This volume of Truth Lessons is a continuation of the preceding volume on the initial stage of God’s full salvation. First, we will continue to see the different aspects of redemption. Immediately after we are forgiven of our sins and are freed, we are washed. God not only forgives us but also washes us. Forgiveness cancels the penalty for sins; washing removes all traces of sins. When God forgives us, He releases us from all responsibility for sin. When God washes us, He causes us to look as if we had never sinned.
Man’s sins not only make man a sinner with a charge against him before God, but they also cause him to become stained and defiled in himself. Therefore, man needs not only forgiveness but also washing.
Man is born of lust (Job 25:4-6), and his heart is defiled and filled with sins (Matt. 15:19-20). Hence, man is abominable and filthy. He delights in sinning and drinks iniquity like water (Job 15:14-16). Like a worm, he lives in uncleanness. There is none whose heart is clean and sinless, nor is there anyone who can make his heart clean and purify himself from sin (Prov. 20:9; 30:12). Furthermore, man has presented the members of his body as slaves to uncleanness (Rom. 6:19), causing them to become defiled. Man’s mouth is full of cursing, blaspheming, judging, lying, obscenity, and foolish talking. Hence, man is of unclean lips and dwells in the midst of a people of unclean lips (Isa. 6:5).
Man’s heart is filled with uncleanness and his mouth issues forth uncleanness; furthermore, man practices uncleanness, indulging in the lusts of his heart (Rom. 1:24). Men have all gone aside; together they are become filthy (Psa. 14:3). Hence, all men are unclean before God (Isa. 64:6). Like lepers, they are altogether unclean (Lev. 13:45) and truly need to be cleansed.
At the time we are saved, God applies to us the washing which the Lord Jesus accomplished. The washing which the Lord accomplished on the cross is an objective fact before God, and it is only carried out in us when we receive salvation.
The washing which we receive at the time we are saved is of two aspects. One aspect is the positional washing by the blood, and the other aspect is the dispositional washing by life. We receive both aspects of washing when we are saved through faith and baptism. Let us first look at the positional washing.
The uncleanness of the universe and of the human race comes from sin; hence, the redeeming blood is required for purification (Heb. 9:22). There first must be the shedding of blood for redemption from sins and then the blood can be used to wash the uncleanness of sin. The Lord Jesus shed His blood on the cross to accomplish redemption for our sins (1 Pet. 2:24) that His blood might purify us from the uncleanness of sin. Hence, the blood of Christ as a fountain for the washing of sins (Zech. 13:1) cleanses us at the time we believe into the Lord. This washing by the blood, which is outward and objective, is mainly before God for the washing of the uncleanness in our behavior. Although the Lord’s blood also purifies our conscience within, this purification is for us to come forward to God with boldness (Heb. 10:19, 22).
Having shed His blood on the cross and having made purification of our sins once for all before God, the Lord Jesus sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high (Heb. 1:3). He was not like the atoning priests in the old covenant, who could never sit down but needed to stand daily and offer often the same sacrifices (Heb. 10:11), because it was impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins (Heb. 10:4). But having offered one sacrifice for sins to take away our sin (John 1:29) and make purification of our sins forever, He sat down on the right hand of God (Heb. 10:10, 12). According to the type in Leviticus 16, He brought His blood into the Holy of Holies in the heavens and sprinkled it before God (Heb. 12:22, 24) to redeem us from sins, cleansing us of all sins before God. Once we believe that the Lord Jesus’ death by the shedding of blood on the cross was for redeeming us from sins, His blood makes it possible for God to forgive us of our sins and to pardon us from the penalty of sin. At the same time, His blood also washes us from our sins before God, removing the stain of our sins (Rev. 1:5) and erasing all traces of our sins, so that we appear before God as if we had never sinned.