03.10. Blood Does Not Do the Work of Water.

3. Blood does not do the work of Water.

It may be thought needless to argue something so self-evident. In fact there is the most urgent need to do so and at length, for Evangelical theology and belief are almost universally false on this point. This is to be seen especially in hymns, though also in many competent writers.

“There is a fountain filled with blood Drawn from Emmanuel’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 have I, as vile as he, Washed all my sins away.”

It is to be asserted categorically, and with the utmost emphasis, that no such fountain or flood of blood exists, that to be plunged in blood is a purely pagan idea, and that no person or his sins ever have been washed in blood. The whole conception is both obnoxious and mischievous. The heathen had a most offensive rite, the tourobolium, in which the man was deluged with blood from above, but God never sanctioned any such ceremony nor does His Word admit even the idea. The one verse that could be fairly quoted for the conception was Revelation 1:5 in the A.V, “Unto Him that... washed us from our sins in His blood.” The Revisers, following the better Greek text, read “loosed us from our sins,” set us free, liberated us from our sins, as a debtor is freed from his debts by the payment of them. The difference between the two Greek words is only one letter. To free is luo, to wash is louo. Whether the introduction of the first “o” was the accidental mistake of a copyist, or a conscious correction by him to accommodate the verse to a popular conception which he thought true, or a deliberate perversion to inculcate error it had the baneful effect of forcing this verse into plain contradiction with the whole typology and theology of Holy Scripture and of hiding indispensable truth.

