Devotional #70

Question 70. What does it mean to be washed with the blood and Spirit of Christ?

Answer: To be washed with Christ’s blood means that God, by grace, has forgiven my sins because of Christ’s blood poured out for me in His sacrifice on the cross (a).  To be washed with Christ’s Spirit means that the Holy Spirit has renewed me and set me apart to be a member of Christ so that more and more I become dead to sin and increasingly live a holy and blameless life (b).

(a) Hebrews 12:24: . . . and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.
1 Peter 1:2: . . . according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood.
Revelation 1:5: . . . and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth.
Revelation 7:14: I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
Zechariah 13:1: “On that day there shall be a fountain opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and uncleanness.

(b) John 1:33: I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.
John 3:5: Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
1 Corinthians 6:11: And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
1 Corinthians 12:13: For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body— Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.
Romans 6:4: We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
Colossians 2:12: Having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.

For your personal reflection:
Our sin which once stood against us, accusing us, condemning us, before God has been removed.  How?  By the sacrificial life of Christ.  By the action of one man many became free.  The sacraments are rooted in objective reality and yet touch upon subjective reality.  Objectively, our salvation was accomplished completely outside of us:  Christ’s finished work, addressing the problem of my guilt.  Subjectively, the benefit of grace is worked out within, addressing the total stain of sin that resides within and which touches every dimension of my being.  His shed blood addresses the external reality, the objective side.  The Holy Spirit, who makes mine what is not mine, addresses the subjective internal renewal of my being.  The water of baptism reflects this work: externally we are cleansed with water, internally we are cleansed by the Spirit.

What sin still condemns you?  What invitation do you find in the Gospel?  What promise do you find in baptism?