The believers have also been freed from God’s wrath. “Having now been justified in His blood, we shall be saved through Him from the wrath” (Rom. 5:9). In John 3:36 the Lord Jesus says, “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who disobeys the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” Furthermore, in 1 Thessalonians 1:10 Paul tells us, “To wait for His Son from the heavens, whom He raised from among the dead—Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath which is coming.” This wrath is the wrath of the coming judgment of God (Rom. 2:5-6, 8-9). Before we were saved, we were children of wrath (Eph. 2:3) under God’s wrath. Today all of mankind is living under the wrath of God. Because God is merciful, giving people time to repent, His wrath has not yet burst forth. But those who refuse to repent will suffer God’s thundering wrath. God is just, righteous, and one day the unbelievers will suffer wrath under His judgment. But because He has forgiven us, we have been released from His wrath.
John 3:36 says that the wrath of God abides on those who disobey the Son. Eternal life is in the Son of God, whereas wrath is according to God’s righteousness. Those who believe in the Son of God will have eternal life. But those who do not believe in Him will remain under the wrath of God, which is like mighty thunder ready to roll. When the thunder of God’s wrath rolls, people will perish.
“Since therefore the children have partaken of blood and flesh, He also Himself in like manner shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who has the might of death, that is, the Devil; and might release those who through fear of death through all their life were held in slavery” (Heb. 2:14-15). These verses reveal that the believers have been freed from the fear and slavery of death. Because the Lord Jesus has destroyed the Devil who has the might of death, He has released us who were held in slavery through the fear of death. Death reigned over us (Rom. 5:14), and we were under its slavery with the fear of death all the time. Because the Lord has destroyed the Devil and abolished death (2 Tim. 1:10), we now have no more fear of death and are released from its slavery. We have been released by Christ from the slavery of sin, from the slavery of the fear of death, and even from the slavery of death itself. Praise the Lord that we are no longer enslaved by the fear of death! We are a liberated, released, emancipated, people. Through Christ’s redemption we have overcome the fear of death and have been freed from the slavery of death.
As believers in Christ, we have not only been forgiven and freed but also washed. To be forgiven settles our case before God. To be washed takes away the spot, the stain, of our sins. To be forgiven of our wrongdoings is one thing; to have the stain of our sins washed away is another. When we believed in the Lord Jesus, God not only forgave us and released us but also washed us.
Forgiveness takes away the legal obligation, whereas washing removes the stain of our sinfulness. God’s washing takes away, abolishes, the stain of our sins. Our sins need God’s forgiveness, and the stain of our sins requires His cleansing. In redemption we have both forgiveness and cleansing.
God’s washing of the believers is of two aspects. First, we are washed positionally by the blood of Christ. Second, we are washed dispositionally in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit.
Revelation 1:5 speaks of the Lord Jesus as the One “who loves us and has loosed us from our sins by His blood.” To loose us from sins means to wash us from sins. This washing of our sins is before God positionally.
The believers have also been washed positionally by the blood of Christ in their conscience. “How much more shall 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” (Heb. 9:14). To serve the living God requires a blood-purified conscience. The blood of Christ purifies our conscience to serve the living God. The conscience is the leading part of our spirit, and the living God always comes to our spirit by touching our conscience. He is righteous, holy, and living. Hence, our defiled conscience needs to be purified so that we may serve Him in a living way. Therefore, in our conscience we have been washed positionally by the blood of Christ.