WE LIVE IN A TIME when, due to industry and technology, we can cleanse ourselves daily in the bathrooms of our homes. Not so even our recent ancestors once-removed, say great-grandparents or before. In the eighteen-hundreds and previously, some people bathed once a week, some took one bath every three months or so, thinking bathing was dangerous for your health. The luxury of a hot bath with soap and water was exactly that: a luxury. Many people had no running water, and sufficed with washing out of a bucket, or dipping into a local stream. Their soap was most likely a mixture of refined lard and leached ashes. Everyone was used to each other’s stench and paid little attention to such things. Today we simply walk into the bathroom, turn on the hot and cold water to our desired temperature, grab some soap, and think nothing of it. It’s always been like this; we’ve known nothing different.
Mixing together in secular pagan communities of relationships and activities that have few moral boundaries bears distinct similarities to a lack of attention to body hygiene. There’s an unpleasant stench that everyone gets used to. While the worst of it draws attention and a call to action—say murder, rape, and the like—the underlying baseline of behavior becomes unnoticed except for a general sense of malaise marked by unease and distrust. Israel fell into such a deplorable state in the eight century B.C., and God spoke to them through the prophet Micah: “I have begun to destroy you, to ruin you because of your sins. Therefore I will give you over to ruin and your people to derision.” (Micah 6:13, 15) But the same God, two centuries later, speaks a messianic promise through Isaiah, “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you.” (Isa. 60:1)
That ‘light’ would come in Jesus, who told/tells his followers, “You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.” (John 15:3) The apostle Paul speaks of the relationship of the church and Jesus, saying that he “gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word.” (Eph. 5:26)
Perhaps, however, discussing the universal church is not the place to start our thoughts; instead, we consider King David’s personal plea, his need for relief from the heavy burden of sin, uttered as a heart-cry: “Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.” (Psa. 51:2) David speaks the emotional words we have ourselves uttered out of pain at various lows in life, those times when the separation from God has become too personal and too painful. David was not ‘already clean,’ but he became so by the piercing words of God spoken through Nathan the prophet. “You are the man!” (2 Sam 12:7) Through Nathan the N.T. reality of the cleansing power of God’s word was applied to David: “The word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight.” (Heb. 4:12-13) David’s sin with Bathsheba was laid bare before God by Nathan; David’s self-denial and deceptions are then painfully cleansed through a well-deserved spiritual scourging.
It is this same pathway of cleansing that all of us must travel, bringing us to and through a painful process past our own self-denial and deceptions. And here we learn an otherwise unappreciated biblical truth. “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret.” (2 Cor. 7:10)
In the O.T., God speaks of this same cleansing through both Moses and Ezekiel. Moses is given the command to mix the ashes of a pure red heifer in water, and told “They are to be kept by the Israelite community for use in the water of cleansing; it is for purification from sin.” (Num. 19:9) Through Ezekiel God says, “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols.” (Ezek. 36:25)
This cleansing was prophesied by Zechariah in the O.T., speaking of Jesus’ crucifixion, and specifically of his blood, “shed for the forgiveness of our sin.” (Heb. 9:22): “On that day a fountain will be opened to the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and impurity.” (Zech. 13:1)
In the N.T., Paul addresses the many relevant applications of the cleansing power of the blood of Christ, offered to Jew and Gentile alike. Of this Paul says, “For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.” (Tit. 2:11-14)
Here, then, we find the assured answer to the cry of the heart that seeks not only cleansing from sin, but a different way forward past its temptations: “Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.” (Heb. 10:22)
God’s Word displaces unrighteousness from our hearts and replaces it with his righteousness. It wipes out fear and replaces it with faith. The Word of God is a cleaning agent; it is the power of the Holy Spirit to cleanse anyone who comes under its influence, power, and authority. It cleanses me, and it cleanses you. “‘Come now, let us settle the matter,’ says the Lord. ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.’” (Isa. 1:18)
Q. Am I clean yet, or is a little more scrubbing in order?