Cleansing Provided By Christ

Transcript

GR 386
1/18/1981
Cleansing Provided by Christ
John 13:1-11
Gil Rugh

John chapter 13 in your Bibles. John’s gospel and the 13th chapter. We move into a new section in the Gospel of John in our study together today, beginning the 13th chapter. Remember the first 12 chapters covered the public ministry of Jesus Christ. Now with chapters 13-17, we will focus in on Jesus’ private or personal ministry to His disciples alone. And then we'll come to another major division with chapter 18 where we enter into events surrounding the crucifixion or the passion ministry of Jesus Christ.

Interesting, the breakdown that John has given. Through 12 chapters, he surveyed 3 years of Jesus' ministry where He presented Himself to the nation as the Messiah, the One sent from God to be the King of Israel; the teaching, the miracles that gave evidence that He was indeed the Son of God. So 3 years are covered in the first 12 chapters. Now chapters 13-17, John will zero in and cover only one evening through these chapters. Jesus’ closing time with His disciples to prepare them for His departure from earth at the crucifixion, resurrection and ascension to the Father. The different stress and emphasis that you might expect. In the first 12 chapters, there is a public ministry going on. The focal point is on Jesus Christ, who He is. The proofs that are offered that this is the Son of God, the Messiah of Israel. Several key concepts develop. Remember we said there are a couple of key words in the Gospel of John? One is the word 'life.' Fifty times in the first 12 chapters John deals with the concept of life. John 3:16 said you remember, "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him might not perish but have eternal life." Dealing with that matter of a relationship with God that goes on for eternity, bringing about the fulfillment, the very reason for our existence on earth. That we as personal beings were created for a personal relationship with a personal God who made us, and to have life through faith in Jesus Christ is to be brought into a personal relationship with God which will go on for eternity. That is presented as a key idea through the first 12 chapters 50 times that concept of life is dealt with. When you come to chapters 13-17, the concept of life and the word 'life' is only mentioned six times because Jesus is now dealing with those who have this life, who have come to believe in Him, who have entered into this relationship. The word ’light' is also a key word in the Gospel of John. It is used 32 times through the first 12 chapters. Remember that contrast between light and darkness? The person who has not believed in Jesus Christ dwells in the realm of spiritual darkness? Has no perception and no understanding regarding spiritual truth and spiritual reality. They're in the dark regarding truth about God. But those who come to believe in Jesus Christ are brought to the light. Jesus Christ Himself is light. He is the One who reveals and makes known God and His character, His purposes, and His plan. So we are removed from the realm of darkness to the realm of light spiritually speaking. Thirty-two times John mentions the word light in the first 12 chapters. He does not mention it at all in chapters 13-17. For now He is dealing with those who are in the light and now living as those who have a personal relationship with God.

In verse 1 we are told that before the Feast of the Passover, "Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He should depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end." Here we come to what is a key word in chapters 13-17. It is the word 'love,' agape or a-gapa-o love. That highest kind or type of love, self-sacrificing love. Now we expected that would be a key word in the first 12 chapters, and it is used but only 6 times in the first 12 chapters. But this word 'love' is used 31 times in chapters 13-17 because now Jesus is dealing with those that He has a love relationship with, that He is intimately involved with as His own children. Now it's true that God does love the world. That love is demonstrated in the death of His Son, Jesus Christ. But He lives in a special, unique love relationship with those who have come to believe in Jesus Christ and thus become members of His family.

So these chapters are going to be very intense chapters for believers.
Very personal chapters. Their purpose is to prepare the disciples for the departure of Jesus Christ from earth; to talk to us about living in this life during the time when Jesus Christ is bodily absent from the earth. It has to do with how you and I are to be living today anticipating the bodily return of Jesus Christ.

