Daily Devotional

ARE YOU WASHED IN THE BLOOD?

by Barbara Head on April 13, 2021

“If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”  I John 1:9

Have you ever wondered or been confused about the many biblical references to the cleansing power of blood?  For one example, Rev. 7:14 says “...They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb”.  Blood stains are among the most difficult to remove, so the thought of thick, red blood being able to make anything white seems paradoxical.  Besides, most of us are squeamish at the sight of blood and find the mere mention of it distasteful, to say the least.  Could this be the reason modern church music and sermons refer less and less to the theological doctrine of our salvation being based on Jesus’s shed blood?  And yet, the O.T. is filled with references to the blood sacrifices required by law and in the N.T. Christ’s sacrifice of Himself becomes the ultimate fulfillment of all the earlier offerings of blood (Heb. 10:1-10).  His once for all sacrifice is pronounced better than all previous sacrifices and offerings put together.  But why such a dark and gruesome image?  Possibly because it is the only remedy for the dark and gruesome reality of sin.

I have been re-reading a classic called  In His Image, written by Dr. Paul Brand and Phillip Yancey.  Drawing on his many years as an orthopedic surgeon serving in India, Dr. Brand beautifully details the intricate work of the blood as it flows through the human body.  It is the ultimate cleansing agent, with red and white cells filtering out impurities, battling against infectious, invisible intruders all while carrying life-giving nutrients in a complex system of labyrinths and miniscule “generating factories” only God could have designed for the millions of cycles of fueling and cleansing properties needed over a lifetime.

The cleansing blood metaphor is made clear in the astounding descriptions of the miracle of life found in the blood.  Just as the human body needs nourishment and defenses against physically undesirable invasions by disease, so the human soul needs spiritual nourishment and cleansing from sin, the disease that if left unchecked leads to eternal death, for “Without {Christ’s} shedding of blood there is no forgiveness, {neither release from sin and its guilt, nor cancellation of the merited punishment} “  (Amplified Bible, Heb. 9:22).

I thank God for the Blood, not for the gore associated with violence, but for the God whose love did not spare His own Son from paying the penalty of death for my sin.  With fresh appreciation I can sing this hymn by William Cowper based on Zech.13:1:

                              There is a fountain filled with blood
                              Drawn from Immanuel’s veins;
                              And sinners, plunged beneath that flood,
                              Lose all their guilty stains...
 
                              The dying thief rejoiced to see
                              That fountain in his day;
                              And there may I, though vile as he,
                              Wash all my sins away...
 
                              E’er since by faith I saw the stream
                              Thy flowing wounds supply.
                              Redeeming love has been my theme,
                              And shall be till I die...
 
                              When this poor lisping, stammering tongue
                              Lies silent in the grave,
                              Then in a nobler, sweeter song,
                              I’ll sing Thy power to save.

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