Becoming Spotless
by Charles Spurgeon

We proceed to notice the condition in which the saints are to be when presented—they are to be “faultless,” for our Lord never stops short of perfection in His work of love. That Savior who means to keep His people to the end, will not present them at last just alive, all black and foul as when He helped them out of the miry places. He will not bring them in, as sometimes gallant men have to do those whom they have rescued from drowning, with just the vital spark within them.

No, our Savior will carry on His people safe from falling, through this life, and He will present them, how?—faultless. Oh, that is a wondrous word, “faultless”—we are a long way off from it now. Faulty, aye, we are now faulty through and through, but Jesus Christ will never be content till we are faultless. And this He will make us in three ways—He will wash us till there is not a spot left, for the chief of sinners shall be as white and fair as God’s purest angel. The eye of justice will look, and God will say, “No spot of sin remains in you.” You may have been a drunkard, a thief, an adulterer, and what not, but if Christ in mercy undertakes your case, He will wash you in His blood so thoroughly that you shall be faultless at the last. You will be without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing.

Now we are defiled and covered with sin as if we had “lien among the pots.” We have reveled in uncleanness till we are as if we had been “plunged in the ditch.” Our own flesh must abhor us if we could but see how defiled we are by nature and by practice. Now all this shall be completely removed and we shall be whiter than snow.

You remember that when the disciples looked at Jesus on the mount of transfiguration, they saw that His garments were white and glistening, whiter than any fuller could make them. Now, so shall we be hereafter, whiter and fairer than any earthly art can attain to. The sea of glass, clear as crystal, will not be whiter nor purer than we shall be when washed in the blood of the Lamb.

But that is only one way. If a man had no fault, yet it would be necessary for him to have some virtues. A man cannot enter heaven simply because transgression is put away. The law must be kept, there must be a positive obedience to divine precepts. Religion is no negation, an absence of things evil merely. It is the presence of the good, the true, the pure.

 But since even when we do our best, we shall be unprofitable servants, we need something higher than we can ever produce by these our feeble and sinful powers. Therefore the Lord our God imputes to us the perfect righteousness of His Son Christ Jesus, for,

“Lest the shadow of a spot Should on my soul be found; He took the robe the Saviour wrought, And cast it all around.”

The righteousness of Jesus Christ will make the saint who wears it so fair that he will be positively faultless. Yes, perfect in the sight of God. There is a fullness in this which it delights my soul to dwell upon. A man may be faultless in my sight, but not in the sight of those who know him intimately. A Christian may be so holy as to escape the censure of all just men, but ministering spirits, who read the heart and deal with the inner man, can speak of evil which has not come to light before human eyes. But we know that God sees even more clearly than angelic spirits, for He charges them with folly. Now, God is to see no iniquity in us, no shortcoming. We shall be tried in His scales, and set in the light of His countenance, and be pronounced “faultless.” God’s law will not only have no charge against us, but it will be magnified in us and honored by us. We shall have imputed to us that righteousness which belongs to Him who has done all this for us that He might “present us faultless before the presence of his glory.”

Fourthly and best, perhaps, the Spirit of God will make new creatures of us. He has begun the work and He will finish it. He will make us so perfectly holy that we shall have no tendency to sin any more. The day will come when we shall feel that Adam in the garden was not more pure than we are. You shall have no taint of evil in you. Judgment, memory, will—every power and passion shall be emancipated from the thralldom of evil. You shall be holy even as God is holy, and in His presence you shall dwell forever.

How altered we shall be, for look within, and see if your experience is not like the apostle Paul’s, who found a potent law in his members, so that when he would do good evil was present with him, and when he desired to escape some evil, he did at times the very thing he allowed not, but would most heartily condemn. So is it with us. We would be holy, but we are like a ball that has a bias in it, we cannot go in a straight and direct line. We try to hit the mark, but we are prone to start on one side like a deceitful bow.

There is a black drop in our hearts which taints all the streams and none of them can be pure. But it will be all changed one day, we shall be re-made, and all the evil gone, gone forever. How joyous must have been the entrance of Naaman, the Assyrian, into his house after he had washed in Jordan’s stream, and found his flesh restored to him as the flesh of a little child.

I think I see him as the watchman on the tower has given notice of his approach in the distance, the whole household is at the gate to meet him, and to see if he comes back in health. His wife, if Eastern customs would not permit her going forth in public, would look from her casement to catch a glimpse of his face, to see if the dread spot was gone. How joyful the shout, “He is cured and clean!” But this is nothing compared with the rapture of that hour when the everlasting doors will be lifted up, and we, made meet for the inheritance of the saints in light, shall enter into the joy of our Lord.

Or take another illustration from Scripture, and try and realize the happiness which reigned in the family of the maniac out of whom the legion of devils had departed. Perhaps he had been home before when under the evil influence of the foul fiends—how terrified they doubtless were with the mad frenzy of the poor unhappy wretch as he cut himself with stones, and broke all bonds put on him in tenderness and love in order to restrain his self-imposed misery and wounds.

And now that he comes once more to his house, they see him approach, and the old terror seizes them because they know not that he is a changed man, but suppose him still to be the demented being of days gone by. But as he enters the door as calm and composed as if he had returned from a long journey, and were only anxious to relate the incidents of the pilgrimage and greet loved friends once more. With no fierce frenzy rolling in his eye, no loud discordant shrieks rending the air, but all is the demeanor of a well-regulated, joyful, yet chastened mind.

As all this is realized by his friends, and they hear what great things the Lord has done for him, what joy must have been in that family circle. I should like to have seen it. I am sure it was a choice exhibition of real human bliss, such as earth only witnesses now and then. A beam of purest radiance lighting up the scene, like the splendor which Saul of Tarsus saw on the road to Damascus as it lit up the day, when he was made a new creature in Christ Jesus.

Here also we can most truthfully say that the joy, though great, was not comparable to the joy which shall be ours when we are changed into new creatures, when we shall be clothed and in our right mind—no longer prone to wander among the black mountains of iniquity, and no more tempted to abide amongst those dead in trespasses and sins, but ever holy, and always living unto God, and made like unto Him.

Oh this is joy indeed! Not only will He keep us from falling, but present us faultless. My brethren and sisters, at the thought of this I think you must join with Jude, and say, “Now unto him that is able to do all this, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever.”

I cannot speak to you as I would wish upon such a theme as this—who could? But when we get to heaven, our song there shall be more sweet, more loud, because we shall understand better the dangers from which we have escaped, and how very much we owe to Him who has kept us, and brought us safely through all the vicissitudes of life, unto the place He has prepared for us. Meanwhile, never let us be forgetful of that mighty goodness which holds us fast and will not let us go.