One summer night, while enjoying the warm breeze and time with my family, I realized one of my greatest fears as a dog owner.

My dog, Dodger, had been skunked.

The first lesson we learned that night was that a skunked dog affects everything. If he gets inside your house, your house now smells like skunk. Hops up on your couch? Yep, the skunk smell is now there too. Rubs up against you? You’ve effectively been skunked.

Secondly, we learned that a skunked dog is exceptionally hard to clean. Soap and water did not do the trick. In fact, we learned the hard way that water actually makes the skunk smell more pungent!

Next, we tried tomato juice. While Dodger was covered in tomato juice, he smelled better. But as soon as we rinsed him off, the skunk smell was still clear and present. The tomato juice didn’t remove the smell; it had only masked it.

A chemical bath is what finally did the trick. Turns out, we needed a product specifically created for the problem. It chemically broke down the skunk’s spray and physically removed it from Dodger’s fur. He came home from the groomer looking clean and smelling even better than before, like a brand-new pup!

Similarly, there is only one true solution to our sin problem. I remember very clearly feeling “skunked” by my sin. I felt like it was impacting everything I touched, every part of my life. It seemed like no matter how hard I tried to fix it on my own, I only found temporary fixes that made the root issue worse. It was coming to Christ with a heart of surrender that finally broke my chains and removed the shame of sin from my life.

In Zechariah chapter three, the prophet has a vision of Jeshua, the high priest. Satan is also present, accusing Jeshua because he was wearing filthy clothes as he stood before the angel of the Lord (Zechariah3:1,3).

“So the angel said to the others standing there, ‘Take off his filthy clothes.’ And turning to Jeshua he said, ‘See, I have taken away your sins, and now I am giving you these fine new clothes’ … So they put a clean priestly turban on his head and dressed him in new clothes.” (Zechariah 3:4-5 NLT)

I believe this vision was fulfilled in Jesus Christ! As Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:21, “For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

What an amazing God we serve. Not only does He remove our filthy garments—our sins—but He goes even further and dresses us in new, priestly clothes. Now we cannot be accused by our adversaries! For we are washed clean, made new, and clothed in Christ’s own righteousness, so we can stand blameless in His presence.

Father God, help us to surrender our lives to you so that we can be saved from our sin and made new by Your righteousness. Instead of trying to fix the problem of our sin ourselves, remind us that You have already made the way through Your Son, Jesus.

I am overwhelmed with joy in the Lord my God! For he has dressed me with the clothing of salvation and draped me in a robe of righteousness. (Isaiah 61:10)

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Scripture is quoted from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.