Part 18 of the Cleansing of the Sanctuary Series)
“That he might sanctify and cleanse it [the church] with the washing of water by the word,” (Ephesians 5:26)
It is interesting that the words “sanctuary” (hagion, G39) and “sanctify” (hagiazo, G37) are both from the same Greek word “hagios,” (G40) usually translated as “holy.” A sanctuary is a holy place and a place that is clean.
Cleansing is a Process
Scripture indicates that cleansing the sanctuaries, the hearts of people involves the Word of God. When we learn truth from the Word, we can choose to obey it and receive the benefits. It involves a process that might be illustrated like this:
First we learn truth (even if just a little) from the Word:
“Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.” (John 17:17)
It starts to have an effect right away. Then we remember and treasure that truth in our hearts and put value on it:
“Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.” (Psa 119:11)
That truth, when we make it the guide of life (a light to our paths – Psa 119:105), has the power to purify the person:
“Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth …” (1 Pet 1:22)
When we obey the Word and are purified (even to a limited degree in one area of life) we become a more holy (sanctified) sanctuary to receive the Holy Spirit:
“Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.” (John 17:17)
Then, with obedience and resulting sanctification, the Spirit is given in greater measure:
“And we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him.” (Acts 5:32)
The Holy Spirit then has greater influence to guide the believer:
“Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth …” (John 16:13)
More truth from the Word is given with further opportunity to grow in knowledge and so the cycle repeats again and again towards the objective:
“That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.” (2 Tim 3:17)
The preceding verse identifies scripture as key to this process:
“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:” (2 Tim 3:16)
Jesus, Himself reinforced this:
“But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” (Matt 4:4)
The Role of the Word
Here is a key verse that gives an insight into how this works:
“For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” (Heb 4:12)
What does it mean to discern?
Def: to perceive by the sight or some other sense or by the intellect; see, recognize, or apprehend (www.dictionary.com)
Who needs to discern? Not God, but us. He already knows the thoughts and intents of the heart. It is we that need to understand our own thoughts and intents especially in relation to what the Word says. It helps us to discern what needs cleansing. It helps us to see the dirt.
Cleansing and Fear
Here is an interesting verse that links the cleansing process that we looked at above with the fear of God:
“Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselvesfrom all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear [phobos] of God.” (2 Cor 7:1)
That is not talking about perfecting holiness while being afraid of God; that would make no sense. The fear of God in that verse is reverence for him and an awareness of the presence of His Spirit. The verse below says if one is in fear they cannot be made perfect; cannot be cleansed. That fear must be the other meaning of fear – to be afraid.
“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear [phobos]: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.” (1 John 4:18)
So
- we are cleansed in the fear of God (2 Cor 7:1)
- He that fears is not made perfect (1 John 4:18)
The interesting thing is that fear, in both cases, is from the same Greek word phobos (G5401) with these definitions (from the On-line Bible):
1) fear, dread, terror
1a) that which strikes terror
2) reverence for one’s husband
Fear can mean either “reverence for” or “to be afraid of” and that must be determined by the context. This is a good example of how one word can have multiple and very different meanings depending on the how it is used.
It is apparent that having fear in the sense of reverence for God is necessary for the other type of fear – being afraid – to be cast out.
Many of the sins we fall into are motivated by fear in some way:
- stealing for fear of going without.
- lying for fear of embarrassment.
- judging others for fear of feeling inadequate ourselves.
- adultery for fear of being unloved, lonely
- procrastination for fear of failure
Why We are Afraid of God
At the deepest level, most people fear God. The penal, legal model is so ingrained in our society that when we do wrong we think, even subconsciously: “God is going to get me for that.” Indeed, it is often reasoned that He has to punish sin in order to be a “just” God. But is that the Biblical meaning of justice? Our assessment of our value to Him is based on our performance or lack thereof: yes, God loves me – if I’m good (which I am not always) and, of course, “He knows if I’ve been bad or good.”
Do we really think subconsciously that “God is going to get me for that”? How would you know if you do or not? – It is subconscious! Your subconscious processes all the input coming into it. If your subconscious has had the input that God must punish in some way for every sin (and we have all had that – lots of it), then it will put that together and, even if you don’t consciously make the connection, your subconscious mind will and it will cause you stress.
That is basing our value to God on our performance but is that how God determines our value? I don’t believe so. Jesus’ value to His Father is based on His relationship as the Son of God. I would highly recommend reading the booklet Identity Wars for further insight on this.
Perfect Love Casts out Fear
It should be made clear that when we speak of perfect love it is not so much us having a perfect love as it is us knowing of and appreciating the perfect love of God for us. That should be apparent as the verse (1 John 4:18) says: “…perfect love casteth our fear…” In a state where fear is present in the mind, that mind is not capable of perfect love and therefore perfect love must come in to the mind (be understood and accepted) from an outside source to cast out the fear. It is a conscious appreciation of the perfect love from an outside source that even invites it (the perfect love) in.
That can be illustrated by the following diagram (ovals represent the mind):
Jesus said:
“And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.” (John 17:3-4)
Jesus’ work to reveal the character of His Father, especially His sacrifice for us, will draw us to Him.
“And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.” (John 12:32)
He continues that work in our lives applying His Word (with its account of His life and the offering of His death) to us to cleanse us:
“Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:” (Phil 1:6)
“For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.” (Heb 10:14)
Remember sin exists in our lives on three levels:
1. the sinful attitude
2. the sinful flesh – no one is going to be cleansed by the Word if:
they have not been cleansed in attitude.
they do not accept that the Word is of God.
3. the sinful acts – if the flesh, the mind, beliefs etc are cleansed the acts will be taken care of.
So His Word first cleanses by revealing His loving character to us thus changing our sinful attitude. Then, as we react in appreciation, the love starts to grow in us.
The Word can then begin a change in our sinful flesh (mind, sanctuary) as we comprehend His great love for us. And lastly, the sinful acts will naturally decrease in frequency as a result of changed habits and thought patterns in our brains. We actually need to say relatively little about dealing with specific sins in our lives. The next part however, will provide some help in that area.
Now let us consider a few verses from chapter five of Ephesians (vv. 25-27, 29). Ephesians is a book of revelations. In these few verses I will bring out only two points: one is the water in the word, and the other is nourishing and cherishing. These verses show us again that the church is the Body of Christ, and we all are members of the Body. Actually, our proper living is not a matter of learning lessons nor a matter of enduring sufferings and bearing the cross. Ephesians 5 reveals that we need the water in the word. There is water in God’s word. The word here does not denote a lengthy discourse or the words printed in the Bible. The word here is the instant word, the present word, the word today. Two different Greek words are used in the New Testament for word: one denotes God’s constant word and the other denotes God’s instant word. The one used here in Ephesians 5 denotes God’s instant word. The Bible is God’s constant word. After we read it, however, it becomes the instant word to us. Many times the Lord also speaks an instant word directly within us. We may think that the Lord’s words must be the words written in the Bible. Actually, it is not necessarily so, because the Lord who is in us is living, and He speaks to us. In principle, of course, the words which the Lord speaks to us within will never contradict His constant words in the Bible. However, in detail, numerous words that the Lord speaks to us throughout our whole life are not found in the Bible. For instance, when you are going to watch a movie the Lord may say within you, “Do not go to see that movie.” No matter how hard you try, you will not be able to find this word—Do not go to see that movie—in the Bible. The Bible does not have this word, but actually in the Christian’s experience of life, this kind of word may occur frequently. This is the instant word spoken of here in Ephesians 5.
The Lord’s words contain the element of water, which simply speaking, is spirit and life. The Lord said, “The words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life” (John 6:63b). In other words, the Lord’s words have cleansing power. The water here is not for supplying but for cleansing, that is, for the cleansing and washing of the church. What is washed away is not defilements or sins, but spots and wrinkles. Wrinkles are related to oldness. You must let the water in the word, that is, the spirit and the life in the word, do a metabolic work in your organic being by adding new life elements into you to replace the old elements. This is a metabolic process and a discharging. We all know that metabolism takes place within us by which something new is supplied and added to us and something old is discharged and eliminated. This metabolism is the cleansing referred to in Ephesians 5.
Now you can see that no matter how much you tell people to learn the lessons of the cross, to be broken, and to endure sufferings, they can never experience metabolism by these things. This requires a revelation. When we help people, we should not try to teach them too much. If we do this, we will lead them into a maze. Instead, we should help them receive the Lord’s instant word, the Lord’s living word, every day. The spirit and the life contained in the Lord’s living word will become the cleansing water that brings the life functions to their organic constitution.
Ephesians 5:26 says, “That He might sanctify her [the church], cleansing her….” According to the Greek grammatical construction of this verse, it is difficult to decide whether sanctifying or cleansing comes first. According to the grammar, these two things occur simultaneously. When the church is being sanctified, she is being cleansed, and when she is being cleansed, she is being sanctified. We know that to be sanctified is to have the element of the Holy Spirit added into us, and to be cleansed is to have the old elements discharged from us. Sanctification is an addition, whereas cleansing is a subtraction. What is added is Christ, and what is subtracted is our oldness.
The combination of these two—sanctifying plus cleansing, and cleansing plus sanctifying—is what is called transformation in the New Testament. As referred to in the New Testament, on the one hand, transformation is a sanctifying, and on the other hand, it is a cleansing. On the one hand, the element of Christ is added, and on the other hand, the element of Adam is eliminated. This is transformation. Wrinkles surely do not come from the element of Christ but from the old Adam. These things cannot be removed by the cross nor cleansed by the precious blood. We need Christ as the new element to be added into our organic constitution. When this happens, the elements of the old creation will be replaced.
(The Revelation of the Mystery, Chapter 9, by Witness Lee)
Knowing the truths in the Bible related to what transpired at our salvation is the solid foundation for our Christian life. In a previous post, we discussed the truth of God’s forgiveness. Seeing the thoroughness of God’s forgiveness of our sins reassures us and gives us a way to go on.
In this post we’ll discuss God’s cleansing of our sins. God’s cleansing certainly applies to our experience after we’re saved, but we’ll focus here on the cleansing we received when we were saved.
Why God’s cleansing is needed
Since God’s forgiveness of our sins is so thorough, why do we need cleansing? Although God’s forgiveness abolished our record of sin and freed us from the penalty of sins, the stainsof sin remained with us.
Before we were saved, we were filthy before God in our speech, our actions, and the thoughts of our heart. Our mouth was unclean with utterances like cursing, lies, obscenities, slander, and hateful expressions. We spoke this way because our heart was unclean, for Matthew 12:34 says, “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.” Our deeds were filthy, and Paul states in Romans 6:19 that we presented the members of our body “as slaves to uncleanness.”
Not only so, in God’s eyes even our good works were filthy, for Isaiah 64:6 tells us “All of us became like him who is unclean, and all our righteousnesses are like a soiled garment.”
Sin left its ugly stain on us. We desperately needed God’s cleansing!
When did God cleanse away our sins?
The moment we believed, God both forgave us and cleansed us, as we see in 1 John 1:9:
“He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from unrighteousness.”
God’s cleansing accompanies his forgiveness. We never have to wonder whether God still sees the stain of sin on us. He washed it away.
How effective is God’s cleansing?
We might wonder, is it possible that all the stains of my sins were washed away? Does any tinge remain with me?
Two verses in the Old Testament show us the power of God’s cleansing:
Psalm 51:7—“Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow”
Isaiah 1:18—“Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”
God washes away the stains from our sinful past so absolutely that we’re made as white as snow and as wool, which are not dyed white but naturally white. God cleanses the traces of sin from us so deeply, we’re as clean and white as if we had never sinned! His cleansing is utterly effective.
How God cleanses us
God cleanses us in two ways.
1. By the blood of Jesus—to cleanse us of our behavior and deeds
Hebrews 1:3, tells us Jesus, “having made purification of sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.”
Jesus accomplished this purification by shedding His blood on the cross. When we believe in Him, that purification of sins becomes ours, and the stains of our sins are cleansed away from us.
The blood of Jesus cleanses even our conscience, the leading part of our human spirit. Hebrews 9:14 says,
“How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”
Previously, our conscience was defiled with sins. But God cleanses our conscience so it no longer condemns us of our sins, and we can serve our living God.