The time line is before the Feast of Passover, and we’ll talk about the exact time when we get to the crucifixion. But my understanding is that we are one day ahead, one day before the actual Passover here. So when Jesus Christ is eating it is not the PASSOVER meal itself but rather a meal a day earlier. It’s before the Feast of Passover. It’s at this time that Jesus Christ will undergo crucifixion—this Feast at Jerusalem.

Again, we are reminded that Jesus is aware of where He is in God’s timetable. He knows that His hour has come to depart out of the world to the Father, to leave this earthly physically and go into the Father's presence. So that is the background, the purpose in these coming sections is to prepare the disciples for His departure. So it's a ministry to the 12, and particularly to the 11 (Judas will leave early on this evening to carry out the acts of the betrayal). ’...Having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end." The stress on the love He had for His disciples. Now you might think with the awareness, insight and understanding that Jesus Christ concerning what was ahead for Him, the awful events of the crucifixion, the agony of separation from the Father, that He might be absorbed in that coming conflict and agony. But here it is revealed that His concern is for His disciples. The love He has for them characterizes Him to the end of His earthly life and beyond that. John is concerned here to talk about the conclusion and climax of His earthly life.
So He loved them to the end, from that standpoint; but the word or expression here ’to the end’ also means to the utmost. We would use it the same way when we talk about to the end or the idea being to the utmost. I think perhaps that's the better emphasis here. "Having loved His own who were in the world,
He loved them to the utmost." There was no limit to the love that Jesus Christ had for His disciples, and all that follows is a demonstration of that love as He tenderly prepares them for the time when He will not be bodily with them. It is going to be a tremendous, traumatic experience for the disciples to have the Lord bodily taken from their presence and to adjust now to their service in life for Him.

Verse 2. We are told that it was during supper, not after supper as the King James Version has it but during supper. This is clear later on in the chapter when we are told that they are in the middle of the meal when Jesus identifies Judas as the betrayer. "During supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray Him." Interesting revelation here. Satan had already begun his plan in using Judas to betray Jesus Christ. The preparatory steps have already been taken. Judas has already made up his mind, so to speak. But in effect, he hasn’t made up his mind. In effect, the devil has made up the mind of Judas to betray Jesus Christ. It's interesting the insight we're given here into the devil's involvement in the affairs of humanity. The Bible is clear in presenting the fact that there is a great spiritual conflict going on. A conflict between the spirit beings and the spirit world. God and His hosts of angels on one side in this conflict, and Satan and the demonic beings or fallen angels opposing God. Spirit forces doing battle in the spiritual realm. But the Scripture is clear that all humanity is drawn into this conflict on one side or the other. Either on the side of Satan in doing battle against God, or on the side of God doing battle against Satan. Now human beings are often not aware of their involvement in the conflict. I take it Judas assumed here that he had made up his own mind to do this. He himself had perceived that there was financial gain to be realized in the betrayal of Christ. He had decided himself to betray Jesus Christ, and yet the Scripture is clear, the idea, the plan, the thought was placed there by Satan himself. We say, is that fair? Here Judas becomes a pawn in the hand of Satan in a spiritual conflict that he is relatively ignorant of. But Judas had determined to align himself with Satan and the forces of wickedness against God in not believing in Jesus Christ. In choosing to pursue a sinful course. He chose to submit himself to sin. He chose to submit himself to the domination of the devil.

Now how the devil would use him Judas could not say. That was out of his hands because he was the slave of sin, the slave of Satan, and was not in control of his activity. We pride ourselves in thinking we are our own people, making our own decisions, in control of our own destiny but the Bible says there are no such people. There are people who choose to sin and thus are slaves to sin and Satan, and there are people who have made a decision to believe in Jesus Christ and the salvation He has provided and are slaves of God and of righteousness. So we are involved, every one of us, in the spiritual conflict that is transpiring.

