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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.
When we believe and receive Christ, His blood also purifies our conscience (Heb. 9:14). According to the revelation of the Bible, the blood of Christ does not cleanse our heart; rather, it purifies our conscience. Our conscience is the most important part of our spirit, and our spirit is the organ by which we contact God. The conscience in our spirit enables us to hear God’s voice and to know God’s will. However, because we sinned, our conscience has been defiled and has lost its function. At the time we believe, God washes our sin-contaminated conscience with the Lord’s redeeming blood, not only making it clean and transparent but also restoring its original function that through it we may serve God.
On the other hand, our conscience represents God and, in particular, God’s law; that is, it reflects God and God’s law. Whatever God condemns according to His law, our conscience also condemns and reflects (Rom. 2:14-15). Since the Lord’s blood has satisfied God and the requirement of His law, it washes us from our sins, so that neither God nor His law can condemn us any longer. Hence, our conscience, which represents both God and His law, also condemns us no longer because of the Lord’s blood. Because the Lord’s blood has washed away our sins before God and before His law, it also washes away our sins before our conscience. Such a conscience thus enables us to serve God with boldness.
The stain of our sins appears not only before God and in us, but also before men. Many of the ungodly and unrighteous things that we did in opposing God were done before men. Many sins that we committed and many evil, lustful, and filthy things that we did are known by the people around us. Therefore, at the time we believe and are saved, God uses another means to wash away the stain of sins which we have before men (Acts 22:16). This is the washing of baptism. Baptism is a silent declaration of our repentance unto God. Through baptism we declare to those around us the fact that we have repented and have believed and have been cleansed of the stain of our sins. Thus, we are loosed from the stain of sins which we have before men and become the repentant and washed ones in their eyes.
This is clearly illustrated in the Lord’s sending of Ananias to find Saul and to baptize him (Acts 22:12-16). Formerly, Saul was one who opposed the Lord, persecuted the church, and ravaged the Christians. This was a fact known to all, especially to the Christians. Now that he had been met by the Lord and had repented unto Him, he should be baptized that people might know that this one who had formerly opposed the Lord and had persecuted the church had now turned to the Lord and become a Christian, so that his sin of opposing God and of persecuting the church might be washed away before men.
Not only are we defiled in our behavior before God, but we are also unclean inwardly in our nature. Our outward behavior is defiled, and our inward nature is unclean. Therefore, the washing that God has prepared for us in His salvation consists not only of the positional aspect but also of the dispositional aspect. The positional aspect stresses the removing of the defilement in our behavior before God, before His law, and before our conscience. The dispositional aspect emphasizes the removing of the defilement inwardly in our nature. Hence, the dispositional washing is absolutely subjective; it is an inward washing.
First, we are washed in life dispositionally in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 6:11). Being washed in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ denotes being washed in the person of the Lord, in the Lord Himself, that is, in the organic union with the Lord by faith. When we call on the Lord Jesus, we experience the living person of the Lord, we are in Him, and we have an organic union with Him, sharing His life and nature. His life and His nature cause us to be delivered from our unclean life and defiled nature, that is, from our dispositional defilement. Hence, we are washed dispositionally in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, in the living person of the Lord.
We are washed dispositionally not only in the name of the Lord Jesus but also in the Spirit (1 Cor. 6:11), that all defilement may be removed from our entire being and that we may be cleansed. The name of the Lord Jesus is His living person, and His person is the Spirit. When we call on the Lord Jesus, He comes to us as the Spirit. This Spirit is the Spirit of life (Rom. 8:2), in whom God transfuses His divine life to us. Through this life we are freed from our natural disposition and from the life that we had originally. Therefore, through this life we are also loosed from the defilement of our natural disposition and from the filthiness of our original life that we may be washed in life dispositionally.
We are washed dispositionally by faith. In His saving way God does not cleanse our heart with the redeeming blood of Christ, but He does cleanse our heart with His Spirit of life through our union with the Lord by faith (Acts 15:9). This means that our old heart, which is desperately wicked and incurable (Jer. 17:9), filled with all kinds of defilement (Matt. 15:18-20), and hard as stone, is changed into a new heart (Ezek. 36:26), which is clean and pliable, that we may be purified in our heart. Hence, we are washed in life dispositionally by faith.
The result of God’s washing is that we become as white as snow and as wool before God (Isa. 1:18). Snow and wool are naturally white. Therefore, this tells us that as a result of God’s washing we become not only white but naturally white, as if we had never been defiled. Furthermore, God’s washing not only makes us as white as snow but even whiter than snow (Psa. 51:7). What a washing!
God’s washing also results in our being made inwardly pure and without blemish both in life and in nature as He is.
Man’s sins not only make man a sinner with a charge against him before God, but they cause him to become stained and defiled in himself. Therefore, man needs not only forgiveness but also washing. The washing which we receive at the time we are saved is of two aspects: positional washing and dispositional washing. The positional washing by the blood is through the redeeming blood of Christ. This blood cleanses us at the time we believe into the Lord. This washing, which is outward and objective, is mainly before God for the washing of the uncleanness in our behavior. The blood also cleanses our conscience that we may come forward to God with boldness to serve Him with a pure conscience. Positional washing also includes the washing of baptism. Through baptism we declare to those around us the fact that we have repented and have believed and have been cleansed of the stain of our sins, so that we become the repentant and washed ones in their eyes. Dispositional washing emphasizes the removing of the defilement inwardly in our nature. We are washed in life dispositionally in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit through faith, that we may be loosed from the defilement of our original life and nature and be washed in life dispositionally. The result of God’s washing is that before God we become as white as snow, even whiter than snow, just as if we had never sinned. Furthermore, we are also made inwardly pure and without blemish both in life and in nature as He is.
