Coming Clean Before God

Does the Bible say we have to come clean before we become Christians? To this day, I have yet to find a passage that supports that claim. The Bible does tell us, "Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool" (Isaiah 1:18). Notice this passage says come even though your sins are red like scarlet. That is like saying, come even though you are an evil person who deserves judgment. The passage does not say, clean yourself up then come.

Too many times, Christians are told that you must be keep your confessions up to date in order for God to bless you or God cannot use you. This sounds like some form of prosperity gospel. Keep confessing and repenting then God will make you blessed beyond your widest dreams. Please do not misunderstand me, God does require his children to confess their sins and repent from them, but not to get something from him. Our confession and repentance is a response to the gospel.

Yes, we are told to come clean before God. The Bible says, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). Though we are freed from the penalty of sin, we still have the presence of sin while we still live in our earthly bodies. Think about this, there are people in the Bible that God used that were not perfect nor were they clean before God came to them. Moses murdered an Egyptian yet God appeared to him in a burning bush. Peter was called to follow Jesus yet always wanted the last word, denied Jesus, and even was a racist. Paul murdered Christians and was on his way to arrest Christians when Jesus appeared to him. John Mark abandoned Paul and Barnabas that led to those two splitting up yet John Mark a.k.a. Mark because writer of one of the four gospels.

You do not have to clean yourself up to come to God. You come to him just as you and when you embrace Jesus, you want to confess your sins and repent from them. Martin Luther said, "All of the Christian life is faith and repentance." We need to confess our sins and repent everyday. Why? We have a Savior and we are his children while still living in our earthly bodies still dealing with sin. If we do sin, there is good news:

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:1-2).