to works of the law. Instead, we are justified through faith in Jesus Christ.

Okay, that sounds good. But what does it mean to be “justified”? That’s a term that preachers love to use … “justified by grace” … “justified through faith” … yadda, yadda, yadda. But we don’t all know what “justified” means; I didn’t know its meaning myself until I went to seminary and spent thousands of dollars on a theological education. Unfortunately, the word “justified” gets thrown around so much that most Christians have gotten to the point where they think they ought to know, they figure that everyone else knows, and they’re afraid to ask a question that reveals what they don’t know. So, here’s everything you always wanted to know about justification … but were afraid to ask.

To be justified, quite simply, is to be placed in a right relationship with God. It’s the action taken by our Lord to break down the barrier that has been built up by our sinful thoughts, words and deeds. In the Old Testament, God justifies his people by rescuing them from danger and overthrowing their enemies. In the New Testament, God justifies his followers through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ in his death on the cross. In all of these examples, God takes the powerful action of setting right all that has gone wrong.

Justification. You can think of it as God cleaning house, and making everything right.

Paul goes on to tell us that faith in Christ is a key to this process of justification. “And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus,” he writes, “so that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by doing the works of the law, because no one will be justified by the works of the law” (v. 16). This is a reminder to us that we are put in a right relationship with God by our faith in Christ – by our willingness to trust the power of his death on the cross. We aren’t made right with God by our adherence to the law. We aren’t made right by religious practices such as charitable contributions or Sabbath-keeping. We aren’t made right by trying to be a really, really nice person. We aren’t made right by anything we do, but instead we are made right by what Jesus did – he died on the cross to bring us forgiveness and new life.

Cleaning house by trusting Christ – it’s a development even more innovative than the AK Steel home.

The effectiveness of this approach comes from the union that is created between Jesus and each one of us. While you might think that the silver-based coating of the AK Steel home has a close and lasting relationship with its many kitchen appliances, this bond is not nearly as tight as the link between Jesus Christ and each Christian believer. “I have been crucified with Christ,” proclaims Paul to the Galatians; “and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (vv. 19-20). Paul is stressing that our trust in Christ does more than cleanse our sin and put us back in a right relationship with God – it actually causes us to die and rise as new persons, as people who are filled with the living presence of Jesus Christ. What a bond this is!

But what does this living presence of Christ really mean for us, in the middle of our job worries, our mortgage headaches, our concerns about the safety of our kids? What does it mean for us to live by faith in the Son of God, who loved us and gave himself for us?

To live in this way is to focus on love and self-sacrifice, just as Jesus did throughout his earthly life, and just as Jesus does in his relationship with us today. This is not an easy path for us to take, because you know as well as I do that love is not what maximizes profits in the world today, and self-sacrifice is not what helps you to get ahead in the marketplace. But at the end of the day, we all know that money by itself is a cold form of comfort, and you can climb to the top of the corporate ladder and suddenly find yourself very much alone. As much as I appreciate the salary increases that you give me each year, I have to say that money alone has never increased my personal happiness.

What gives life its deepest meaning is a set of quality relationships – with friends, with family, with neighbors, with the Lord. And so maybe a life of love and self-sacrifice really is the way to get ahead, if we define getting ahead as being in right relationship with our God and our closest companions. If we have faith in Jesus, and allow him to make his home in us, we will certainly be led into healthy relationships. We’ll find ourselves:

- Spending evenings with our children, instead of with our clients.

- Taking time to talk with neighbors, instead of strategizing with our stockbrokers.

- Putting a good effort into Christian service, instead of working hard only at the office.

- Offering God our deepest loyalty, instead of putting our trust in a political party.

- Pleasing our spouses instead of our bosses, and moving personal growth ahead of professional advancement.

When Christ takes up residence in us, we find ourselves motivated by an entirely different set of concerns. Our desire suddenly shifts from receiving to giving, and from making a living to building a life. We realize that the best way to grow inwardly is to look outwardly, and concentrate on meeting the needs of others. We find ourselves focusing more and more on the quality of relationships, remembering that relationships are a matter of give and take – always in that order.

Think about it. Give and take should always be kept in the proper order. Give and take – giving first, and then receiving.

When we live by faith in the Son of God, the one who loves us and gives himself to us, we suddenly realize that we are justified – we are people who have received the priceless gift of being right with God. We’ve been scrubbed as clean as a self-cleaning house, and we’re free to move forward into the future without guilt or anxiety or fear. Sure, we still need to show up for work, make those mortgage payments, and keep our children safe and well-fed. But we don’t have to worry about losing direction, or meaning, or purpose in life – we’ve got the most important things we need when we are right with God and with one another.

There’s simply no better way to get clean and clear and focused. In terms of eliminating personal pollution, nothing can beat the powerful and purifying presence of Jesus.

Not even a self-cleaning house. Amen.

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