God’s cleansing can be divided into several stages. One stage of cleansing occurred when the Lord Jesus accomplished redemption, another takes place when we are saved, and still another occurs after our salvation.
When the Lord Jesus accomplished redemption, He completed the work of cleansing. On the cross the Lord Jesus finished a perfect cleansing on our behalf and placed it before God. Such a cleansing can be applied to us at any time.
1. “Purified by blood” (Heb. 9:22).
Since the filthiness of the universe and man came from sin, it can be cleansed only by the redeeming blood. There must first be the shedding of blood for redemption and then the cleansing of the filthiness from sin. Since the Lord Jesus shed His blood on the cross to accomplish redemption, His blood cleanses away all man’s defilement that results from sin.
2. “Who...having made purification of sins, sat down...on high” (Heb. 1:3; see also Lev. 16:15-17, 30).
After the Lord Jesus shed His blood on the cross to accomplish the cleansing of man’s sins, He sat down at the right hand of God on high. He shed His blood once and accomplished an eternal cleansing. According to the typology in Leviticus 16, He brought His own blood into the Holy of Holies in the heavenlies and sprinkled it before God (Heb. 12:22, 24) to make propitiation for our sins so that we might be cleansed and “from all...sins...be clean” before God (Lev. 16:30).
The cleansing we experienced when we were saved is the very cleansing that the Lord Jesus accomplished and that God applied to us. The cleansing accomplished by the Lord on the cross is an objective fact before God; at the time of our salvation it becomes a subjective experience to us.
The cleansing we received at the time of our salvation has three aspects. The first aspect is the cleansing of the blood, the second is the cleansing of life, and the third is the cleansing of baptism. We obtain this threefold cleansing once we believe and are baptized and saved.
The Lord’s blood is a fountain for sin (Zech. 13:1) that cleanses us at the time we are saved. Comparatively speaking, this aspect of the cleansing of the blood is outward, objective, and stresses what occurs before God. Although the Lord’s blood also cleanses our conscience, this cleansing is surely not as subjective and inward as the cleansing by the Lord’s life. Furthermore, though the Lord’s blood cleanses our conscience within, the cleansing is for our standing before God.
1. “Who...has released us from our sins by His blood” (Rev. 1:5).
Once we believe that the Lord died and shed His blood on the cross to make propitiaton for sins, the Lord’s blood causes God to forgive us of our sins and to spare us from the punishment of sin; it also washes away our sins and removes the filthiness of sin from us.
2. “Washed...in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 6:11).
To be in the name of the Lord is to be one with Him. When we become one with the Lord by faith, His name causes us to share in the cleansing of His redeeming blood. The Lord’s blood cleanses us because we have believed in His name and are one with Him. Once we believe in the name of the Lord and are one with Him, His blood cleanses us.
3. “How much more will the blood of Christ...purify our conscience” (Heb. 9:14).
Many people say that the Lord’s blood cleansed their hearts. This is wrong and not according to the Bible. According to the Bible, the Lord’s blood does not purify our heart; rather, it purifies our conscience. In God’s way of salvation, God cleanses our conscience, not our heart, with the Lord’s blood. Our conscience is the most vital part of our spirit, and our spirit is the very faculty with which we contact God. It is the conscience in our spirit that allows us to hear God and to know His intention. However, our conscience was defiled and lost its function because of our sins. When we were saved, God cleansed our sin-defiled conscience with the Lord’s redeeming blood, making it clean and transparent and recovering its original function so that we may serve God according to our purified conscience.
Furthermore, the conscience in us also represents God, especially the law of God; it reflects God and His law. Whatever God condemns according to His law, the conscience reflects and condemns. Since the Lord’s blood satisfied God and the requirements of His law, washing away our sins so that God and His law no longer condemn us, our conscience, which represents God and His law within us, will not condemn us. Just as our sins are cleansed before God and His law, they are also cleansed before our conscience. Consequently, our conscience enables us to serve God with boldness.