Look at several verses with me, beginning back in the Book of First Timothy. First Timothy chapter 4, the Apostle Paul writes about this spiritual conflict going on. In chapter 4 of 1 Timothy, verse 1, "But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons." Doctrines or teachings of demons. So you see, there are teachings present that find their source and origin in the demonic realm, the spirit realm. But these teachings are used to lead human beings astray. To cause human beings to follow after a teaching which is contrary to what God has revealed and determined in His Word. The demonic beings have originated the teaching. Some of these men think it was in their great mind that they came up with these ideas and thoughts. The Scripture says minds far more brilliant than theirs produce the ideas. Demonic beings are the source, and many people today are being led astray by teaching that is demonic in its origin. You say, how can I know? You can know by measuring it against what is God’s truth, the Word of God, the Scripture. And Isaiah the Prophet wrote centuries ago, if they don’t speak according to this word, it is because there is no truth in them. That is the standard to determine whether teaching is coming from the good in the spirit world or the evil. From God or from Satan.

Look back in Ephesians chapter 6, here addressing believers in Jesus Christ those who have come to believe that Jesus Christ the Son of God died for them. Exhortation concerning preparation for the battle that we are in. Verse 10 of Ephesians 6, "Finally be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heaven lies. Therefore take up the full armor of God that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm." We are involved in a battle with spirit beings and there is not a human being alive that is strong enough, that is powerful enough, that is capable of doing battle with Satan and winning.

Here we are told that God has made provision for those who are His children to have victory in their battle with spiritual forces of wickedness. He has provided for them the armament necessary. He has made provision for them in the person of the Spirit of God who indwells them to do battle with the forces of the devil. And anyone who is not doing battle with the devil in the power of the Spirit of God with the weapons God has provided is not doing battle with the devil at all. He is a servant of the devil. He is a pawn of the devil, being used to accomplish unrighteousness. We sometimes have a hard time accepting this. Even believers lose sight of the conflict that we are involved in. The tremendous power of the forces that oppose us, and we think we have the strength to do battle on our own and come away bloodied and beaten.

Look over at one other passage, Romans chapter 6. Through the first 11 verses the Apostle Paul has talked about the freedom that has been given us from sin by the finished work of Jesus Christ. In other words, everyone is a slave to sin, all have sinned. Every single person is a sinner and is enslaved to sin, but Jesus Christ the Son of God by His death on the cross has provided liberty. Freedom from the bondage to sin, because everyone who sins is a slave of sin. So that has been revealed through the first 11 verses, that we have been set free from slavery to sin by faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ, His death and resurrection. Verse 12, "Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body (that’s the various parts of your body, i.e., your arms, your eyes, etc.) to sin as instruments of unrighteousness." That word 'instruments’, the word weapons. Here you have pictured the warfare, the conflict we are involved in. And Paul says ’Don't be presenting the parts of your body as a weapon to accomplish unrighteousness.' "...But present yourselves to God as those who are alive from the dead, and your members as weapons as righteousness." For those who have come to believe in Jesus Christ, they have been set free from the bondage to sin. Before I came to trust in Jesus Christ as my Savior, I was a slave to sin. I did not recognize it, I did not understand it. I did not realize that I was giving my body and its various parts to Satan to be used as weapons of warfare against righteousness. But it was so. When I came to believe in Jesus Christ, He cleansed me. He set me free, brought me into a personal relationship with God and now I am to be presenting the various parts of my body to God so He can use this body and its parts as weapons to carry out His righteous purposes against the evil purposes and program of Satan.

Back to John chapter 13. It is important that we understand this area of spiritual conflict. It is just eluded to here because there is not a person here who is not involved in this conflict, either under the leadership of Satan and sin or unto the leadership of God and righteousness. Judas had made a decision to continue to pursue his sin, to not believe in Jesus Christ and experience the freedom, the liberty that only Christ could bring about. And before it is all said and done, Judas has carried out plans and purposes that he did not realize he himself was capable of and he ends up destroying his own life.
So this is the background then. In verse 1, He loves His own. Judas has already determined to betray Jesus Christ under the leadership of Satan. Verse 3, "Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come forth from God, and was going back to God..." Note again the complete understanding that Christ has of the whole situation. He knows that the Father has given all things into His hands. He is the One who is totally sovereign. Back in John chapter 3, verse 35, Jesus had said 'The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hands.' Jesus Christ, the Son of God is the One who is totally sovereign, in total control, destined to rule over all things. God has given all things into His hands.