There is one other statement, also in Revelation (Revelation 7:14), often misread and misused to the same effect:“they washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” This does not say that these washed and whitened their robes in the blood:there are here two separated verbs describing two operations, “they washed their robes, and whitened them in the blood,” the “and” being disjunctive as well as conjunctive; the two operations belong together but the latter is additional to the former. This is indicated by the comma after “robes.” We shall see the force of this when considering certain types, and that the washing was with water and the blood was applied by sprinkling.* [* Revelation 1:5; Revelation 7:14. “The idea of washing or whitening robes in blood is therefore not present, whether ento haimati tou arniou [ ‘in the blood of the Lamb’] goes with eplunan... kai eleukanan [’washed... and whitened’] or with eleukanan [’whitened’] only.” - F. F. Bruce.], The passage from the Old Testament upon which the hymn quoted is doubtless based is Zechariah 13:1 :“In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness.” This does not say “a fountain of blood.” “In that day” looks forward not backward:it points to the future when Messiah shall return to deliver Jerusalem and Israel from Antichrist - see the paragraph preceding and the whole context. Is Calvary to be then re-enacted? Is the blood of Christ to be shed again? Must not the meaning be other than this? An Old Testament figure must be interpreted in harmony with previous Old Testament types, pictures, and teaching. (1) When Israel was redeemed from the Destroyer it was by blood alone. The people were not required to wash their persons or garments. The taxgatherer “went down to his house justified” (Luke 18:14) by virtue of the altar and the blood alone; he did not have to wash at the laver. Thus the blood by itself saves from damnation and justifies the penitent believer. This is the Scriptural denial of the doctrine that eternal salvation depends in part upon outward sanctification, so that no one can be assured of salvation until he has persevered in holiness to the end of life. The point is stressed by both the type and the express statement of Christ. (2) But no sooner had the people redeemed by blood entered the life of fellowship with God in the desert than the necessity for water arose:they went three days in the wilderness and found no water (Exodus 15:22). Anyone who has tramped the desert for one day, under the Egyptian sun, will know how hard it was to go three days without water, and will not throw stones at them for murmuring. And the first water they reached was bitter (Exodus 15:23). The type teaches that something more and better than earth’s supplies is needed for spiritual refreshment. God changed that bitter water and made it drinkable and healthful. God has skill to turn life’s bitter experiences into soul-refreshment, health-giving and vivifying; for still He uses such occasions as He did then, to grant “precious and exceeding great promises, in order that by means of these we may become partakers of divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4). This will bring us, as Israel, to an Elim, where the heart may encamp and repose (Exodus 15:27). But in a desert the need of water is perpetual and the lack of it easy occasion for a grumbling spirit (Exodus 17:1-7). Oh, how readily the redeemed soul reaches its Massah and Meribah, testing God instead of trusting Him, chiding instead of praying. But as has been noticed above, their gracious God provided henceforth water from the Rock which accompanied them the rest of their journey (1 Corinthians 10:4). That Rock was Christ, smitten on the cross once for all, water of life being thus made permanently available and free. Now the blood that had redeemed had been shed once for all in Egypt; the water that slaked their thirst flowed constantly. Blood did not flow to quench their thirst. Only a pagan savage would offer his friend blood to drink. The Lord Jesus is He Who shed His blood to redeem: He it is Who also gives the living water. In John 3:1-36 we hear Him tell Nicodemus that it is Himself lifted up on the cross to whom the sinner must look in order to receive the gift of eternal life. To Nicodemus He spoke of the cross, for He was showing that the source of eternal life lies in His own death; but in the next chapter (4), when showing a sin-parched thirsty soul how this need could be met, He did not speak of blood but of water. They are many who have reached John 3:1-36, having experienced the new birth by faith in the death of Christ, but who have not advanced to John 4:1-53, for they have no experience answering to the Lord’s rich promise, “whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst” (John 4:14). The promise is emphatic:“for ever shall in no wise thirst,” and the reason is notable, “the water that I shall give him shall become in him a spring of water always welling up unto eternal life.” Here is an inward experience that never could have been possible had the blood not covered our sin but which manifestly is something additional to this latter, and which many never reach though knowing they are redeemed and pardoned. And they will remain thirsty and weak as long as their attention is confined to the blood; it is water they need. What water typifies, wherever it is spoken of figuratively, is shown in the Lord’s words spoken in the temple, as explained by John “Jesus stood and cried, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink. He that believeth into [vital union with] Me, out of his innermost being shall flow torrents of living water” (Variorum Bible). “ “But this spake He of the Spirit which they that believed on Him were to receive” (John 7:37-39).Better class houses in the East are frequently built as a square, with windows and doors opening only on to an interior court, save perhaps in some cases a door into a walled garden, and the heavy door leading to the street. If now a tumult arises in the town the occupants can retire into their house, bar the stout door, and stay within till quiet returns. Only they must be well stocked with food, and still more must have their own well in the inner court. Thus can the believer be inwardly secured and fortified against the tumults that disturb the outer life:by the indwelling Spirit he can have his full supply of peace and joy springing up in his own heart, and so copiously that the streams will overflow to others, as Jesus promised. Only those redeemed by blood can experience this; nor will such know it save by drinking continually of the water, by living constantly in communion with the Holy Spirit. (3.) The second principal use of water is for washing. Both the person and the clothing require this. For this purpose water is the natural and only suitable agent. (a) Leviticus 14:1-57. The leper in Israel was a redeemed man under Divine chastisement for his sin. It was distinctly guaranteed to them that if they would obey the commandments and keep the statutes of their God the diseases of Egypt should not touch them (Exodus 15:26). Therefore the healing and cleansing of a leper in Israel pictures the penitence, pardon, and restoration of a backslidden believer. In this restoration the first act was by God; He healed the leper of the disease. The second act was that “living,” that is, running water, not stagnant water, was brought, a bird was so killed that its blood dropped into the water, and this mixture of water and blood was sprinkled upon the healed man. These two operations have spiritual counterpart, (1) “By His stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5), not simply forgiven but healed. The defiling, weakening effects of sin are cured; its outflow is removed, its display restrained. Then (2) there is the further stage that the heart is sprinkled from an evil conscience (Hebrews 10:22). This means that the Holy Spirit brings home to the conscience the saving power of the blood of Christ, and the believer has no more consciousness of being guilty, defiled, banished. When the leper had been sprinkled the stain of the blood in the water would be visible on his garments. That would assure him and show to others that he had been forgiven and was being restored to fellowship with God and His people.