2. By life—to deliver us from our filthy life and nature
Titus 3:5 says, “Not out of works in righteousness which we did but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit.”
In regeneration we received God’s life, so the washing of regeneration is a washing of life.
The note on regeneration in the New Testament Recovery Version explains this washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, which go together:
“… Here it [the Greek word for regeneration] refers to a change from one state to another. Being born again is the commencing of this change. The washing of regeneration begins with our being born again and continues with the renewing of the Holy Spirit as the process of God’s new creation, a process that makes us a new man. It is a kind of reconditioning, remaking, or remodeling, with life. Baptism (Rom. 6:3-5), the putting off of the old man, the putting on of the new man (Eph. 4:22, 24; Col. 3:9-11), and transformation by the renewing of the mind (Rom. 12:2; Eph. 4:23) are all related to this wonderful process.”
We’re now in this wonderful process of being washed by the divine life of God and renewed by the Holy Spirit until we become a new creation, a new man. The note continues, explaining what washing and renewing do in us:
“The washing of regeneration purges away all the things of the old nature of our old man, and the renewing of the Holy Spirit imparts something new—the divine essence of the new man—into our being. In this is a passing from our old state into a wholly new one, from the old creation into the status of a new creation. Hence, both the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit are working in us continually throughout our life until the completion of the new creation.”
God’s cleansing is much more than we could have imagined!
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Knowing the truth of God’s forgiveness and cleansing
We needn’t be haunted by the sins of our past. The Bible assures us we received the precious blessings of God’s forgiveness and cleansing when we were saved. Being equipped with the knowledge of these blessings unburdens us of lingering fears about our sins. God took care of them all.
How about after we’re saved? We continue to experience God’s forgiveness and cleansing by confessing our sins to Him to restore our fellowship with God. And we can cooperate with His cleansing of our inward nature by His life by contacting Him in our spirit and enjoying His life in the Word.
Praise the Lord for God’s forgiveness and cleansing!
Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word.” (Psalm 119:9)
Psalm 119:9-16 provides key instructions for those who would seek to please their Creator with a godly life.
“Taking heed” (Hebrew shamar—guarding) of God’s Word is the foundation upon which a godly life is built (vv. 10-11). The psalmist sought God with his whole heart and pleaded with God to prevent him from wandering (Hebrew shagah—to stray through ignorance). That plea was then turned into a confirmation and an understanding: “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee” (v. 11).
With the assurance of these foundational elements, the psalmist promised the Lord that he will organize his life so that he “will not forget thy word” (v. 16).
Similar to the apostle John’s assurance in his first epistle, the psalmist recognized behaviors that he was already exhibiting. His “lips” have “declared” the judgments of God (v. 13). He knows that he has “rejoiced in the way” (v. 14) of God’s revealed testimonies as much as the ungodly have boasted of gaining wealth. He is no stranger to godly living and loves the way of God, seeking to excel in holiness (1 John 5:3).
The section closes with two “I will” promises, surely based upon his earlier commitment to cleanse his way. The psalmist promised to “meditate in [God’s] precepts, and have respect unto [His] ways” (v. 15). This assumes time, study, and careful thought about the purposes and intent of God’s message. It is not a promise to sit comfortably and “clear one’s mind” of cogent thinking, waiting on some voice to reveal truth. The psalmist can then “delight” in the statutes of the Word (Psalm 119:16; Romans 7:22).
As we seek to know God’s great Word, may His works refresh our hearts and delight our lives. HMM III
Days of Praise Podcast is a podcast based on the Institute for Creation Research quarterly print devotional, Days of Praise. Start your day with devotional readings written by Dr. Henry Morris, Dr. Henry Morris III, and Dr. John Morris to strengthen and encourage you in your Christian faith
Cleansed by Blood, and washed by Water.
In Psalm 51 you will find the deep need of a soul that has found itself ruined and vile, utterly without power in the hour of temptation. How deep the sense of guilt and sin; and yet the cry for mercy according to what God is! "Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquities, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash, me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free Spirit." These are the earnest desires of a sin-burdened soul — the groans of a broken heart that longs for holiness and purity. For cleansing and purging: "Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." And much more: "Create in me a clean heart, O God." Guilty, guilty, oh, wash me whiter than snow! Here is full unreserved confession to God and faith looks only to Him. Here is man's need — your need and mine, as God sees it — our very condition by nature.
Now if we turn to that day when God shall gather His ancient people from all countries, we find an answer to every cry and desire in this psalm. "And I will sanctify my great name which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the heathen shall know that I am the Lord, says the Lord God, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes. For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land. Then, will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you; and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God. I will also save you from all your uncleannesses: and I will call for the corn, and will increase it, and lay no famine upon you. And I will multiply the fruit of the tree, and the increase of the field, that ye shall receive no more reproach of famine among the heathen. Then shall ye remember your own evil ways, and your doings that were not good, and shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations. Not for your sakes do I this, says the Lord God, be it known to you: be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel. Thus says the Lord God: In the day that I shall have cleansed you from all your iniquities I will also cause you to dwell in the cities, and the wastes shall be builded." (Ezek. 36:23-31.) "Then I will sprinkle clean water upon you." All help comes from God: cleansing, a new heart, and the Holy Ghost. This is the purpose of God for His name's sake. How precious the "I wills" of God! "I will take you." Yes, from His own heart's free grace He will do all this for Israel. And is He not the same blessed God now? Poor helpless, sin-burdened soul, He says, I will cleanse thee, and thou shalt be clean. How very striking are the words of Jesus to Nicodemus: "Verily, verily, I say to thee, Except a man be born again [or wholly afresh] he cannot see the kingdom of God." And again, "Verily, verily, I say to thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." There must be a pure and holy new creation.
And this is the work of God, entirely of God. "I will cleanse," "I will give a new heart." There must be a holy new nature. Only, mark, this does not alter the flesh. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." This solemn distinction of the two natures is our blessed Lord's first elementary lesson. If this lesson is not learnt, nothing can be clearly known. Truly the new quickening birth is by the Holy Ghost — "born of the Spirit." And the thing signified by water is the word: "Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which lives and abides for ever." (1 Peter 1:23.)
But it is important to inquire why our blessed Lord used the term 'water.' " Except a man be born of water." Does it not express the holy requirements of God? There must be a nature suited to Himself.
Now let us look at a few of the types, where water was used for cleansing: indeed, let us notice the relative place in these figures of water, the blood, and oil. Suppose we look at Christ and believers, in the figures of Aaron and his sons in the day of their consecration. In Leviticus 8:6: "Moses brought Aaron and his sons and washed them with water." Then from verse 7-12 it is all Aaron alone. And he put upon him the coat and girded him. And he poured of the anointing oil upon Aaron's head, and anointed him, to sanctify him. Thus, if we look at Jesus alone in this type, it is the water and the oil; the washing in water, then the anointing of the Holy Ghost. He was the sinless One, the washing with water marked His intrinsic purity. He needed no atoning blood. It was this that so surprised John — that the Holy One should come to be baptized. "Then comes Jesus from Galilee to Jordan to John to be baptized of him. And John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me? And Jesus answering, said to him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becomes us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him. And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water, and lo, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: and lo, a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." (Matt. 3:13-17.) He fulfilled this beautiful type of the law. He was baptized with water: and at this John might well marvel. But immediately he was anointed with the Holy Ghost. And God bore witness that He was the Holy One: "my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." From His pierced side there flowed blood and water — blood to atone, and water to cleanse. But you notice He was in His own essential being all that God could require — the Beloved Son. This gives great force to the expression, "Except a man be born of water." He must have a wholly new nature — the very nature of the Beloved Son, the second Adam.
Turn back to Leviticus 8. If Aaron typifies the holy, holy One, who needed no sin-offering, the One on whom the Father could look with perfect delight, and on whom the Holy Ghost could descend; then when Aaron and his sons present Christ and believers, a sin-offering must be offered. Until the cross He, the corn of wheat, remained alone. Then He became sin for us. The holy, holy One, who knew no sin, was made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Look at Jesus in that figure; Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the sin-offering; and all this bearing the wrath due to our sins, in order that we might be one with Him in all the sweet savour to God of the burnt offering.
For again, in the next place, the ram of burnt offering is brought; and Aaron and his sons all lay their hands upon its head. Now look at Jesus the accepted of God; and then meditate on the wondrous fact, that all believers are perfectly identified with Him in all His acceptance before God. Nay, still more, the Lamb of consecration is now brought, and Aaron and his sons lay their hands on the head of it also. Oh, look again at Jesus consecrated to the Father: and are we perfectly identified with Him in His consecration? It is even so. By what power, or value, or merit can we possibly be thus identified with Him in His consecration to God? By the power, the value, the merit of His blood. The blood of consecration was first put upon Aaron's right ear, thumb, and great toe; and then put upon his sons. To have His eternally-loved many brethren He must pass through death. And the power, the value, the merit of His blood must be upon them; yes, is upon us. As the blood was put upon all the sons of Aaron, so the value of the blood is reckoned to all believers.
Now, mark, this consecration was never repeated; and if the infinite value of the blood of Christ be upon us, our consecration can never cease and can never therefore be repeated.
Then follows the anointing oil, or rather the oil and the blood, sprinkled upon Aaron and his sons. Thus all believers are anointed with the Holy Ghost, the distinguishing mark of Christianity. Blessed abiding witness of the value of the blood of Jesus! Thus we have the divine order: the water, the blood, the oil. It is our complete consecration. Born of water and Spirit, the Holy Ghost using the word to quicken us — to give us an entirely fresh, new nature, and to wash us from all defilement by the washing of water by the word. Then the infinite value of the precious death, the blood, of Jesus put upon us once and for ever. Then the anointing with the Holy Ghost.
In the cleansing of the leper in Leviticus 14 the divine order is very striking. There is first the ground on which the leper can be cleansed. There are two birds; the one is killed over running water, the other is dipped in the blood of the dead bird, and that blood sprinkled on the leper. Precious figure! Jesus must die, and must rise again, and His resurrection applies the value of His blood, as the only basis on which the sinner can be cleansed. But now mark the order of the cleansing. Read verse 8 to 20. Again we find, first the water, then the blood, then the oil. Twice is he to be washed with water. The holy pure requirements of God are thus confirmed in the type. Then the precious offerings that set forth the perfections of Christ are taken, and he is presented with the whole value of these before the Lord. Stay, how far have we got? The believer, thus typified, is to be washed with water; he must be cleansed from all defilement. He must be presented to God with all the perfections of the work and person of Christ. Yea, we are thus presented.
Then the blood is to be put upon his right ear, thumb, and toe. The value of the atoning blood of Jesus put upon him. And then the oil is to be put upon the blood. Thus again the type sets before us the water, the blood, and the Holy Ghost. Oh, meditate on the completeness of this wondrous type!
And now look through this Book of Leviticus, and you will find every possible defilement must be washed by water. Even so every possible defilement to the believer must be met by the washing of water by the word.
Read also in Numbers 19, the water of purification. What a lesson of washing by water! Blessed fact, that water derives all its virtue from death. So the water of the word derives all its value from the death of Christ. "In the body of his flesh, through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight." (Col. 1:22.)
We now turn to another scripture of great moment — Leviticus 16 — the great day of atonement.
Even here the priest that brings the blood within the veil must first wash in water. Nay, more, "He shall take a censer full of burning coals of fire from off the altar before the Lord, and his hands full of sweet incense beaten small, and bring it within the veil, and he shall put the incense upon the fire before the Lord, that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy-seat that is upon the testimony, that he die not." Yes; such must he be who should come and offer himself without spot to God. He must be pure and holy. Yea, from the fire of the altar he must be the sweet savour to God. The cloud — emblem of the divine presence — must cover the mercy-seat. Oh, what wondrous shadows of Christ!
I want my reader to fix his thoughts on two things specially in this chapter. The value of the blood before God, or propitiation, and the transfer of the believer's sins to Christ, or substitution. There are two goats to set forth these two things. One is offered as a sin-offering, and its blood is sprinkled on the golden mercy-seat before the eye of God.
