“This is He who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not only by water, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who bears witness, because the Spirit is truth” (1 John 5:6)
How often Toplady’s hymn has been sung during the last one hundred and thirty years:
“Rock of ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee;
Let the Water and the Blood,
From Thy riven Side which flow’d,
Be of sin the double cure;
Cleanse me from its guilt and power.”
Yet if you asked many who sing and enjoy it, What is the difference between the cleansing which the blood gives and that of the water? they would be puzzled to find an answer.
You remember that on the cross there flowed from the pierced side of Christ both blood and water. Why blood and why water?
You reply, The blood is to cleanse from sin.
Quite right, but what about the water?
You don’t know. Well, it is to cleanse from sin too, but in a totally different way.
Let me quote two scriptures that will show the two cleansings:
“The BLOOD of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).
“Christ also loved the Church, and gave Himself for it; that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of WATER by the Word” (Eph. 5:25-26).
Now you may ask, If the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses from all sin, what need is there of the cleansing by water?
First, “It is the BLOOD that makes an atonement for the soul” (Lev. 17:11). “Without shedding of BLOOD is no remission” (Heb. 9:22). The priests of old might wash their hands and feet with water at the brazen laver, but it was the blood that was carried into the Holiest on the great day of atonement. We learn from this that the blood was presented to God, as satisfaction for sin.
And here let me make a most important remark. If you, as a young Christian, do not understand the meaning of cleansing by water you cannot fully understand the value of cleansing by blood. How is that? you ask.
I reply, Is it not a common thing to hear that the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, is continually cleansing the believer from sin? I remember an earnest, enlightened Christian preaching in the street who told the people that in nature, every night while we were asleep, there was an arrangement behind the eye for unconsciously washing it from the defilement of the day, so in grace the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, said he, was daily washing us from the defilement of sin. Now if that dear man had known anything about being cleansed by water, he would have been saved from speaking so unscripturally about the precious blood of Christ.
And yet if you had asked him to prove that the blood of Jesus daily cleanses he would have pointed to the verse, “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son; cleanses us from all sin,” and laid stress on the word “cleanses,”
I remember well being at a meeting for young men in the city of London when a young man urged this argument. And I also remember the convincing answer. It was something to this effect, that we should not be led away by the “eth” in “cleanses.” That form of the verb was constantly employed by the Apostle John. For instance, he wrote, “He that comes from heaven is above all.” That did not mean that the Lord Jesus was continually coming, but it described one who was characterized as “He that comes from above.” So when it is said that “the blood … cleanseth,” it does not mean that it is cleansing, cleansing, cleansing all the while. Just as I might hold up a phial of poison, and say, “This kills.” I do not mean that it is killing at the moment, but that is its character—what it does.
Now if Christians knew what cleansing by water meant, they would be prepared to understand that the precious blood of Christ cleanses once and for ever. Christ will never suffer again, and if He has not made a full atonement, it will never be made. But, blessed be God, He has made a full atonement, and now the blood cleanses from ALL SIN.
The moment you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, that moment your sins are cleansed away in God’s holy sight. Nor is it a question of past, present, and future sins, for all your sins were future when Jesus made full atonement for them upon the cross, He “was delivered for our offences.” How many of them? Why surely all.
It is a great rest to the believer when he knows that the precious blood of Christ cleanses once and for ever. When this is grasped he is prepared to take up the question of cleansing by water.
To revert to the illustration of the priests. The blood was carried in to God atoningly. The water in the brazen laver was for the washing of the priest’s hands and feet. This they did often, daily in fact. The blood was carried in once a year, on the great day of atonement, pointing on to the great day of atonement when once and for ever the real work should be done by which God should be eternally satisfied.
In that way the blood of Christ is applied to us by God once and for all; the water is used by us for daily, hourly cleansing. Ephesians 5:26 clearly tells us what the water is: “The washing of water BY THE WORD.” This is cleansing for the Christian, who has already a standing before God in virtue of the blood. The blood is the atoning aspect of the death of Christ; the water the presentation of the death of Christ to the believer in a practical way leading to the cleansing of one’s ways and habits. As a young believer grows in the knowledge of the truth, he will find many a thing he once did with a good conscience will have to be dropped. “Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to Thy Word.” The Word instructing and laying hold of him will make him separate and holy in his conduct. It will “sanctify and cleanse” him in life and way.
But if the believer should sin, what is he to do? Go to the blood for cleansing? No; the cleansing which the blood gives abides. But as God, by His Spirit and Word, brings home to him the sin he has been guilty of, he is led to confess it to God with sorrow and shame. And this results not in the restoration of his salvation, but of the joy of it. The link of life is not forged afresh, for that has never been broken, but communion is renewed, so that the sunshine of a Father’s smile is again enjoyed. For this read 1 John 1:1-10 and 2:1-2.
While we have sought in this article to deal with the scriptural meaning of water in its simplest and most practical bearing, it must not be forgotten that there is a sense in which washing by water is once for all. This is illustrated by the priests who were bathed all over when consecrated. This bathing was never repeated. The bathing all over was part of the ceremony which consecrated them as priests; the washing of feet and hands was necessary for the service of the sanctuary.
Doubtless this is alluded to in John 13:10, “He that is washed” (literally bathed all over) “needs not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit.” The bathing all over is the blessed action of the Holy Spirit by the word in renewing us spiritually. “We are born of water and of the Spirit” (John 3:5). This renders us “clean every whit” in God’s holy sight, not judicially, for that is by the blood, but morally. The feet washing is that we may have “part with Him,” even as the priest left his own surroundings, and was enabled by the washing at the brazen altar to pass into the service of the sanctuary—have part in Jehovah’s things.
How happy to be in the sense of the cleansing once and for all, and to be careful as to the daily, hourly cleansing so that we may practically answer to the grace of God in our pathway here.