He would now have no feeling that he must flee to outside the camp, nor could any other command him to do so. The blood stains set him free; the setting free of the living bird, also stained with the blood, was the symbol (verse 7). But (3) there was a third stage in the restoration. Cleansing was not yet complete. The man had now to wash his clothes, shave off all his hair, and bathe himself in water. Every external sign of defilement, the whole output of sin, had to be removed. The blood was sprinkled upon him by another, the priest; the washing he had to do himself. God supplied the water; the man had to use it, to apply it to himself. The Lord gives the Spirit; the believer has to receive and apply His empowering grace.

It is obvious that the clothing is not the man. Garments are articles we make, and put on or put off. They represent those qualities of character and practice which we form and wear; they are the externals which both reveal and conceal our real self. They must be kept unspotted (James 1:27), they must be washed when necessary (Revelation 7:14); it is possible, and far better, to keep them undefiled (Revelation 3:4). This making clean and keeping clean of our outer life is wrought by the grace of the Spirit of holiness, the heavenly “Water.” To the formerly grossly immoral heathen at Corinth who had believed on Christ Paul wrote:“Such were some of you:but ye washed yourselves (R.V. mgn), but ye were sanctified, but ye were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and in the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:9-11). And later he exhorted them thus:“let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit [of outer life and inward state], going on perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (2 Corinthians 7:1). The formerpassage shows that continued action of the Redeemer and the Spirit pictured by the commingled water and blood sprinkled on the leper, preceding the man washing and bathing himself. The latter verse cannot point to this initial step in the cleansing, because the participle “perfecting holiness” points to a ceaseless process to be continued perseveringly till its perfection is reached.

It is to this that we are called to attend, for if the sprinkled man had not gone on to wash his clothes and bathe his person he would have blocked his own progress and debarred himself reunion with the family circle and also approach to God. Though penitent, pardoned, healed, and sprinkled with the blood, he could not resume communion with God or the godly, save by diligent use of the water. The Scripture solemnly and repeatedly warns believers that if the marks of the old life are not removed, if they continue to allow the old defiling practices, they will thereby forfeit any inheritance in the kingdom of God. The leper, though healed, could not re-enter upon his inheritance in Israel merely because of the sprinkled blood, but only after the additional washing with water. An inheritance is not a man’s life; a living man may forfeit an inheritance (1 Corinthians 6:6-10 : Galatians 5:19-21 : Ephesians 5:5). The solemn repetition of this warning in three epistles shows that it was a regular theme in apostolic ministry. It were well if it regains this place.

All this shows the vast and important part water has in the life of the redeemed. The atoning blood has its indispensable initial place and work, but it cannot do the work of the water. Calvary leads to Pentecost but cannot substitute it. Pentecost itself is the initial act of bathing, but it does not dispense with daily washing. Therefore to even the inner circle of faithful followers the Lord said, “He that is washed all over needs not save to wash his feet, but is wholly clean” (that is, by keeping his feet washed. Darby, New Translation, John 13:10 and note (a). The force of this will be seen in Leviticus 8:1-36, the consecration of a priest. (b) Leviticus 8:1-36. The Priest. The tax-gatherer was justified by the blood through faith without the use of water; but he went down to his own house, he could not go up into God’s house, for he was not a priest. The banished leper was healed and cleansed, first by blood and water, the former applied to him once for all, by sprinkling, the water by himself and repeatedly. This restored him to intercourse with God and His people. But he also could not go into God’s house and serve there. He was not a priest. To the priest were granted the higher dignities of entering the house where God dwelt, of presenting the showbread and feeding upon it, of burning the incense of worship, of interceding for the people without, and of going forth from that sacred Presence with power to bless others (Numbers 6:22-27). The perfect sacrifice having provided eternal redemption, the Great Priest over the house of God being permanently before Him, the veil is rent, that Holy Place is open to every believer and its heavenly privileges are available to all. Such is the essence of the exposition in Hebrews. Yet what proportion of Christians are experimentally in the power of this? A clerical caste of clergy and ministers, reserving to themselves the conduct of Christian worship, is a terrible and devastating hindrance to general priestly growth and experience. But even in spheres where this barrier is not allowed, where liberty to function as priests is found, there are all too many who are not in their very soul conscious of the immediate nearness of God, they do not in spiritual experience “draw near unto the throne of grace.” Every British subject has the right to submit a petition to the Crown, but not every subject has access to the Sovereign in person. Many send prayers up to God, and are heard, but this is not the same as drawing near to God in the power of the Spirit. In Israel all the devout could stand at the gate and look beyond the altar to the house; they couldall present, their petitions and secure God’s answer, as did Solomon (1 Kings 8:1-66), or Hanna who there prayed and praised (1 Samuel 1:1; 1 Samuel 1:2.). And this is as far and as near as many Christians get. They attend public worship and never open their lips to lead it. They say Amen to prayers but do not pour out intercessions for others; they sing hymns but do not offer their own praise; nor do they go forth from the realized presence of God to distribute His bounties to needy hearts, saved or unsaved. Moreover it is, alas, sadly possible for one to engage publicly in all these outward functions of the house of God without being in His presence in heart consciousness and without leading others there. Priests by position, such are not priests by practice. Why is this?

