Pictures of Redemption (19)
Washing
(Bible Study - July/August 2003)

For all of us, there is the need to wash up.  The world is a dirty place, and we are thoroughly wrapped up in it -- we are a part of it, and it is no less a part of us!

God will wash us
Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD.  Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool (Isa. 1:18).

The world of sin has left its mark on us, and IN us! For it is not just their sins -- it is also our sins!  We need a place, and a time, and a means, whereby we can be “washed.”

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.  Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.  For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.  Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge (Psa. 51:1-4).

Our sins are the problem, and that problem is insurmountable by our own efforts.  But the compassion of our Heavenly Father has provided a means by which our sins may be washed away!

The law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness (Heb. 9:22).

Yet it is not just the “body” which is unclean through sin; it is the mind, the heart, the conscience. And so:

Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water (Heb. 10:22).

Washed in blood
Like the blood of the special Passover lamb that was sprinkled on the doorposts of the Israelites’ houses in Egypt, so the blood of Christ “our Passover lamb” (I Cor. 5:7) is sprinkled upon our hearts.  Thereby the mind conscious of sin is cleansed of its guilt and renewed, and mind and body alike are protected from the Angel of Death!

Paradoxically, the washing by which we are cleansed is not accomplished with water -- perhaps we should say, not with water only!  True, we are washed with water when we are baptized, but -- figuratively -- we are being washed in the blood of the Passover lamb:

They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb (Rev. 7:14).

Naturally speaking, this is an impossibility.  But with God it is a requirement.  No amount of washing with water, and soap, can ever be enough!  It is, in fact, impossible that we can be truly cleansed apart from being immersed, or baptized, in his blood!  Once we have touched that blood, and that blood has touched us, then -- for the first time -- we may be truly clean!

Literally sins are forgiven
All of this is, of course, simply another way of saying that our sins may be forgiven through our faith in the man who lived a life without sin.  The Bible doesn’t stop with so mundane a statement, however; it enhances it, and embellishes it, with one “picture” after another.  In Christ our sins are:

1. “covered” (Psa. 32:1).

2. “removed” (Psa. 103:12).

3. “cast behind God’s back” (Isa. 38:17).

4. “blotted out” (Psa. 51:1; Isa. 44:22).

5. “washed away” (Psa. 51:2,7).

6. “remembered no more” (Jer. 31:34).

7. “sought for but not found” (Jer. 50:20).

8. “cast into the depths of the sea” (Mic. 7:19).

Thus Paul can write to the Romans that there remains “no more condemnation” to those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:1) -- and he can mean it!

Washing at the last supper
One thing Jesus greatly desired as the end approached, was to partake of a special meal -- HIS special meal -- with his closest friends.  Even while armed men sought to arrest him, and no place in or near Jerusalem was safe, he shepherded his disciples to a special room in a special house, where all the provisions had been made to celebrate the Passover.

There, while they jockeyed for positions of honor at the table (cp. Luke 14:8-14), and for positions of office in his coming Kingdom -- which they were sure was about to be established -- he, the Lord and Master of all, “took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist.  After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him” (John 13:4,5).  He “humbled himself” (Phil. 2:5,8), being “clothed with humility” (I Pet. 5:1-6).  He showed them that the road to the crown was by way of the cross.  They looked for a revelation of glory, but they saw, instead, a servant kneeling at their feet.

Peter, possessing uncommon insight, sees this “contradiction” and protests: “Lord, are you going to wash MY feet?” (John 13:6).  Jesus turns this protest aside: “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand unless I wash you, you have no part with me” (vv. 7,8).

Thus it is that the time of the great meal was preceded by a time of washing.  The dirt of the road and the field must be lovingly washed away by the one who came to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.  Only then could the meal begin.

A time of fellowship
“While they were eating” (Matt. 26:26): the Lord’s supper, shared with his disciples, reinforced the point that they were a family, with one Father: a family committed to love one another, and to serve one another, and to walk arm in arm toward a shared goal, helping each other along the way.

The Lord’s supper was to be partaken in company with other family members.  A meal eaten in solitude is no real meal.  God has placed the lonely and solitary in a family, and the food is to be shared among all the family members.

The Lord’s supper, shared with his disciples -- on that special night before his arrest -- taught them, one more time, that safety and security could be found only in the circle of believers inside the house sprinkled with his blood.  Outside was only darkness, fear and impending death.  Inside were family, friends, love, and life.

Yesterday, today and tomorrow
The Lord’s supper is also:

1. a memorial of Christ’s sacrifice: “This is my body, this is my blood” (Matt. 26:26,27).

2. a feast of remembrance: “Do this in remembrance of ME” (I Cor. 11:24).

3. a celebration of victory -- for it is the place where the living Lord is memorialized as the firstfruits of the new creation (I Cor. 15 :23).

4. a token of fellowship (I Cor. 10:16) -- for the act of eating the bread and drinking the wine is the means by which all participate in the sufferings of Christ, and in his glory as well.

5. a confession of hope: “For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (I Cor. 11:26).

For this meal, the Lord’s supper, draws us into the past, the present, and the future.  The believer takes the bread and the wine, and looks back to the Upper Room in Jerusalem, and a little flock waiting for the voice of their Shepherd.  The believer looks around himself, at others who are part of the eternal “family of God,” tied by sacred cords of memory to all who have walked the same path before them.  And he looks forward to the time when the Lord will: “drink it anew with you in my Father’s kingdom” (Matt. 26:29).

George Booker

Return to Top