We have seen, and fully admit as proved, that there are repeated washings of water. Now our solemn inquiry is, Are there, or can there be, repeated applications of the blood? How long does that blood sprinkled on the mercy-seat remain? The last verse of this chapter answers the question: "An atonement for the children of Israel, for all their sins, once a year." Then there required a fresh application of the blood of the goat once every year? Certainly.
Mark, there is no transfer of sins to the sin-offering of propitiation here. No hand of identification was laid upon its head. In propitiation it is what the blood is to God, turning the throne of righteous judgment into the mercy-seat. God meets a world in righteous mercy. Jesus is a propitiation for our sins, and not only so, but for the whole world.
Now look at the other goat — the azazel — the live goat. "And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness. And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities to a land not inhabited."
Nothing could more distinctly set before us the transfer of all our sins to Christ, the Substitute. This is substitution. There is perhaps not a more fatal mistake in modern theology than the confounding of these two truths together. It deceives those who have not faith, and it robs the true believer of the overwhelming comfort this fact gives, namely, that all his sins and guilt were transferred to Christ and borne away, never to be remembered against him for ever. But to say that Christ bore the sins of the world — that the sins of all men were transferred to Christ — is to imply that all men therefore must be saved; or that His death has been in vain. I need not say that scripture never makes such a mistake. Scripture presents Christ as the propitiation of the whole world, so that God in divine righteousness proclaims mercy and forgiveness to every man. But the transfer of sins is never applied in scripture except to those who believe, where, so to speak, the hand of faith is laid on His precious head, as the hand was laid upon the goat. I make these remarks, so that shortly we may have the full unhindered testimony of God's word to our souls.
One word more. Had this transfer of all the sins of Israel to be repeated? It had to be repeated once every year. And in cases of individual sins, had there to be a fresh sin-offering? Undoubtedly, as Leviticus 5 fully states.
Then would not all this prove, one may ask, that the modern thought of constant fresh applications of the blood of Christ is correct and scriptural?
Let us turn to the New Testament and inquire. Will you read Hebrews 9 and 10? First, it is fully admitted that under the law there was this constant repetition, a remembrance of sins once every year; and the reason why is given: "For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins."
Now, do these chapters present the sacrifice of Christ in comparison, or in contrast, with the offerings of the law? If in comparison, then clearly there must be frequent applications of the blood of Christ to the believer, and for precisely the same reason. It is like saying, For it is impossible that the blood of Christ should take away sins! Indeed, this is exactly what Satan and unbelief are saying.
But nothing can be more clear than that these chapters present the one sacrifice of Christ in direct contrastwith the often repeated sacrifices of the law. The offerings of old could never bring man into the presence of God. The veil shut him out; the Holy Ghost signifying that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest. Now the veil is rent, and we have boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus. Then the sacrifices of the law could not really take away sins even for a year. Now the one offering of Christ has for ever perfected them that are sanctified.
Look at the sprinkled blood on the mercy-seat of old. Twelve months pass over, and it loses its value; there must be a fresh application of blood. But let faith look at the blood of Jesus before God; now say, twelve months pass over, has it lost its value? Twelve years, twelve thousand, twelve millions, eternity — has it lost its value? Must there be a fresh application of blood before God? Oh, my soul, wilt thou give up the everlasting efficacy of that precious blood? I may need to come boldly again and again to that throne of grace, but to say there needs or can be a fresh application of the blood of Christ is to overthrow the very foundation of Christianity. No! the one offering perfects in perpetuity all that are sanctified.
Let us now look at Jesus as the believer's substitute. As all the sins of Israel were confessed over and laid upon the azazel — the scape-goat, we now see Christ once offered to bear the sins of many. What a wondrous reality this is! All my sins and iniquities transferred to Christ, borne away by Him, never to be remembered against me! All this is made true to my soul the moment by faith I lay my hand on that dear head of Thine. Is this true for twelve months? Does this work of my Jesus substitute then fail? and then require a fresh work, a fresh application? Oh! my reader, would you thus deny the everlasting value of the blood of Jesus? A fresh application of the substitution of Christ bearing all or any of our sins transferred to him! The thing is impossible. It would make His death of no more value than the blood of a goat! Again and again may the word be applied to my heart and conscience, revealing to my soul, the all-stupendous fact that all my sins were transferred to my holy Substitute on the cross. Oh, soul-sustaining truth!
We have then two things certain and everlasting: the blood of Jesus before God, never, never losing its efficacy — never, never needing repetition; and the sins of believers once transferred to Him put away for ever.
In all the believer's sins being transferred to Christ the Substitute, the blood must be as perfect and everlasting in its efficacy for us as it is before God; and if all our sins have thus been transferred, there remains none for which there can be a fresh death or application.
And now, whether in the cleansing of the leper, or the consecration of the priest, where the blood was put uponthe person, there was not repetition. The oil was put upon the blood. This is a third important aspect of the blood of Jesus. In the first, it was before God; in the second, it is for us, in our stead; in the third, it is upon us, the whole value of the blood is put upon us: placed to our account. Now if the blood of Jesus never can lose its value before God, nor for us in our stead; neither can it lose its value upon us. And if it can never lose its value, there need be, there can be, no fresh application of it. A fresh application implies it has lost its value. To doubt this is to doubt the infinite perfections of the person and value of the work of Christ.
This is very wonderful; yes, so wonderful that, it must be entirely of God. The believer, then, must be clean every whit in God's sight. That is just what he is, and he need not wash, save his feet. The blood is ever before God: therefore we can come boldly to the mercy-seat. All our sins have been transferred, laid on Christ, borne away. God has put the same blood upon us, the infinite value of the sacrifice of Christ upon us. As to the believer who sees this, and understands these three aspects of the death of Christ, he must know that, though all unworthy sinner in himself, yet cleansed by the blood of Christ, he is whiter than snow in God's sight — without spot, made meet for the inheritance of the saints in light. No doubt this was the faith once delivered to the saints a long time ago. Oh, if believers were but in that light now, clear and bright! A change now from Christendom to Christianity, is almost as great as it was of old from Judaism to Christ.
In the blessed Lord's commission to Paul we read — "He was sent to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receiver the forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them that are sanctified, by faith that is in me." (Acts 26:18.) Oh, how much of that light, the true knowledge of God, has been obscured by the traditions of men! There was then the complete turning from ignorance to God, to the full knowledge of God in Christ, and of the believer's standing in Him. Thus one can give "thanks to the Father, which has made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: who has delivered us from the power of darkness, and has translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son," &c. (Col. 1:12-13.) All this could not possibly be, if we were imperfectly cleansed from sins, and needed further applications of the blood of Christ. And that this is a present thing is evident: "But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises [or virtues] of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvellous light." (1 Peter 2:9.)
Much depends on whether my reader enjoys that marvellous light, in all its clear brightness, or not. If you do, if you have God's thoughts as to the blood of Christ before Him on the mercy-seat, and His thought of that sacrifice as the Substitute for you, you must see all your sins have been transferred to Christ, and for ever gone; and more, His thought about the whole value of that precious blood upon you for ever. Then you must see in this wondrous light that all your sins are gone as to their guilt, and that that blood thus cleanses you from all sin. And if so, there can be no repetition, or fresh application, of the blood of Christ.
And to this agree the words of the Spirit through John: "But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin." (1 John 1:7.) Must it not be so? The blood before God; the blood for us; the blood on us; the blood of Jesus Christ His Son. God sees the blood, and sins cannot be reckoned to us; they have been borne by Jesus. That blood — ever the same in infinite value; ever on us; ever before God — "cleanses us from all sin." It cleanses, in the sense that we are perfected for ever, in perpetuity, by that one offering. To make this a matter of work or attainment on our part would be to deny the work of Christ. He has perfected in perpetuity. It is the abstract statement of the value of His blood, in the light. And if we are there, in the light, walking in it, we shall have this blessed certainty.
But perhaps my reader will say, I have been told that verse means this — that if "a believer sins, he must come to God again, as he came at first, for a fresh application of the blood of Christ; and it will cleanse him again from his sins."
Now read the verse carefully. There is no question here of "if we sin," that is, if we do not walk in the light; but "if we walk in the light." We will look at that question, "if we sin," shortly. It is of all moment rightly to divide the word of God.
If I said, "The gas lights this room," [Written in the second half of the 19th century] this would not mean it is gone out, and needs a fresh application, needs lighting again. If I said, "The sun shines in the heavens, dispelling all darkness," this would not mean there needs a fresh application of the sun's light to do so. Nay, such has been the misuse of this precious verse that some have fallen into the fatal error, that if a believer sins he is no longer a child of God. But more of this presently.
A blind man could not see that the gas lit the room, or that the sun lights the heavens.
If a man is in darkness, he cannot see this wondrous truth, that the blood of Jesus puts away sins, cleanses from all sin. As "Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat. And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities to a land not inhabited." Even so have all our sins been transferred to Jesus. "The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all." (Isa. 53:5-11.) "So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many." "But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, for ever sat down on the right hand of God." Oh, if in the light we see Him there by faith; His work done, never to be repeated. "For by one offering, he has perfected for ever them that are sanctified." In this full, complete, everlasting sense, if we are in the light, if we walk in the light, we have fellowship in this one with another; and the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin.
But my reader may say, This wondrous work was accomplished before we were born.
Yes. Then all our iniquities, from our birth to our departure from this sinful world, were transferred to Jesus on the cross. To the believer this is surely true, or who can be saved? And when is all this made true to the believer? As the hand of Aaron was laid, in identification, on the head of the goat, so the moment the Holy Ghost imparts faith to the soul, there is complete identification with Christ. Then we receive, in living power in our souls, the blessed fact that all our sins have been transferred to Christ, never, never again to be laid to our charge. Nay, much more than this, we are reckoned dead with Christ, and risen with Him. And as all our iniquities have been transferred to Him on the cross, so now we are accepted in Him, identified with Him in all that He is, the risen Christ, at God's right hand.
The doctrine of a fresh application of the blood — a doctrine nowhere taught in scripture, but taught by men — sets all this aside, and reduces ancient Christianity into modern Judaism.
Neither must we read "cleanses from all sin" as if it meant an unfinished continuous process, like a woman washing a garment, or a man scouring a pack of wool. This is the Romish view of the work of Christ. If that woman is still washing the spots of dirt out of the garment, then she has not really perfected it. This error robs Christ of the glory of His finished work, and needs for the Romanist a purgatory hereafter, and for others a purgatory here. An anxious soul, that cannot say, "Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood," if he cannot say this, in the light, then he must be in purgatory, in the dark. Oh, my reader, if in the dark, you are tormented with uncertainty as to your sins. If in the light, you know the blood of Jesus Christ has washed them all away; they are all gone. Which is it? This is the true standing of every believer in the light before God, washed in the blood whiter than snow.
Perhaps my reader will say, I had thought these verses in 1 John very difficult.
Indeed, tell me your difficulties.
Well, am I to understand by the blood of Jesus cleansing us from all sin, that therefore we have no longer a sinful nature? That we have here below a pure sinless nature, our old sinful nature changed, or sin eradicated?
How could you have had such a thought? Do you not see verse 8 expressly corrects that mistake? "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." Do you not find these words to be truth? "That which is born of the flesh is flesh:" and again, "The flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary the one to the other." (John 3:6; Gal. 5:17.)
But how can we be for ever perfected, if there is still a sinful nature?
Because that sinful nature has been fully judged: "God, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin [or by a sacrifice for sin], condemned sin in the flesh." (Rom. 8:3.)
Then we may fully own the truth, as to the unchanged old nature, sin in the flesh; knowing that all this has been judged on the cross?
Certainly, and instead of difficulty, this gives blessed relief to the soul.
Well, one more, indeed the great difficulty to many. If the Christian should sin, does he then lose all this wondrous value of the blood of Christ? is he no longer a child of God? has the blood of Christ to be applied afresh?
Why these very verses answer with the utmost clearness each of these questions. And mark, these truths are not given that we may sin; and God forbid that I should write one line that we may be careless in our walk: "My children, these things write I to you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the whole world." Even in this extreme case there is no thought of a fresh application of the blood. If the believer sins, does he lose the value of the blood? Oh no, He who died for our sins is our advocate, patron, solicitor — the One who undertakes the whole case of our restoration; as we see in that beautiful figure, when He took the basin and poured water, and washed His disciples' feet. But it does not say Advocate with God, but with the FATHER. Oh, what this speaks! The relationship is still there. Not a sinner before God, to be saved again; but a fallen child, to be restored to the Father; and by Jesus Christ the righteous? Yes, He is still thy subsisting righteousness with the Father, and He is — not He must die again to be — He is the propitiation for our sins. This for ever decides the question of a fresh application of the blood. He is the propitiation.