It is principally because though they know the sprinkling of blood they do not regularly wash with water. They have received Christ but not the Spirit, they have reached Calvary but not Pentecost, they stand at the altar and stay there. And a principal reason for this arrested progress is that, by sermons, books, and especially hymns, they have been taught that at the altar and by the blood they have secured all that can be known on earth. The function of the water has been attributed to the blood, and they seek no more. The necessity and the blessedness of the laver they do not discern. This has conduced to permanent and lamentable impoverishment of soul, so that only few of the saved act as priests.

Leviticus 8:1-36 shows the first stage of the remedy. The priest to be consecrated was 1. Stripped of his former clothing.

2. Bathed in water.

3. Clothed with priestly garments, the crowning item of which was a golden plate on his forehead inscribed “Holy to Jehovah” (verse 9: Exodus 28:36).

4. He was anointed with oil.

5. Sacrifices followed and the blood was sprinkled. At the cleansing of the leper (Leviticus 14:1-57) the sprinkling of blood came first and washing with water later; at the consecration of the priest, water and oil were used first, and afterward the blood. Why this difference? Because Aaron and his sons, the priests, were already on a right footing before God as His redeemed people:but for access to His holy presence in priestly service a right standing by blood was not all that was demanded; they must also be thoroughly clean outwardly, attired suitably, wholly dedicated to God, and empowered by His Spirit, the holy anointing Oil.

Peter wrote to his fellow-believers as a “royal priesthood” (1 Peter 2:9). He says they had already “obtained a like precious faith with us in the righteousness of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 1:1). Their standing as justified was secured; but addressing them as priests he says that they have been chosen by God “in sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience, and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:2). Here is the same order:first, sanctification by the Spirit; second obedience (as signified by the engraving on the high priest’s forehead); and then the sprinkling of blood. Unless this order, in its present spiritual significance, is known experimentally by the power of the Spirit of God the man may be saved and safe because of the atoning blood, but he will not be really a priest unto God.

