"Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one." Job 14:4
When Adam sinned, the only thing that reminded was ash. What can come out of ashes? It is only a reminder that once upon a time there was something there. Any attempt to reconstruct fallen man will be like trying to rebuild the burnt up house with the ashes from its remains. Sadly, this is what the natural man tries to do when he seeks to refurbish his old, depleted life to make it presentable to God as his reasonable sacrifice. In other words, he is trying to bring a clean thing out of an unclean thing.
This was Job's question, "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? To his question, he rightly answered, "not one". In other words, every such attempt is just an exercise in futility. Man in his fallen state is, through and through, unclean. Nothing good can come out of fallen man, he is only good for judgment, and indeed, he has been judged, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God and the wages of sin is death. There is nothing in man that can bring about salvation, man is inherently corrupt, lost and unworthy to stand before a holy God.
But on the cross, God placed our old Adamic nature in Christ and crucified it. So, in Christ, that old sinful nature died, and upon His resurrection, a new life, one that never existed, came into being. Not a refurbished life from the ashes of the ruin of the fall. For our ashes, Christ has made beauty available, and it is a beauty hitherto known to humanity, but notice that it is not from our ashes that this beauty came, it is for our ashes, which means that in the place of ashes, beauty was given.
To be sure, there is nothing in us that can make for beauty, but in Christ, God set aside our ashes, and gave us beauty. We have nothing to boast about in ourselves, if we will boast, it must be of what God has done for us in Christ. This is what beauty for ashes is: God's best for our ashes. What a wonder! Thank You Jesus.
Toni