With the Jew the blood of the goat was needed once a year to be repeated on the propitiatory mercy-seat. Not so the blood of His Son; once shed, it is for ever before God. Have you sinned? Come boldly to that propitiatory, that throne of grace. Oh, the claims of that blood for us before God! Fearful is the error of admitting for a moment the thought that there needs a fresh application of blood. What! was that sin, which breaks your heart in sorrow and contrition, transferred to Christ on the cross? Is that precious blood on the mercy-seat before the eye of God? Is that blood also on you as we saw in the cleansing of the leper? Need you more? Need you a fresh application of blood? Does God need more than the death of His Son? Will He deny the claims of that precious blood? "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
Yes, whatever dishonouring thoughts we may have had of the blood of Christ, God is faithful to its infinite value and unchanging claims. Therefore sins confessed are sins forgiven. Thus, through confession, the believer is restored to communion; not through a fresh application of the blood, but because the blood is ever before God. And surely God is faithful to forgive the sins which have been once transferred to Christ, and borne by Him. Oh, my soul, what a provision God has made in His own Son!
Well, my reader may say, all this is very different from what I have been taught. I have been told that to walk in the light was a very great attainment, in fact only attained by very few; and that those few were so cleansed by the blood of Jesus that they were sinless, sin in some way being eradicated. Now I see that to walk in the light is the normal or true place of every child of God; and that the blood of Jesus presents him before God whiter than snow. Though in himself he still finds sin, yea, needs one in the presence of God to be his patron or advocate when he sins, the righteous One, the propitiation; and all he needs he has in Christ. Well, the fact is I am amazed and filled with comfort. Christ is the rock; and the soul built on Him, evidently, never can be moved.
But I should like to name some other difficulties that have been presented to me. I would now briefly refer to the Romanist's view of salvation through Christ. The way to heaven is thus described: "Suppose a traveller, going towards a magnificent city where his family and a brilliant fortune await him, between him and the city there is a fathomless abyss, and impervious darkness covers his way. This traveller has neither guide nor light; over this abyss there is only a small plank, narrow and very unsteady, and there is no other way by which he can reach the city." Then follows the use of the Decalogue to help the poor souls across*. What a picture! Is it true? Is the Romanist in impervious darkness, without a guide, without light, and to him Christ a narrow unsteady plank across the bottomless abyss?
* ["The way to heaven" recommended by the bishops of the Roman Catholic Church.]
Well, you say, I have not been brought up exactly in that impervious darkness. But really, I must say, not much better. The sum of the preaching I have heard is this: salvation by Christ is a sand-bank; to-day it is high above water mark, and all is safe; to-morrow the waves of temptation and dark billows of sin may have swept it away, and I, poor soul, may sink in the unfathomable depths of perdition. And I have been taught to regard as the most dangerous error the doctrine of the believer as a stone built on Christ the immovable rock. Now for the strengthening of my faith in Christ, and the value of His precious blood, I will put out some of my old difficulties, and, I may say, the present difficulties of thousands I love and believe to be Christians. This is one. I have known many most zealous members of the professing church, who appeared, so far as one could see, to be sincere Christians; yet at last they have been found to be practising sins, have fallen away, given up all profession, and have never, to their dying day, been restored. Does not this look like the Roman Catholic unsteady plank, or with some Protestants the shifting sand-bank? How is this?
Let the same Epistle answer: "They went out from us, but they were not of us; if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us." (1 John 2:19.) The parable of the sower also shews the same thing. Out of four parts that appear to receive the truth, only one receives it in the prepared heart; and, understanding it, brings forth fruit. It is not the assent of the intellect, but the reception of Christ in the heart by faith. Have you thus received Christ? If you have, you will no doubt continue; if you have not, you will sooner or later fall away. How plain the truth of God!
Will you now turn to 1 John 3? In chapter 2 we have seen the remedy and provision if any man sin. Most comforting to my soul! Now we read: "Whosoever abides in him sins not. He that commits sin is of the devil. Whosoever is born of God sins not." Now these passages not only take away the comfort of the former, but they terribly affright many a sincere soul. I have sinned, therefore I am not a Christian at all, I am of the devil. This terror of soul arises from two mistakes; the not seeing the two natures. The new nature, that which is born of God, surely sins not. And again, a mistranslation in these verses. It should be, "He that practises sin is of the devil." In each case it is "practises sin." And there were those Nicolaitanes, who were openly practising sin, and yet pretending to be Christians. In the very twelve, we have a notable instance of the difference. Judas practised sin; he sought opportunity to betray Christ; and he was of the devil. When Peter sinned, sad as it was, yet did that look of Jesus say, There Peter, you have denied Me; you may go; you are of the devil now? What a contrast! Just such a contrast is there between the believer if he sins in chapter 2, and the practiser of sin in chapter 3. It is not a difficulty, but a solemn heart-searching truth.
Will you now turn to 1 Corinthians 9:24-27? Does this not look like the unsteady plank, or the moving sand-bank? What! a man may be a preacher to others, and yet himself a castaway.
Terrible as this is, doubtless there are instances all around. But notice this chapter, and this Epistle, is not so much about salvation, but service, ministry, and church order. And surely the Holy Ghost well knew what the future clergy would be. One of the most godly of the reformers said of the clergy in his day, "Whose god was their belly, and whose religion was the kitchen." I trust there is much change for the better. Perhaps no class of men have pampered the body more than the clergy; so that there is not a solemn warning of scripture more needed than this. But because the Holy Ghost foresaw the worldliness of a hired clergy, and forewarned the godly minister of Christ of the need of keeping the body under, I cannot see for a moment that this touches the security of the true Christian, having eternal redemption through the blood of Christ. It does prove this, that preaching to others is no security. Judas again may be cited in proof. He was of the devil, and became reprobate.
Well, I confess I do not see anything here to shake the confidence of the believer in the blood ever before God for him; and the certainty that all his sins were transferred to Christ; and that the blood is upon him; and the Holy Ghost bearing witness, not to his feelings, but to the efficacy of that blood, in putting away all sins; and more, that if he sins, Jesus the righteous One is his Advocate on high; and that, he having eternal life, God is still his Father.
Will you now turn to Hebrews 6:1-6? "Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on to perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. And this will we do, if God permit. For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again to repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame."
Oh, the darkness, and difficulty many have through misuse of these verses! Surely then they must misunderstand them altogether. Now, clearly, if these verses mean that a believer, who has eternal life, and is for ever perfected by the one offering of Christ, may nevertheless fall away; then they also prove the impossibility of such an one ever being restored to repentance. Now this would prove too much, both for the men of the unsteady plank, and the men of the moving sand-bank; but what do they mean? If you look at the context you learn in the end of chapter 5 that the believing Hebrews had not gone on to perfection, or full mature christian truth. They were still occupied with truths known by them as Jews, such as repeatedly laying again the foundation of repentance, like the yearly day of atonement; of the doctrine of baptisms or frequent washings of water, as the priests, and believing priests, were still practising; the laying on of hands on the head of goats and bullocks, &c. Remember, the temple was still standing, and the multitude of them that believed more or less were practising its rites and occupied with its doctrines. As for resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment, all these had had their place; but now believers were to go on to perfection, to the full developed christian truth.
And this the apostle does in this Epistle, shewing that christian truth is in direct contrast with the old shadows of the law. And in these very verses the contrast is sharp and striking. The very plan of Judaism, or the law, was constant renewals. If a man sinned, he must bring a fresh victim. His hand must be laid upon it; it must be killed. There must be a fresh application of blood, and his relationship with God (such as it was) is renewed or restored. For a man to leave the one infinite sacrifice of Christ, and go back to the offerings of the law for restoration in case of sin or defilement, nothing could be more certain than that such restoration was now impossible. There was great temptation to do so whilst the temple was standing. No doubt some who had been brought into all the outward privileges of the ministry of the Holy Ghost in the christian church did so go back. Repetition was quite right before the one sacrifice had been offered; but now, to give up Christ — and not only give Him up but to go back to the very murderers of Jesus, to account Him an impostor as they did — and again to seek renewals by the offerings and rites of the law, was to crucify to themselves afresh the Son of God, and to put Him to an open shame. I fail to see the trace of a contradiction here to the precious truths we have been considering in 1 John.
You say you have been greatly troubled about this scripture: tell me, Does it apply to you? Have you given up the one offering of Christ and gone back to the offerings of the law? Have you laid your hand on the bead of a goat or a bullock? True, you may have had all the advantages of a christian education; yes, some eye may rest on this paper, who has wilfully given up the one sacrifice of Christ, and gone to infidelity or ritualism. Oh! have you thus closed your eyes and refused the truth as it is in Jesus? If this is the case, no words can describe your dreadful condition. I think I hear you say, I never understood it a bit; I have been totally misled about it.
The apostle now goes on to contrast fully developed christian truth with Judaism; imperfect priesthood with the perfect priesthood of Christ; the imperfect offerings of the law, which could never take away sins, with the one offering of Jesus, which for ever perfects all that are sanctified by it.
Oh! stay; this brings us to that other scripture, such a terror to many: "If we sin wilfully." (Heb. 10:26-31.)
Now, what is this wilful sin? Is it not this: As he that despised Moses' law died without mercy, of how much sorer punishment is he worthy, who has trodden under-foot the Son of God, and has counted the blood or the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing? Is not this again the Hebrew who, by professed faith in the blood of the Son of God, had been outwardly separated from the Jewish sacrifices to Christ, and who now wilfully despises the sacrifice of the Son of God, and by going back to open sin tramples Him under-foot? Can there be anything but vengeance for such an one? Have you done this? Have you gone from Christ? Do you despise and trample under-foot the Son of God? Undoubtedly, to give up Christ and go after flesh, and the world, is the same thing in principle now.
I grant that the ritualist, in going to the Mass, is doing as much so as he can. But the sin of apostasy, wilfully rejecting and despising Christ, cannot be the sin of a believer, who clings to Him as his Advocate with the Father. Therefore this sin of the apostate Jew, or the modern despiser of Christ, has nothing to say to the security of the believer, as a stone built on the immovable Rock, and that rock is Christ.
Where have been my eyes, my reader may say? I fear in the dark; and darkness and light make all the difference in reading the word of God.
I will only bring one more scripture — 2 Peter 2:20, 22. Now here it seems evident that there are some who had escaped the pollutions of the world, through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. And they have known the way of righteousness, yet the latter end with them is worse than the beginning.
This is a very solemn chapter. But "there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you," &c. Their character is described at full length. For a time these false teachers had escaped the corruptions of the world, as we have seen. This must be so. They would not have been received into the professing church if they had not been outwardly moral. "But it is happened to them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire." Now is it not sad to use this scripture which thus so solemnly describes false teachers as dogs and swine, who thus return to their own evil ways, as if it described true Christians, the sheep of Christ? This wresting of scripture, however, will not shake the foundation of the believer, and that foundation is Christ the rock. Surely no person who thus misuses this scripture can have read the first and last verses of the chapter. Nay; read the whole chapter. Oh! poor soul, tossed by false teaching, look up! the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses from all sin. Thy sins have all been transferred to Him. God is thy justifier. Nothing shall separate thee from the love of Christ.
But, to return, What is the meaning of "to cleanse us from all unrighteousness?" This brings us to the washing of water by the word. "Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word." (Eph. 5:25-26.) "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth." Is it not remarkable that we rarely hear a single reference to this washing of water by the word? If we remember how the types abound with the washing of water, surely there must be truth of great practical importance signified in them. Let us then inquire what is the meaning of the washing of water that preceded the blood, as in the consecration of the priest; and the frequent washings after the blood was put upon him. God had no purpose of restoring man's fallen sinful nature, as we have seen, but giving him a wholly new nature, pure and holy. The Lord announced this fact to Nicodemus, that man must be born wholly anew. And hence water is used as the express figure of this needed purity of the new birth, or new nature. Only the Lord carefully excludes the idea that water imparts this new life: "That which is born of the Spirit is spirit." You could not say, That which is born of water is water.