One may be a clergyman, minister, elder, deacon, evangelist as to position in the church of God, he may be a teacher, preacher, Sunday School worker, but he will not be a priest unless he has “put off the old man with his doings, and has put on the new man, which is ever being renewed unto knowledge [experimental, not merely theoretical knowledge, epignosis] after the image of Him that created him” (Colossians 3:9-10). In the sight of God the “old man” is morally ugly and deformed, his clothes are filthy rags, and he cannot be tolerated before the throne on high, where nothing that defiles can enter. A believer who displays the tempers, cravings, conduct of the “old man” has not begun to be a priest unto God, for he has not stripped himself of his old garments,nor been bathed and purified outwardly, nor put on the new garments, the “new man,” on which person and clothes alone the holy Oil can be poured. But why must there be still the sprinkling of blood even though there has been that stripping, purifying, clothing, and anointing? The reason is a rebuke to the unwarranted notion that practical sanctification can ever reach absolute perfection in this life and the Christian be sinless in heart and ways. Though the believer has once and for all disowned his “old man” by reckoning that he died on the cross with Christ (Romans 6:6), and constantly reckons himself dead unto sin; though he has once for all turned his back on the world as his moral sphere of life, as Israel forsook Egypt; though he is living daily and carefully and usefully in the communion of the Spirit of God; yet he has to remember that the all searching eye of the Searcher of hearts sees iniquity in even the holy things of His people; not only in their unholy ways and works (Exodus 28:38). Hence the strong words of George Whitefield:“you must be brought to see that God may damn you for the best prayer you ever put up;” or that saying of the godly Thomas Boston:“My Sabbath day duties were enough of themselves to damn me.” These expressions may be thought too severe, but such keen perception of the degree to which sin can permeate and vitiate even our holy exercises is all too rare. It is only because of our High Priest that we can ever be “accepted before Jehovah,” as the verse just cited shows. Paul’s words are to be pondered:“I know nothing against myself” - his conscience was clear:this is the possible standard beneath which no Christian should live - “yet am I not hereby justified:but He that judgeth me is the Lord,” and He may know something against me of which I am unconscious (1 Corinthians 4:4). This explains the statement as to the “great multitude coming out of the great tribulation,” standing before the throne of God arrayed in white robes (Revelation 7:14). They had not lived as cleanly as those at Sardis who had not defiled their garments (Revelation 3:4). The garments of the former had been defiled, and needed to be washed. This they had done betimes:“they washed their robes” - they had used the purifying “water” and their garments were now clean; but not so absolutely clean as to pass the scruting of the Holy One before whose throne they were to stand.

Therefore the blood of the Lamb was added to their imperfect labour to make their garments perfectly clean before the throne; “they whitened them in the blood of the Lamb.” The homely counterpart may be mentioned that the housewife first washes the clothes in water and then adds the bluebag or a chloride to impart lustre to the Whiteness. The only other New Testament use of this word for whiten is in Mark 9:3, where it is said that the transfigured garments of Christ were “exceeding white,” which degree and type of whiteness is described by the accompanying word “glistering;” which last word in its turn is explained in Luke 9:29 by the word “dazzling,” to gleam as lightning, to be “white as the light,” as Matthew expresses it (Matthew 17:2).

Such brilliance of holiness, such resplendence of character is beyond the utmost effort of the most diligent saint:but the blood of Jesus “cleanses from all sin;” it removes the faintest trace of the “old man” still lingering upon the believer who walks in the light. But this application of the blood, that is of the virtue of the atoning death of Christ, is after the diligent washing of the leper’s clothes, after the bathing and robing of the priest. It is not that initial attributing of the redeeming virtue of the atonement by which the sinner or the backslider is reckoned justified. The legal righteousness thus obtained secures safety before the law:to this must be added the actual, external holiness by the Spirit and the Word if the justified man is at last to stand before the throne. And there is a yet higher privilege than “to stand before the throne.” Those who had not defiled their garments are promised by the King that “they shall walk with Me in white; for they are worthy.” “The conqueror shall thus be arrayed in white garments,” and be a constant, intimate companion of the Sovereign of the universe (Revelation 3:4-5). For that King of glory has “fellows,” or more exactly “companions” (Hebrews 1:9). Therefore “take heed, brethren, lest haply there be in anyone of you an evil heart of unbelief... lest any of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin:for we are become companions of the Messiah if indeed we hold fast the beginning of our confidence firm unto the end” (Hebrews 3:12-4). The beginning of our confidence in Christ secured our eternal standing as righteous in law; but it is the final stage, the end of our confidence, that will secure the dignity of being the personal companions of the Lord in His glory; and this stage demands the diligent use of the water as well as of the blood. This is most firmly declared by all the types, prophecies, and promises. It arises from the very holiness of God. (c) The Laver. This last is the pre-eminent lesson of the laver in tabernacle and temple. The directions as to its construction and use are as follows:“And Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying, Thou shalt also make a laver of brass, and the base thereof of brass, to wash withal:and thou shalt put it between thetent of meeting and the altar, and thou shalt put water therein. And Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet thereat:when they go into thetent of meeting, they shall wash with water, that they die not:or when they come near to the altar to minister, to burn an offering made by fire unto Jehovah:so they shall wash their hands and their feet, that they die not:and it shall be a statute for ever to them, even to him and to his seed throughout their generations” (Exodus 30:17-20). (1) Its position was between the altar of burnt offering at the entrance gate and the house itself where God dwelt, so that to reach the laver one must first pass the altar. (2) Its use was for priests, that they might habitually keep clean their hands and feet, their practice and walk. (3) The frequency of this washing was striking. On every occasion without exception when a priest was about to enter the house to serve God or to go to the altar to serve man he was to wash his hands and feet. (4) The penalty of non-observance was death, twice denounced against non-compliance with the regulation to wash. On the very day of their consecration as priests Nadab and Abihu dared to enter the house to burn incense using fire not taken from the altar of atonement and therefore not sanctified by the atoning blood. They were slain by fire from Jehovah (Leviticus 10:1; Leviticus 2:16:12). Thus was solemnly emphasized that blood is indispensable to acceptable worship. At the beginning of this dispensation Ananias and Sapphira dared to enter the present house of God, the church, with defiled hearts and unclean hands, and they too fell dead in the presence of God (Acts 5:1-11). Thus was solemnly emphasized that the sanctification secured by “water” is indispensable to acceptable service.

