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Christians, as you all know, the purpose of a doormat is to clean your shoes off before you enter the house.  If you have been out and about in the world, you could have easily picked something up that you wouldn’t want to bring into your house, so when you get home, you take a moment and make sure you are good to enter in.  You wouldn’t purposely go out and jump in mud puddles, walk through cow manure, jump in a pile of steaming hot garbage, and think, “it’s all good, I have a welcome mat that will clean this all up for me,” yet so many times we do this with the grace of God.

When I was growing up, I was taught that when I asked Jesus into my heart, that He has forgiven all of my sins, past, present, and future.  That if I ever mess up again, I just repent, say I am sorry, and voila, good as new, clean, fresh, and ready to go.  The problem I have with that theology is that it led me to “greasy grace.”  I struggled my senior year in high school and the following 4 plus years in college, living a very un-Christianlike life, and just wiping my feet off on Jesus every once in a while, just to make sure I was still good.

It wasn’t until years later, when I learned that the definition of repentance was to TURN away from sin, not muttering an empty sorry every so often when I mess up.  It was an action verb, with the purpose to avoid sinning in the first place.  Jesus did not die on the cross so that I could use His sacrifice as a doormat to keep on sinning, but keeping my soul clean when I needed to come to God.  No, Jesus’ sacrifice and subsequent gift of the Holy Spirit now help me to avoid sinning at all costs.  The Holy Spirit should be convicting and alerting us how to avoid the mud puddles, sticky situations, and disgusting traps of the enemy we encounter in the world. 

So I ask you, are you using Jesus as a doormat?  Are you knowingly, openly sinning, but just have the same conviction I had, which was an abuse of God’s grace.  I implore you, to flee from sin, seek righteousness, and intimacy with God.  Imagine keeping your conscience and spirit clean and pure before God.  So many people are running through this world, getting caught up with all sorts of traps, but they would claim they have a doormat Jesus, that they will use right before they enter in the gates of heaven. But I remind you, that each one of us will stand individually before Jesus and be held accountable for what we have done on this earth both good and bad.  It will not be the time to pull out your Jesus doormat and try and clean yourself up, it will be too late for that.

As someone who has personally been guilty of being saved but living wrong, I can tell you the biggest lie of the enemy is that Jesus is ok with you messing up.  Now I am not saying you have to be perfect, but I am saying that if you are a child of God, He will have different expectations of you based on how long you have been saved, and the revelation you have.  I have 4 kids, ranging from soon to be 12 down to 4 years old.  Each of my children I love unconditionally, but I certainly will hold them accountable based upon what I know, they know, to do and act.  If my oldest runs through mud puddles and then tracks it in the house, I will have a completely different response than if my 4 year old were to make that same mistake.  

In closing, I hope to encourage you, that Jesus is all about forgiving sins.  It does not mean that what I was taught was wrong, God has forgiven all my sins, past, present, and future, through the redemptive blood of Jesus on the cross. However the number of times I need to use His grace that way should be greatly reduced in number and also in the obvious nature of those sins.  

Father God, we come before you as we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, but we pray now that you would make us clean as pure snow.  We ask you that you would empower us through the Holy Spirit to avoid sin at all costs, that you would lead us into purity and righteousness for Your Kingdom’s sake.  We thank you Jesus, for your grace, your sacrifice, and your love, may we never treat it with disrespect or irreverence in Jesus Name, Amen.

But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. I Timothy 6:11 (NIV)

Run from anything that stimulates youthful lusts. Instead, pursue righteous living, faithfulness, love, and peace. Enjoy the companionship of those who call on the Lord with pure hearts. II Timothy 2:22 (NLT)

Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. Romans 12:2 (NLT)

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?  Far from it! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?  Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?  Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life.  For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for the one who has died is freed from sin. Romans 6:1-7 (NASB)

For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. Romans 8:14 (NIV)

written and posted by Daniel Poggensee | 2024