There is no ground in the scriptures for the modern error, that water is the instrument used by the Spirit to effect this new life. The word of God leaves no possibility of mistake as to this. "Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which lives and abides for ever." (1 Peter 1:23.) Are we born by the water of baptism? No! By what then? By the word of God. Even as Jesus said, "Verily, verily, I say to you, he that hears my word, and believes on him that sent me, has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but is passed from death to life." Could words be more plain, or more certain? Study this verse well, and then tell me, is it not sad for men to alter all this, and to say baptism and water do all that? I will not copy the dreadful words that even christian men try to justify in their catechisms. Oh, let us return to the word of God. A careful examination of John 3 will convince you that there is no direct reference to baptism in the words, "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." Nicodemus had not the remotest idea of christian baptism, or its meaning; and yet, if he had only remembered Ezekiel 36:22-36, he would have well understood that, when God shall bring his nation into the kingdom or reign of God, the very things that Jesus had now said to him were distinctly foretold there. "Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you," &c.
It is quite true that baptism, as a figure, gives a deeper and fuller meaning to the wondrous truth of salvation by Christ's death. As Jesus said, "Even so must the Son of man be lifted up." He must die. We must be identified with Him in that death; that the new life must be wholly new to us, even the life of the risen Christ. This is beautifully set forth in baptism; see Romans 6 and Colossians 2.
Have you ever felt the joy of knowing that the eternal life given to you is the eternal life of that risen Man in the glory of God? Oh, how safe your life, hid with Christ in God! and because He lives, we live also. Can He die again? Once He died to put away our sins; but now He lives evermore.
We will now consider the washing with water after the blood. We have seen the washing of water before the blood was put upon the leper or the priest, shewing the absolute need of purification from all defilement. But after this, and the blood was put upon the priest, and the holy anointing oil was put upon the blood, then, even after this holy consecration, the sanctified priest, or priests, must wash their hands and feet whenever they go into the tabernacle or near the altar; they shall wash their hands and their feet, that they die not. (Ex. 30:17-20.) The purification must be maintained or continued; and is not this the washing of the feet in John 13?
And if we read through Leviticus, we find that for every possible defilement there must be washing with water. Most profitable would it be to examine all this in detail, but this would require a volume instead of a tract. [This has been done. See "Notes on Leviticus," on Studies and Commentaries page.]
Now what is the voice of the Spirit to us in this washing by water after the precious blood of Christ has for ever perfected us; our sins transferred to Him; and the infinite value of His blood transferred to us, put upon us; and we sealed, anointed, by the Holy Ghost?
You will find, that just as there was the appointed washing, from every variety of uncleanness, to Israel; so there is a precept for every possible failure or defilement of the Christian. What water is to the body, the word is to our spiritual walk. Israel were called to this ceremonial cleansing and holiness, as the redeemed of Jehovah, from Egypt, because he was Holy. (Lev. 11:44-45.) So speaks the word to us, "But as he which has called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation: because it is written, Be ye holy, for I am holy" (1 Peter 1:15); quoting this very text from Leviticus 11.
Thus sanctification by the word, washing of water by the word, is to be to us what literal water was to them. What simple figures our God has been pleased to give us! What a marked difference the use of water makes! You see a poor neglected child, washed, perhaps, once a month, and poorly fed. See another one clean, and well nourished with food. What a difference frequent washing and nutritious food make! Have you seen the photograph of a lost child, taken from the streets, before and after a couple of years' washing, and feeding? It scarcely looks like the same. Are you aware there would be as striking, a difference in many a Christian if he were brought to the constant application of the water of the word, at the same time the soul feeding on Christ in the word?
You see a Christian plunged in business, worldliness, and politics — perhaps once a month a little washing for a sacrament — so full of the world, that there is little room for Christ. He gets more and more wretched, scarce knows whether he is saved or not. Suppose the word of Christ comes with power to his soul. He does not doubt the atonement. He does rest in Christ. But all the spiritual life is stunted and drooping. Let the spirit of Christ apply such a word as this — "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world." (1 John 2:15-16.) He awakes to the fact that he is loving the world, and linking himself with it: and all the while that world hates Christ! Ah never did a London Arab need water more than he finds he needs the word. Thus the water of the word sanctifies him, cleanses him, from the inconsistent associations and spirit of this world. "He that says he abides in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked." Oh, how we all need this long-forgotten washing of water by the word! To be clean every whit, may we now yield our feet to he washed with water by the precious Lord. The blood can never lose its efficacy, can never be repeated, or freshly applied. Such a thought is Judaism. But for practical righteousness, for consistency of walk, we need the water of the word at every step. There is no holiness of walk without it. And yet many who teach a kind of holiness seem to know nothing of the washing of water; yea, even put the blood in the place of the water of the word, and so deny the finished work of Christ, the full value of that one offering by which He has for ever perfected them that are sanctified. It is because we are for ever perfected by that one offering, that we are now called to walk as He walked.
The priest had to wash his own feet; the Lord of glory is girded to wash ours. Shall we refuse Him? Lord, apply Thy word to our walk and ways. When we read that word in His presence, every verse is as water to cleanse us from the defilements by the way.
I thank God our Father that many are yearning more after holiness; but let them seek to be sanctified by the word of truth. Satan will take care to bring false teachers into that holiness-movement, teachers that will call sin holiness. Mark ye, much that is highly esteemed is condemned by the word. I would note sectarianism. (See 1 Cor. 3:1-3.) Yet it is not long since a teacher of holiness rejoiced that his teaching had never led a single soul to give up this carnality — the sin of sectarianism. Not one through his teaching had given up the sin or his sect. Yea, at a large "holiness" convention an anti-Holy Ghost meeting was to be held each night; a committee was to take care that the Holy Ghost should not have liberty to use whom He would in the assembly, according to the word or God. (2 Cor. 12.) None were to speak but those permitted by the anti-Holy Ghost committee. Oh, beware of such holiness as this! No one can conceive the rubbish and defilement that needs washing away by the water of the word. The blood is still before God; the believer is accepted in Christ. Nothing can touch that. But oh, our ways! Fellow Christians, awake! awake! Let everything be tried and cleansed by the water of the word. Remember the yearning claim of Christ, "Sanctify them by thy word; thy word is truth." Is anything more needed at this moment than the washing of water by the word?
I press this on my own soul, I press it on my brethren in Christ. Whilst rejoicing in the one offering by which we are for ever perfected are we not in danger of neglecting the precepts of the word? The Lord bring every line with power to our souls, and to Him be all praise!
1. We all need God’s fountain to cleanse us from sin and impurity (13:1).
“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). If we compare ourselves with ourselves, we may conclude that we’re not very dirty: “I’m cleaner than the criminals in prison. I’m cleaner than the people who hang out in bars. I’m cleaner than my neighbor who doesn’t go to church. I’m cleaner than my family members, who have numerous faults that I could tell you about. I’m cleaner than those hypocrites who go to my church. Sure, I’ve got my faults, but I’m not filthy!”
But then, like Isaiah, we get a glimpse of the Lord, high and lifted up, and of the holy angels who never cease proclaiming, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts,” and instantly we cry out, “I am undone!” One of the first evidences that God’s Spirit is at work in your heart is that you recognize your sinfulness in the presence of the holy God and your need for cleansing. Note three things about God’s fountain:
A. God’s fountain stems from His grace.
Israel pierced the Messiah whom God sent to save them (12:10)! They did not deserve His mercy or forgiveness, but God graciously provided a fountain to cleanse from sin and impurity. The Hebrew word for “sin” comes from a root meaning, “to miss” (Merrill Unger, Zechariah: Prophet of God’s Glory[Zondervan], p. 222). It is used of sins against other people and of sins against God. The word for “impurity” designates “that which is to be fled from or shunned” (ibid.). It was used of the ceremonial defilement of women on their menstrual cycle and of the defilement that came from touching a dead body. Together these words show that we all have missed God’s standard of holiness in our relationships with Him and with one another. And, our sins are repugnant and offensive to God. To try to cover our sins with our good works would be like putting on clean clothes over a filthy body.
If we are to be forgiven and cleansed, it can only come through God’s undeserved favor, His grace. Augustus Toplady put it this way in his hymn, “Rock of Ages”:
Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to Thy cross I cling;
Naked, come to Thee for dress, helpless look to Thee for grace;
Foul, I to the fountain fly, wash me Savior or I die!
B. God’s fountain is inexhaustible.
We don’t often see natural fountains or springs in dry Northern Arizona, but there is an impressive one at Fossil Springs. As I recall, it pours forth over a million gallons of water every day, feeding Fossil Creek. A fountain like that is fed from huge underground aquifers, so that it keeps flowing, even in times of drought.
That is a picture of God’s inexhaustible fountain for sin and for impurity. It flows and flows and flows. God has grace greater than all of our sins! You may be thinking, “But you don’t know how terrible some of my past sins were!” True, but God does know, and He opened this fountain for sin and for impurity. That fountain cleansed the sins of David, an adulterer and murderer. It cleansed the sins of wicked King Manasseh, who practiced witchcraft, offered his sons in the fire to false gods, and led Judah into horrible sin. It cleansed the sins of the chief of sinners, who described himself as “a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor.” But he went on to say, “the grace of our Lord was more than abundant” (1 Tim. 1:13-15, italics mine). That same inexhaustible grace is available to you.
Charles Spurgeon (“The Open Fountain,” [Ages Software]) points out that it would be ludicrous for someone to protest, “I can’t bathe because I am too filthy!” It would be equally ridiculous to say, “I need to clean up myself before I come to this fountain!” God provides the fountain to cleanse the most foul, dirty, defiled sinners. Their dirt can never pollute this fountain, because it just keeps on flowing to wash away all of our filth.
C. God’s fountain must be applied individually.
This fountain won’t do you any good if you look at it and think, “I wish my wife and kids would get under that water!” It won’t do you any good to stand there and think, “It probably would be refreshing to plunge in.” To receive the benefit of God’s fountain, you must look to Jesus and recognize that your sins put Him on the cross. As God’s Spirit opens your eyes to your true guilt before Him, you will mourn. But don’t stop there! Let that mourning motivate you to jump into God’s fountain. You’ve got to apply it individually to your heart. The instant that you do, you will know the joy of God’s forgiveness.
I like the outdoors, but I’m not a true outdoorsman, because I can’t stand to go for days without a shower. True outdoorsmen can hike for days with a heavy pack, sweating in the same underwear without taking a shower. Some of them are hearty enough to jump in a snow-fed stream to wash off, and I’ve done that when I was desperate. But I’m only good for a night or two in the backcountry before I am desperate for a warm shower.
To enter a relationship with the holy God, we must come to His fountain to cleanse us from our sins. And, we should take frequent showers to wash off the defilement of the sins that we commit after salvation. As 1 John 1:9promises, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Come often to God’s fountain!
2. Cleansing from sin should lead to separation from sin (13:2-6).
Again the Lord repeats the phrase, “that day” (13:2, 4), which refers to the day just prior to Christ’s return, when He will make Jerusalem a cup of reeling to the peoples around and destroy the nations that come against her (12:2, 9). Also, in that day the Jews will mourn over their sin of crucifying Messiah (12:10-11). At that time, God declares that He will completely cut off idolatry, false prophets, and the unclean spirit that is behind such false prophecy (13:2 is the only occurrence of “unclean spirit” in the O.T.). The thrust of these verses is that those who have received God’s cleansing from sin must also be zealous to separate themselves from every form of sin. Or, in Paul’s words, “Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (2 Cor. 7:1). We dare not continue in sin that grace might abound!
The sin of idolatry in its most blatant form involves worshiping manmade statues or images as if they were God. While that sin may be much more prevalent in other countries, it is right here in Flagstaff, where we have an entire store devoted to selling idols! But, as J. I. Packer argues in Knowing God ([IVP, p. 39), the commandment not to make graven images also forbids worshiping the true God by images that supposedly represent Him. Packer shows how such images dishonor God by obscuring His glory and mislead men by conveying false ideas about God (pp. 40-41).