Under the Old Covenant it was asked “Who shall ascend into the hill of Jehovah? And who shall stand in His holy place?” And the searching answer was, “He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart” (Psalms 24:3-4).

Under the New Covenant the apostle says, “I desire therefore that the men pray in every place, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and disputing [a pure heart]”(1 Timothy 2:8). The Corinthian Christians ere carrying on the public gatherings of the church, but with hearts impure by strife, jealousy, and selfishness, and with bodies defiled by immoralities and greed; andthey were sick, ill, and dying prematurely under the judgments of God (1 Corinthians 11:26-32). That place of blessing, the table of the Lord, is a dangerous place to the carnal believer, as was the altar of incense to Nadab and Abiliti.

Here then is the inexorable condition of priestly standing and service. Does this explain why, though the saved are many, priests are few? (d) Water. What then is the “water” so indispensable to communion, worship, and service? What enables the believer to be a saint? By what means may person and garments, the inward man and the outer life, be kept clean? The answer is given in Ephesians 5:25-27 :“Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself up for it; that He might sanctify it, having cleansed it by the washing of water with the word, that He might present the church to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.” This teaches (1) That the love of Christ is the fountain of every blessing for all His people. (2) That His sacrifice of Himself unto death is the ground of His redemptive right, His ownership of the church. (3) That the goal He has set before His heart is to present the church to Himself as a bride to a husband. The whole context is of this relationship, and it would be helpful in translating, and would display the figure used, to follow the feminine gender of the Greek word “church” and render, “gave Himself up for her... that He might sanctify her... that she should be holy and without blemish.” At present His people are as a betrothed virgin (2 Corinthians 11:2-3); but in due time the heavenly hosts will rejoice because “the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife bath made herself ready” (Revelation 19:7). But (4) unto this great end it is needful that she shall be completely perfect, so as to be pleasant to her royal Bridegroom. She must be glorious, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but so holy as to be without blemish. All these terms refer to external appearance, to visible beauty.

How is this perfect condition to be attained by the bride? The answer here is that Christ Himself sanctifies her. Not otherwise were it possible, but He can bring her to this height of beauty and glory. But by what process does He do this? It is by the use “of the laver [composed of] water in the word.” The brazen laver of old pointed to the words of God, now preserved for us in Holy Scripture. The water in the laver spoke of the Holy Spirit of God. He who obeys what the Lord says receives the purifying energy of the Spirit that abides in the word. The Lord’s instructions direct us to holiness, but we must obey those commands if we are to be sanctified. A command disobeyed cannot benefit but only condemn; a command obeyed removes the moral blemish against which it is directed or supplies the virtue lacking.

