Saved by a clean house?

YOU MIGHT BE A LUTHERAN IF...
...your house is a mess because you're saved by Grace, not by works.

I added the Old Lutheran thing to my blog awhile back. Sometimes the auto-postings are interesting historical tidbits about Martin Luther. Sometimes they are theological. Sometimes they are meant to be funny but I think they are shallow humor.

The one above, from today, strikes me a little differently. I read an article in a Christian women's magazine about nit-picky housekeepers. The article suggested that a woman might be overly focused on cleaning because she never feels good enough. And if she never feels good enough, would she feel good enough for God's grace? If she didn't feel good enough for God's grace, would she ever feel accepted, loved by God? Would she ever know that she is forgiven for the past, present, and future?

I find these questions interesting. Certainly God can save somebody who believes in Jesus but doesn't really "get it:" that we are saved precisely when we aren't good enough. My favorite verse is Romans 5: 8.

But how much more free and thankful we can feel when we do understand that it is precisely because we can never BE good enough on our own that God sent Jesus to do this "housework" for us. We can't dust our way into God's grace, but we can relax and trust our way into His kingdom.