Packer goes further: “It needs to be said with the greatest possible emphasis that those who hold themselves free to think of God as they like are breaking the second commandment (p. 42, italics his). In other words, when people say, “I don’t like to think of God as Judge; I like to think of Him as my loving Father,” they are guilty of idolatry, because they are making God into their own image. We aren’t free to pick and choose which aspects of God’s attributes we like. We must submit to the revelation that God has given of Himself in His Word. Any deviation from that is idolatry.
Coupled with idolatry is false prophecy or false teaching, which is invariably demonically instigated. Being fallible humans, none of us teach the Bible infallibly. We should strive for greater accuracy and understanding, but in this life, we all will fall short. But there is a vast difference between errors or misunderstandings on minor points of doctrine and errors that pervert the nature of God and His salvation. Satan, the great deceiver, has always had his false teachers who infiltrate the ranks of God’s people to lead astray the unsuspecting.
We live in a day where even the evangelical church is downplaying the importance of sound doctrine. We hear statements such as, “Doctrine divides. Let’s come together on the things we agree on, not on the areas that divide us. They will know that we are Christians by our love, not by our doctrine.”
But look at verse 3. The Lord commends the fact that in this day when He removes false prophets from Israel, parents will pierce through even their own son when he prophesies falsely in the name of the Lord! “Pierce through” is the same Hebrew word used for piercing Messiah in 12:10. The Jews would have immediately thought of Deuteronomy 13:6-11, where Moses directed that “if your brother … or your son or daughter, or the wife you cherish, or your friend who is as your own soul” entice you to serve other gods, not only were you not to listen to them. Moses said that you were not to pity him, spare him or conceal him, but rather, to kill him!
I am not suggesting that we are to apply such commandments literally, of course! We are not a theocratic nation, bound by such laws. But these commands should impress on us the importance of God’s truth and increase our zeal to hold firmly to sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict (Titus 1:9). False teaching on the fundamentals of the faith is not just a different way of looking at things. It is eternally destructive to the souls of people. We must love God and His Word of truth so fervently that by way of comparison, we hate our father, mother, wife, children, brothers, and sisters, and even our own lives (Luke 14:26).
In 13:4-6, Zechariah illustrates how God will purge the land of false prophets. These men will be ashamed and will put off their hairy robes that they had worn to deceive people into thinking that they were true prophets. They will renounce their role as prophet and say instead that they were workers in the soil, sold as a slave in their youth.
But then someone notices the wounds between his arms (lit., “hands”; probably referring to his chest). Most likely, these were the wounds that false prophets inflicted on themselves in the frenzy of their worship or prayers (1 Kings 18:28; Jer. 47:5; 48:37). The false prophet’s response is subject to several interpretations. He may be making an excuse to dodge judgment, saying that he was wounded either by his parents or by friends (Hebrew = “those who love me”) in some accidental manner. Or, the wounds may have been inflicted by parents or friends out of loving discipline (Calvin’s view). Or, he is admitting that the idols were formerly his friends, but he now renounces them, either in repentance or out of fear of reprisal.
Whatever the interpretation of the illustration, the overall point of this section is that God will purge all sin from those who profess His name, and that we should be quick to judge all sin in our own lives. But, lest we fall into the common error that salvation is a matter of our own efforts to purge our lives from sin, Zechariah abruptly comes back to the only way that a fountain for cleansing can be opened:
3. God is the only one who can open a fountain for cleansing, and He has done so by killing His Shepherd (13:7a).
In chapter 11, Zechariah pictured the false shepherds of Israel in contrast with the Good Shepherd. In our text, the contrast seems to be that just as the false prophet endeavored to turn people from God, but was slain by his father, so the true prophet would be slain by His Father to turn people to God (Charles Simeon, Expository Outlines on the Whole Bible[Zondervan], X:528-529). Echoing the language of Isaiah 53 (and Ps. 22:15), which says that Messiah would be smitten of God and crushed by God, Zechariah pictures God as calling for the implement of death (sword) against His Shepherd, whom He also calls, “the man, My Associate.” In the garden, with reference to Himself, Jesus cited the phrase, “Strike the Shepherd that the sheep may be scattered,” just before the disciples all left Him and fled (Matt. 26:31).
Woven into Zechariah 13:7 are several crucial theological concepts. First, God’s Shepherd, Jesus Christ, is both man and God. He had to take on our flesh in the incarnation or He could not die for the sins of the fallen human race. But in so doing, He did not cease to be what He is from eternity, the fulness of God (Col. 2:9).
“Associate,” in Hebrew, is used only in Leviticus, and in all cases of an equal, an associate, or neighbor (Unger, p. 232). The great German scholar, C. F. Keil, says that “God would not apply this epithet to any godly or ungodly man whom He might have appointed shepherd over a nation.” He goes on to state that this term means “community of physical or spiritual descent.” The one whom God calls His neighbor “cannot be a mere man, but can only be one who participates in the divine nature, or is essentially divine” (Commentary on the Old Testament[Eerdmans], p. 397). Jesus, speaking of Himself as the Good Shepherd who would lay down His life for the sheep, said in the same context, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30). The Jews recognized it as a claim to deity and took up stones to stone Him. They should have fallen at His feet in worship!
There is a sense in which evil men crucified the Good Shepherd, and they are accountable for doing so. But at the same time, such evil men, acting according to their own sinful choices, only fulfilled the sovereign purpose of God to provide a substitute for our sins (Acts 2:23; 4:27-28). By putting His own Son to death in the place of sinners, God can be both just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus (Rom. 3:26). That God would strike His own Son for our sins shows both His great love for us and His utter intolerance of sin.
Thus Zechariah has shown that we all need God’s fountain to cleanse us from sin and impurity (13:1). Those who are cleansed from sin will be zealous to separate themselves from it (13:2-6). God Himself is the only one who can open a fountain for cleansing from sin, and He has done so by killing His Shepherd, Jesus Christ (13:7a). Finally, he shows that…
4. Those whom God cleanses from sin He purifies through the fires of affliction (13:7b-9).
The scattering of the sheep after the Shepherd is struck down refers initially to the apostles’ reaction to Jesus’ arrest. Beyond that, it refers to the dispersion of the Jewish nation after Titus destroyed Jerusalem in A.D. 70. Then God says that He will turn His hand “against the little ones” (NASB, NIV). The phrase can also be translated, “bring my hand back over the little ones.” It is used to express either judgment or salvation, depending on the context (Keil, p. 398). In light of verses 8 & 9, it probably here refers to God’s protection of the remnant of Jewish believers, both in history and especially during the Great Tribulation, when the majority of the nation (“two parts,” a general term for the majority) will perish, but God will bring the third part through the fire to refine them. The final result is, “They will call on My name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘They are My people,’ and they will say, ‘The Lord is my God.’”
Again, while the primary interpretation of these verses is for the Jews, they certainly apply to all of God’s people. He promises to preserve us, even though He takes us through the refining fires of affliction, so that we will share His holiness. I know that you can say with me that while affliction is never pleasant, it is during such times that I call upon the Lord with more intensity than at other times. When He answers me, He gives the assurance that I am one of His people, and I can then testify to others that He is my God. As the great hymn, “How Firm a Foundation,” puts it:
When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie,
My grace, all sufficient, shall be thy supply.
The flame shall not hurt thee; I only design
Thy dross to consume, and thy gold to refine.
Conclusion
Here are some questions to ask yourself to apply these verses:
- Have you come in faith to the fountain of Jesus Christ and His shed blood to cleanse your heart from sin and impurity?
- Are you regularly confessing and forsaking your sin in accordance with God’s Word?
- Are you looking daily to Jesus, the Good Shepherd, who was willing to be put to death for your sins?
- Are you striving to grow in holiness?
- Are you growing to love and submit yourself to all of God’s truth and growing to hate false teaching?
- Are you submitting to God as He refines you through trials, calling out to Him as your God, and knowing His assurance that you are His child?
If you feel dirty, remember that God’s fountain doesn’t maintain business hours. It is always open. As sinners, we may come for cleansing as often as needed, so that we may become a people for God’s own possession, set apart for Him.
The cleansing power of the blood of Jesus is two-fold. This is plainly evident from 1 John 1:7-9: “But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
The first part: Cleansing from committed sin
The first part is the cleansing from all committed sin. This is dealt with in 1 John 1:9: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us …” The condition for forgiveness, for this kind of cleansing, is: confession of the sin we have committed, or in other words, a confession that I have walked in darkness (committed works of darkness). This is the forgiveness of sins that takes away all condemnation. This cleansing occurs in a moment. If we should commit a sin later on, we will not be accused or rejected; we will rather be defended by Jesus who is the atonement for our sins and who will again forgive us our sin if we confess it. (1 John 2:1-2.) However, the intention is that we shall not sin anymore but live a completely victorious life. (1 John 3:6-10.)
“Every sin that a man does is outside the body …” 1 Corinthians 6:18. We can therefore say that our body is being defiled outwardly when we commit a sin. Therefore it is possible to use the expression that is applied in Hebrews 10:22 when it concerns the forgiveness of sins: “Our bodies washed with pure water.” This corresponds to the one part of the cleansing agent that flowed from Jesus’ side as He hung on the cross of Calvary. (John 19:34.) The water that flowed from Jesus’ side was one part of the blood, the one part of the cleansing agent, designated for the one part of the two-fold cleansing.
Just as we in the natural are cleansed outwardly by water and inwardly by blood, so the one part of the blood of Jesus (which John called “water”) corresponds to the one kind, the outward, cleansing or the forgiveness of sins.
The second part: Inward cleansing
The other part is for the inward cleansing or sanctification which is a process that lasts throughout our lifetime.
This part of the cleansing power of the blood is referred to in 1 John 1:7-8. Unfortunately, it is much less known. People usually take verse 7 to indicate the forgiveness of sins, which taken in context together with the rest of the verse is totally meaningless.
The requirement for this cleansing is completely different from the requirement of partaking of the first cleansing: the forgiveness of sins. The requirement for this cleansing is: walking in the light as God is in the light!—that we do not commit works of darkness or, in other words, commit sin. For it is very easy to understand that if we walk in the light as He is in the light, then we do not commit sin and then we also do not need the forgiveness of sins.
This cleansing that is mentioned in 1 John 1:7 and which we need when we walk in the light—when we do not commit sin—must necessarily be a different kind of cleansing than the cleansing that was mentioned in the beginning. It is not a cleansing from committed sin, but from having sin, a cleansing not from every sin that a man can commit—the sin that is outside the body—but a cleansing from (a putting to death of) the sin that is indwelling, which is within the body, the sin that my conscious “I” has not executed (Romans 7:17),the sin in which my mind did not participate (Romans 7:25), the sin of which I am unaware beforehand, of which I am ignorant, over which I have no light and cannot control. This is the sin for which I know no law (Romans 7:15, first line; 1 Corinthians 4:4; Romans 4:15 and Romans 5:13), the sin into which I have not fallen because I was tempted (James 1:14-15), the sin which I by faithfully walking in the light (by not committing sin) get to see little by little, the sin that Paul calls “deeds of the body” in Romans 8:13 and that we put to death by the Spirit—the sin from which we are cleansed by the other part of the cleansing agent.
The power of the cross
Instead of saying the power of the blood of Jesus, we can just as well say the power of the cross, and we can say that it is two-fold. The one power proceeds from the fact that He was crucified for us, and the other, lesser known power is the power that proceeds from being crucified by faith with Him. The first power results in forgiveness. The second power results in victory and sanctification.
That the second cleansing (sanctification), not like the first cleansing (forgiveness) does not occur in a moment is evident with all desirable clarity and strength from 1 John 1:8: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”
If God has richly blessed me and has given me (as the word says) more than victory so that I am not aware of anything that is wrong with me, so that I have a good conscience in every area, so that I live a happy life in righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit and am currently unaware of any sin, but then want to say that I no longer have sin—that all sin in every sense and scope of the word has been taken away—then this scripture judges me most powerfully.