Obviously the picture is of a slave girl upon whom a prince sets his heart. He thereupon redeems her and acquires all rights in her. His purchase price completely releases her from her former bondage but at the same time makes her entirely his property. But he cannot take her direct from the slave market to sit with him on his throne. She must be bathed, clothed, adorned, trained for regal glory, and in this she must co-operate by obedience to his requirements and acceptance of the training appointed. All she will ever have her prince supplies, but she must use it so as to render herself correspondent to him and suitable for her noble calling. It were vain for her to argue that the redemption price alone sufficed for every requirement. It would not:it sufficed to set her free from the old life and introduce her to her new standing and relationship, but it would not take the place of and render needless the water, the royal garments, the ornaments, and fragrant ointment. These she must accept and employ with all diligence, as did Esther. Hence the two statements, complementary to each other, that Christ sanctifies the church, but she makes herself ready and arrays herself for the marriage. And therefore while Paul says of his converts that he espoused them as a chaste virgin, that hemight at last present them unto Christ on the marriage day, yet he feared lest any of them should prove faithless in heart to the heavenly Lover, and be corrupted and defiled, and thus unready. For as Satan seduced Eve from God, so he will seduce the Christian from Christ if he be unwatchful as to heart and ways (2 Corinthians 11:2-3). And then O grief for words too sore! The bridal day is nigh, The virgin, that no more, Is left to weep and sigh, All sullied by the foul embrace, She lost for aye her queenly place. (James 4:4 : Php 3:13-14) This use of the water is shown in many Scriptures. David, recovered from moral leprosy, his sin put away by God, his sentence of death annulled, prayed, “Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean:Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow” (Psalms 51:7). The hyssop was used to sprinkle the blood (Exodus 12:22 : Leviticus 14:6-7; Hebrews 9:19-21); the washing was with water, not with blood. No hymn to the contrary should be used. It fixes in the mind the false idea that all that God requires is gained at the altar, so that the laver is neglected and holiness retarded. Of every thousand allusions by preachers to the altar and the blood is there more than one mention of the laver? Again, Hebrews 10:22 shows that the water is as requisite as the blood for full assurance of faith:“let us draw near with a true heart in fulness of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our body washed with pure water;” the inward consciousness relieved by faith in the blood of Christ, the “body,” the outward conduct, purified by obedience to the Word and the Spirit.

It was to a justified believer and sincere follower that the Lord said, “If I wash thee not thou hast no part with Me;” and emphasizing this need of practical cleansing, under the figure of a branch in a vine having been stripped of dead bark and other impurities which hinder fruitfulness, He added, “Already ye are clean because of [by the effect of] the word which I have spoken unto you” (John 12:8-10; John 15:3). This external cleansing requires to be maintained and advanced by diligent washing of the feet at the laver, and only so will the pilgrim through this squalid world (2 Peter 1:19) arrive at length at the bridal hall “clean every whit.” The application of this last phrase to cleansing by the blood at the altar is in utter disregard of the words as spoken by Christ to Peter.

It was while He was graciously washing his feet with water that He said, “He that is bathed has no further need than to wash his feet.” This being done he is “clean every whit;” but obviously a guest will not be clean every whit so long as his bare and sandalled feet are soiled by the dust and mire of the street. Of the first bathing of the priest at his consecration baptism is an appointed figure, “the laver of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5), but baptism is not in view in the main passages on holiness and priestly service, such as Ephesians 5:25-27 and Hebrews 10:22.

Let no Christian beguile himself, or be beguiled by erroneous teaching, into thinking that he acquires by the sacred blood what can only be gained by the equally sacred water. He needs both equally; the blood to secure his standing before God, the Spirit to cause his state to correspond to his standing. It is by water that the thirst of the heart is quenched, the soul refreshed, the life made to overflow with grace; it is by water that the practice of daily life is cleansed and kept clean. And God be praised that this heavenly Water is ever at hand; the spiritual Rock goes with us through the desert; Christ accompanies His people and gives the Spirit to them that obey Him.

Therefore from His riven side there flowed both water and blood, and therefore rings out His gracious promise “I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely,” andtherefore “blessed are they that wash their robes” (Revelation 21:6; Revelation 22:17; Revelation 22:14).