By walking in the light and by simultaneously being humble and truth-loving, we will, as time goes by, see much sin that we did not see before and from which the blood of Jesus shall also cleanse us. The blood of Jesus, God’s Son, cleanses us from all the sin that we gradually get to see in a constantly increasing light, as we acquiesce in the judgment of the light by putting to death the deeds of the body by the Spirit. This cleansing (salvation) is sanctification (Revelation 22:11), or growth up to Him who is the Head in all things, or being equipped for the work of ministry for all good works, or growth in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ—whereby we acquire the treasures of wisdom and knowledge that are hidden in Him.
This is the way of the cross, the way of self-denial, the way of suffering, the way of death, the way of truth, the way of righteousness, the way of love, the way of purity, the way of wisdom, and the way of life.
The blood of Jesus: Outward and inward cleansing!
There is, therefore, a two-fold cleansing power in the blood of Jesus. The one cleansing occurs in a moment. In one moment we receive, by faith, forgiveness for all the sins we have committed. The second cleansing is a continuing process by which we—by faith—are cleansed from all indwelling, unconscious sin—as we acknowledge it.
3 You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. (John 15:3 NASB)
All people are born dead in their trespasses and sins. (Ephesians 2:1; Colossians 2:13) This condition of spiritual death also means that each person, though desperate for fulfillment that can only be satisfied in God, cannot come to God, know God, or even seek Him. Because of this, they pursue fulfillment from everything around them. The number one method of doing this is via the flesh. The flesh is all about self and self-gratification. The problem with this is that nothing works for very long, including religiosity.
Genuine Christians are regenerate. (Titus 3:5) This means that they are new creations (2 Corinthians 5:17) and that the old things have passed away and all things have become new.
17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. (2 Corinthians 5:17 NASB)
A word for word translation from the Greek for this passage is as follows, “So that if anyone is in Christ, that one is a new creation; the old things have passed away; behold all things have become new!” The words in italics are not in the original text. This is a remarkable statement. The word “therefore” or “So that” ties this verse back to v16. Here it is.
16 Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer. (2 Corinthians 5:16 NASB)
This verse is Paul’s statement that his priority was to meet people’s spiritual needs. He no longer evaluated people according to external, human, worldly standards. He also no longer had human assessment of Jesus Christ because he was a Christian. Paul is telling us that the miracle of salvation had so transformed him that his understanding and view of our Lord Jesus Christ was no longer according to the flesh, but according to a spiritual understanding. Now, in light of this new understanding Paul makes the next statement in v17.
Genuine Christians are new creatures. In the NASB in v17 the words “new creature translates the Greek words καινὴ κτίσις or kainē ktisis. Kainē is the Nominative, Singular, Feminine case of the adjective καινός or kainos and means “qualitatively new.” “Ktsis” means “a founding as in a new city” or “a creation from nothing.” The result of the washing of regeneration is qualitatively new people who are not simply improved versions of their old self. Their old self passed away, and they are Born Again unto new life in our Lord Jesus Christ. They are “in Christ.” These two words are a profound statement of the inexhaustible significance of the Christian’s redemption, which includes their security in Christ, who bore in His body God’s Judgment against their sin, their acceptance in Him with whom God alone is well pleased, their future assurance in Him who is the resurrection to eternal life and sole guarantor of their inheritance in Heaven, and their participation in the divine nature of Christ. (2 Peter 1:4)
Therefore, when we see professing Christians having a shallow view of Christ and a dislike for His Word, we must be suspicious of their genuineness. These people are still tied to and focused on this lost and dying world. They are enslaved to their flesh. They have zero fulfillment from their relationship with God so they seek it from their flesh as they did before their conversion. I was like this in my Christian walk much of the time until 2004. My walk was like a roller coaster. I would have periods of repentance followed by periods of being dominated by my flesh. It seemed that I was repenting of and confessing sins all the time. Therefore, I know that immature Christians can be quite sinful. That is no excuse, but we must not point our fingers at them, condemning them as lost people simply because they are in the fires of sanctification and are struggling mightily with it.
The difference between a lost person and Christian who is in struggling with their sin like this is that the lost person does not feel the guilt of their sin like a Christian. The Christian has the Holy Spirit and they can never be a peace with sin for long.
As we grow spiritually we still have to fight the battle of where our hearts are turned for fulfillment. We can still seek after the flesh unless we become very good at monitoring our hearts and never letting them stray from Christ very long. The ones who do not do this become arrogant in their self-righteousness because they are still doing all of the right things, but they are doing them in their own strength. They can be quite religious, but it is a form of Christianity that is not Spirit-led. Remember the Spirit-led are humble, penitent, and submissive to others by the power of the Holy Spirit. As we become more and more Spirit-led we will find that arrogance, pride, self-reliance, and self-image all diminish and eventually dies as we realize more and more that we were cleansed by the Word, not by anything we did.
3 You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. (John 15:3 NASB)
Our Lord is telling us in this passage that there is a remedy for the poison of arrogance. This poison becomes potent within our hearts when we overestimate our own holiness. Jesus tells us this so that none of us will think our own suffering, apart from Christ, can attain forgiveness of sins or make us fruitful branches in the sight of God. We have already seen how believers can become enslaved to their flesh. It can begin in a very small, innocuous way. For instance, someone does many good works and endures much suffering. He or she then becomes aware of producing fruit. They realize that they have actually achieved something through preaching, teaching, writing, etc. Then that sweet poison begins to make the person think, “Oh, I have now done something that will make God notice me and be merciful to me.” What this does is start the process of little wild branches growing alongside the true branches. These wild branches steal the sap and energy from the true branches so that they don’t flourish.
How do we prevent this from taking over our hearts? We must apply the cleansing power of God’s Word to our hearts as much as possible. We aren’t clean because of what we have done, or what we have suffered, or by the fruit we have produced. None of those things would have happened if the Father had not pruned us after making us good and true branches. Only God’s Word can make us clean. We must be in it as much as possible. We must internalize it so we can always have it with us. When God allows various kinds of suffering, danger, anxiety, need, and temptation to come into our lives, we must hang on to God’s Word tightly so that it may work powerfully in us. This is how God humbles us and teaches us that we can’t make ourselves clean. Our suffering does not make us clean before God. However, it does drive us to reach for God’s Word and hold on to it more tightly and firmly. This is how God exercises our faith.
The word “sanctify” in verse seventeen means “to consecrate, or to set apart persons or things to God” (Ex. 28:41; 29:1, 36; 40:13; 1 Thess. 5:23, etc).
The Holy Spirit uses the Word to do His work within the believer. Let’s distinguish between the sanctification by the Holy Spirit within us at the beginning of God’s work of salvation in our souls, and the everyday application of God’s word in the Christian’s life. We are in the need of daily sanctification by the truth of God’s Word. This is a progressive work that will go on in our lives until we are presented perfect in Christ at His second coming.
Sanctification is not the eradication of our sinful nature, or of the “old man” in a once and for all experience.
However, God takes His Word, not human speculation or opinions, and sets us apart from the world to Himself. We are set apart for God’s special use. Therefore, our values, goals and behaviors are distinct from the worlds.
The Word of God sanctifies us as we study, meditate, memorize and apply its truths to our daily life. The Holy Spirit uses it to make us aware of sin, confess it and repent. He takes the Word and reveals God’s perfect will for our lives. We grow in His grace through the knowledge of His truth. As we yield in obedience to His truth we are sanctified by the truth.
Jesus prayed to His Father, “For this sake I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth” (John 17:19). Jesus was already set apart to God. Indeed, He was sinless. However, the night before His death on the cross He was dedicating Himself “that they too may be truly sanctified.” Literally, He said, “sanctified in truth.” Jesus’ death eternally separated believers to God and His kingdom, and God’s truth is the means of their daily sanctification.
“Sanctify them in truth; Your Word is truth” (v. 17). Just as Jesus was set apart for special use, so are the believers. “The truth” is communicated in the “Word.” As we hear the Word, we comprehend the truth and obey it. This changes our values, our lifestyle, and a behavioral change takes place. We are changed in our everyday practice.
As we daily appropriate God’s Word we are sanctified by it. We are set apart to God and changed in the way we live so that we bring honor and glory to the Father.
True daily sanctification in this life comes through the ministry of the Word of God. Jesus told His disciples, “Now are you clean through the word which I have spoken unto you” (John 15:3). God set us apart to Himself when He saved us. As we grow in Christ we experience more and more sanctification. We are progressively set apart to God as we grow in our faith, and love for God more than the desire of the world. This being set apart daily comes as the Holy Spirit applies God’s word to our everyday experiences. The Holy Spirit enables us to obey God’s Word. He is the author of the Word and He uses it to enlighten our minds, enable our will and encourage our hearts.
We were made clean through the Word at the new birth. As we obey the Word of God daily the defilement is washed out of our lives. When we sin we do not need to be saved all over again. We will never be regenerated a second or third time. After you bathe, you do not need to bathe again when you get your hands dirty. You wash them off and you are clean once more. God has given us a bar of soap. It is found in 1 John 1:9. Use it daily.
This is the practical and progressive sanctification that is seen in Ephesians 5:25-27 as Jesus sanctifies and cleanses His church. As the believer makes himself available to the Holy Spirit he is changed from the inside out. The Word of God has the liberty in the heart of the Spirit-controlled Christian to displace sin and replace in its place the righteousness of God. The blood of Christ cleanses the believer from actual sin.
Every born again Christian does pursue holiness until the second coming of Christ. At that time He will change these bodies of humiliation and make them like His glorious body. When that happens we shall have reached our goal and become absolutely, perfectly holy and sinless forever.
It is our responsibility to apply the word of God daily in the power of the Holy Spirit. It does not come automatically. For example, to abstain from sexual immorality requires the exercise of self-discipline enabled by the Holy Spirit.
God’s perfect will is that His people be holy (1 Thess. 3:13). “For this is the will of God, your sanctification” (1 Thess. 4:3). The context deals with sexual immorality; however, the truth can be applied to any area of our lives. “For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification” (v. 7). Paul has in mind the progressive sanctification of his readers whereby they are conformed to the image of Christ in daily experiences.
God’s purpose is for the Christian to live separated lives in purity of mind and body. This is practical sanctification.
A holy life demonstrates God’s supernatural power at work in a believer’s life. A holy walk involves a right relationship with God.
Do you have an appetite for God’s pure Word? Let the Holy Spirit empower you to walk in holiness as you search the Scriptures and obey His Word.
blameless”
26 that
“That” here shows the purposeChrist has for the church by His sacrifice for sins. There is a goal that Christ has for His church and there is a goal for the husband.
He might sanctify
There are two elements to sanctification and cleansing: (1) consecration to God and (2) separation from something unclean. Consecration is coincidental with cleansing. Cleansing is the removal of sin, while sanctification here is positional setting apart to God.
Christ’s purpose is to “sanctify” or set apart the church for Himself. He wants to consecrate her for Himself. This is positional sanctification, not progressive. Christ’s goal is to set the church apart for exclusive and permanent relationship with God. Positional sanctification is a onetime event whereby the believer or the church is sanctified forever. Christians can never lose this permanent status with God.
The purpose of sanctification of the church is a one-time setting apart the church unto Christ. Jesus accomplished this by His death upon the cross. This was a past action with no future action beyond the accomplished action of the past. This is a permanent sanctification.
and cleanse her
Cleansing the church here is not baptismal regeneration but simply regeneration. This cleansing of the church was contemporary with her being set apart unto God. Christ removed sin from the church so that she would be presentable for eternity with God.
with the washing of water
The word “washing” means a bath. The imagery here has to do with the prenuptial bridal bath. During this betrothal ceremony the bride was prepared with her wedding clothes. This imagery focuses on spiritual cleansing by God’s truth. Christ’s death on the cross is what cleanses us from our sin. In culture, this bath by was effected by water, but here Paul used “washing” metaphorically, not literally. It is a spiritual washing.
The only other occurrence of the word “washing” is in Titus 3:5, where it is used for regeneration. The Bible nowhere else asserts that the church is baptized, so the idea here is not of baptism.
by the word,
The Greek word for “word” here means the proclaimed or spoken word, a sound produced by the voice, not the written word. This phrase “by the word” refers to the cleansing of the church; it is the purifying of the gospel preached that saves the church.
PRINCIPLE:
Through Christ’s sacrificial death, He claimed the church as an exclusive and permanent relationship to Himself.
APPLICATION:
Christ made the church holy by cleansing her. This cleansing came by the gospel preached. In God’s eyes the church is perfect, positionally sanctified and regenerated
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The answer to this important question is given in the second part of the verse –- ““…by living according to your word.”” The Bible answers every question that is vitally important to us in this life and the life to come. Some people think the Bible is not relevant to us: for David or for Paul it was ideal in its teaching and application, and even for the Lord Jesus (the Old Testament was His Bible), but they think it is not relevant to our day. Such ideas are entirely wrong since it is the only book that speaks with authority about the great needs of time and eternity; it is the only guide to holiness, to a life that is pure, dedicated and pleasing to God. The Psalmist, who was deeply concerned about personal purity, was really saying, ‘‘What is the secret of personal, practical holiness?’’
- 1. In Psalm 51:10 we read of a clean heart. But how can we have a clean heart?
- 2. In Isaiah 52:11 we learn of the importance of being clean before God can use us. But how can we be clean?
- 3. In Jeremiah 17:9 we read of the deceitfulness and desperate wickedness of our hearts. But how can our hearts be cleansed and changed?
- 4. In Matthew 5:8 we read about the pure in heart. But how can we gain this purity?
- 5. In Romans 7:18-24 we have a description of a struggle that we all experience. But how can we gain the victory?
- 6. In 2 Corinthians 7:1 we read of the importance of entire cleansing. How can this be?
- 7. In 1 Timothy 5:22 we read of the importance of personal purity.But how…?
This is the great question: How can I be clean? Carefully consider this:-
1. THE QUESTION THAT IS ASKED
““How can a young man keep his way pure?”” Notice three things:-
- 1. It is a plain question. There is nothing ambiguous or difficult about it; it means exactly what it says. Here is a young man, with a sinful heart, an offensive life, impure thoughts, dirty habits, foul conversation, his reading matter is vile, his relationships are immoral –- how can this young man become clean? That is a plain question –- look up Mark 1:40-41. Whether we are young or old, we know that the question touches our deepest need.
- 2. It is a priority question. This is the chief question we need to ask. There are other important questions, especially for young men and women, such as: How can I reform my ways? –- but notice the question here is: How can I keep my way pure? This is not to do with education, a career, success, marriage, security, but it does have to do with the life and heart being pure. By nature we’re sinful and we’re surrounded by evil forces. Our eyes, lips, feet, hands and ears –- they all want to sin. How can I be clean?
- 3. It is a practical question. It calls for action because it is not just a theoretical question. Psalm 119:9 is not simply beautiful poetry but the inspired testimony of a man who knew his deep need of cleansing and who also knew how that need could be met.
This great question contains: (1) an admission of need; (2) a confession of desire; (3) a suggestion of urgency.
2. THE ANSWER THAT IS GIVEN
How can my heart and life be kept pure? – – “by living according to your word.”” Examine this sentence carefully and you will see there are three things to do:-
- 1. Stop in your tracks and give careful thought to your ways(Haggai 1:7).
- 2. Take yourself in hand. It is easy just to drift and to get more and more enmeshed in all the sordidness of sin. Do you read impure literature? Do you indulge in unclean habits? Do you foster unclean thoughts?
- 3. Apply the remedy. This simply means, take the Bible and apply it to every part of your life and conduct. That is the way to be cleaned up spiritually and morally.
But what does this mean? Psalm 119:9-16 gives us the answer. Verse 9 contains our key-verse –- but the remaining verses will help us too:-
- 1. Verse 10 –- Search your Bible and be ready to obey all that God commands. You will immediately begin to experience cleansing –- look up John 15:3.
- 2. Verse 11. Let God’’s Word enter right into you. It not only has the power to cleanse you but to keep your heart clean –- look up Proverbs 4:23 to see why.
- 3. Verse 12 –- Be humble, lowly and submissive. Notice the words “”teach me””. You must do what Mary did (Luke 10:39) and take note of Matthew 11:29.
- 4. Verse 13 –- Declare the truth of God’’s Word in your daily walk and at your work. This will help you to exert a cleansing, purifying influence from day to day.
- 5. Verse 14 –- Rejoice in God’’s Word and treasure it above everything else. It is abiding and enduring (1 Peter l:25). Riches and possessions disappear; God’’s Word abides!
- 6. Verse 15 –- Learn, mark and inwardly digest God’’s Word and never question what it says. To “”meditate”” means ‘‘to chew the cud’’; to ““respect”” (KJV) means to submit to the fact that God’’s will and His ways are always best.
- 7. Verse 16 –- Persevere at this daily process: take His Word, apply it, obey it and make it your all-sufficient rule for faith (what you believe) and practice (what you do).
Before long you will come to Calvary, recognise why the Lord Jesus died and shed His precious blood; you will discover how to be cleansed from the guilt and penalty of your sin (1 John 1:7). But you need to know that daily cleansing through His Word, when you humbly and in repentance confess to Him and receive the assurance of His forgiveness (1 John 1:9).
making or being made impure by way of poison and pollution.
Many believers question, why do they encounter bad things even after they receive Jesus as their savior?
The truth is, anyone can get contaminated. Contamination can come by simply being around certain people. Even engaging in simple gossip or slander can open doors to contamination.
You need to learn how to trace the poison, the starting point of that contamination because it will continue to pollute your soul.
Separation and Surrender
Separation and surrender are the remedies for contamination.
The Bible says to be separated but not isolated. When you walk in the light you will have fellowship with others who are also in the light.
Whatever you don’t surrender to God, He will not be able to free you from it. If you want to be healed from pain, or from any contamination you have to surrender it to God. But He will leave you with the memory of the pain so you don’t repeat it.
In this verse flesh means anything that is void or absent of the spirit of God. Also known as the carnal self. If you live in the flesh you become desirable to satan.
Repentance
Your repentance becomes your acceptance to God.
Nobody is saved without the Holy Spirit convicting them first. If the Holy Spirit doesn’t convict you of your sins, you will continue as you are. There will be no change. That is why you cannot change yourself, you need the Holy Spirit.
The benefits of being cleansed by the blood of Jesus:
- It makes us holy.
- It sets us apart.
- It frees us.
- It gives us peace.
How to be free:
- Allow the Holy Spirit to convict you of your sins.
- Surrender all your pain to God.
- Repent of anything you have participated in that you know was not right.
- Separate yourself for God.
- Read and meditate on the Word.
Until the Word becomes real in your life, you will look for alternatives.
Being separated for God is to live a holy surrendered life, and to walk in holiness, we need to respond to the conviction the Holy Spirit brings and live a lifestyle of constant transformation.
Pruning and Cleansing
In John 15:2, Christ describes two distinct actions on the part of the Father: "Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit." These two actions are 1) taking away unproductive branches and 2) pruning productive ones. Both actions involve cutting, but the reasons for and the results of God's cutting are quite different.
Concerning the cutting of unproductive branches, the apostle John uses the verb airo,which means "to take up," "to bear," "to remove."
Concerning the cutting of productive branches, he uses the verb kathairo, obviously related to airo. So, there is a play on words here, like bear and forbear, but the airo/kathairo wordplay is not apparent in an English translation.
Kathairo means much the same as airo, but with a major difference in nuance or connotation. The emphasis with kathairo is on the cleansing that results through removal, while the emphasis with airo is simply on removal. Think of kathairo this way. When we use soap and water to wash a floor, we are removing dirt. No question about that. But more important to us is the fact that we are cleaningthe floor. Of course, both removal and cleansing are taking place, but we are most interested in the consequence of the removal, that is, the cleaning.
In John 15:3-6, Christ elaborates on His Father's two actions: Removing (airo) unproductive branches and pruning (kathairo) productive ones. Concerned that His disciples understand that they are clean as a result of His Father's action, He focuses first on pruning (kathairo), keying in on its cleansing aspects: "You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you" (John 15:3).
The adjective "clean" here is from the Greek katharos, obviously a word closely related to the verb kathairo. It means "blameless," "pure," "clean," "free of sin and guilt." Its first use is in Matthew 5:8, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."
In verses 4-5, Christ continues His comments about the vine and the branches with a remarkable example of irony—irony to the point of paradox:
Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
Just how does a Christian experience cleansing? Not by separation, but by remaining unified with the Vine. Is there a contradiction between the idea of cleansing by removal (kathairo)—pruning—and Christ's admonition that we abide tenaciously in the Vine? No, there is not. It is all a question of who does what. We do the abiding, as Christ here commands that we do. God does the cutting.
The apostle Paul's comment in Colossians 3:10 (Good News Translation) points out God's role in maintaining the vitality of His people: "This is the new being [the new man] which God, its Creator, is constantly renewing in His Own image, in order to bring you to a full knowledge of Himself." The pruning-cleansing (kathairo) mentioned in John 15 is one of the ways God constantly renews or maintains the new man. It is an ongoing creative act on God's part. Through His pruning, He strengthens the committed Christian, the one who resolutely clings to the Vine. The one who "endures to the end" the trials sent his way will be saved (Matthew 10:22).
With John 15:6, Christ returns to a discussion of that other action performed by His Father, "taking away" (airo) nonproductive branches: "If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned." This action does not result in their cleansing, however, but in destruction. In His comments to the church at Laodicea, Christ uses an even stronger verb than airo to describe the cutting away of unproductive branches: "I could wish that you were either cold or hot! But, since you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I intend to spit you out of My mouth!" Revelation 3:15-16(J.B. Phillips' paraphrase).
A number of translations use terms like "I am ready to vomit you out of My mouth." The reason for this is that the word "will" in the King James Version (KJV) and New King James Version (NKJV) is not merely a future tense marker but translates a separate verb, mello, meaning "to be at the point," "to intend," "to be ready," "to think," or "to have a mind" to take action.
The verb "spew" (KJV) or "spit" (NKJV) is emeo, meaning "to vomit." Paul's comment in Colossians 3:3 provides an important context for this metaphor of vomiting. There, J.B. Phillips puts it that our "true life is a hidden one in Christ." We could say we are hidden within Christ. However, in Revelation 3:16, He says He will strongly reject us, violently separating Himself from us, expelling us from His Body, if we are not "zealous and repent," accepting His reproof and correction (verse 19).
The unproductive branches experience removal, suffering loss at the same time—annihilation. They do not experience cleansing. We should do nothing that would put God in a frame of mind where He "intends" to detach Himself from us—whether by vomiting us from Him or through cutting us off as unproductive branches. To avoid rejection by God, we need to abide in Christ, remain hidden in Him, connected to the Vine.
That is our responsibility. We must take no action that signals to God a lapse of our clinging-commitment—no action that has the effect of separating ourselves from Him. Examples of such actions include failing to attend Sabbath services consistently or becoming remiss in daily prayer and Bible study. As we gradually become more unproductive, perhaps imperceptibly at first, we begin to droop, withering. Because of our lackluster approach—our Laodicean attitude toward God, which may initially be neither hot nor cold—God ultimately cuts us off, separating us from Himself. The result is catastrophic.
Conversely, the productive branches—those Christians committed to remaining attached to the Vine, not permitting "any root of bitterness" (Hebrews 12:15) to develop as a result of God's correction (or trimming)—experience cleansing, something far more desirable than burning. As we approach Passover, let us remember that God cleanses as He prunes. We need to be careful to take no action to damage the fellowship we have with the Father, His Son, and each other, a fellowship made possible through enormous sacrifice on the part of the God Family.
Ephesians 5:26 That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word.
Ephesians 5:27 That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
John 15:3 Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.
1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Psalms 119:9 Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word.
The words in the Bible are alive.
Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is alive, and powerful, and sharper than any sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
We are born again by the Word of God which cleanses us, so we become without spot or without blemish, Holy and glorious as we continue in the word. The Holy Word reproves us, correct us, and is are instruction into righteousness to base our doctrine on.
All of the scriptures are the seeds planted in us. We become more like Jesus as we study to show ourselves approved unto God, rightly dividing the Word of God.
2 Timothy 3:16 All scripture is, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
2 Timothy 3:17 That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.
The word engrafted meansimplanted so as we study the word it gets implanted in us.
James 1:21 Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word is able to save your souls. We are saved by hearing the word.
Romans 10:17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
We are born again by the word of God.
1 Peter 1:23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.
1 Peter 2:2 As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:
2 Timothy 2:15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
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