Back in John 13. He knew He had come forth from the Father and it was now time to go back to the Father. We're aware that Bethlehem did not mark the beginning of the existence of Jesus Christ. He is the One described in the Old Testament as the Father of eternity. He has no beginning, He has no ending. But He had left the glories of heaven and become a man and now the time had arrived for Him to bodily depart from the earth and return to the glory that was His with the Father before the earth began.

With this as a background, the situation, the setting, now in verse 4, "Jesus rose from supper, and laid aside His garments; and taking a towel, girded Himself about." An awesome event about to occur—the washing of the disciples’ feet. Jesus rises from supper. Here they are in the middle of the meal, perhaps early in the supper, and suddenly Jesus stands up from the table. He removes His outer robe, takes a long towel and wraps it about His waist. And this would have been a towel that was long enough so that when it was wrapped and tied there would be a long end left hanging over. So when He had washed the feet, He would take this end of the towel and use it to dry the feet of each of the disciples.

Verse 5. "Then He poured water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded." Customary in biblical times that when you went to someone's home they would often provide a servant to wash your feet when you arrived. Expected was that you would have had a bath before you came, but then in travelling the dusty roads in open sandals your feet would be dirty. So they provide the servant to wash the feet, and on occasions where the servant was not provided each person was expected to wash his own feet upon arrival, and a basin and towel were provided accordingly. You get the idea here that there is almost a stunned silence among the disciples as Jesus stands, takes off His outer robe, and then makes preparation to begin to wash their feet. So no one could say anything. "This is unbelievable" until we get to Peter and then Peter speaks up. We've probably all been in a situation where we've been in the presence of someone that we recognize as our superior in some way, and
perhaps they began to do a task that we viewed as beneath them in a good sense. And it made us very uncomfortable to be sitting there while they were doing something that we thought if anybody ought to do it I ought to do it because certainly they shouldn’t be doing this. And sometimes we’ll say ’Here, let me do that’ because we're very uncomfortable with them carrying out that task when it seems to be something that would be way beneath them.

Well you can imagine the disciples here. Here is the One they recognize as the Lord, the Messiah, the Son of God. Now He’s girded Himself like a servant and He’s coming around washing feet! We can appreciate something of the background of this when we look further into this section next week and the background for it out of the Book of Luke. We appreciate the stunned attitude that the disciples would have had.

He begins to wash their feet and no one says anything until He gets to Simon, verse 6. "He came to Simon Peter" and you know Simon. He’s probably going a hundred miles an hour on the inside by now! This can't be! Simon speaks up, "Lord, do You wash my feet?" It's hard to pick up the emphasis and contrast here that there is as Peter said it because he puts You and my together in the Greek text here. "Lord, You..my feet are going to wash?" The contrast—You...me? You...my feet are going to wash? He can't believe it! And He addresses Him, "Lord!" Obviously, lords don't wash feet! "Lord! My feet you’re going to wash?" Jesus answers him, "What I do you do not realize now; but you shall understand hereafter." Peter, you cannot grasp what is going on now but some day you will. I take it He's not talking about immediately. At least in this context here because of what is going to transpire. But He is talking about after the Spirit of God comes, after He is present within you to give you insight and understanding concerning My life. What God is doing, then you will understand what I am doing.

Look over in John 14, verse 26. "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you." John 16, verse 13, "But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come." I take it that's what Jesus has in mind back in John 13:7. What I do now you do not realize; but you will understand after the Spirit comes. That's not good enough for Peter.

Verse 8 Peter responds, "Peter said to Him, 'Never shall You wash my feet!'" Now isn't it amazing how contradictory we can be as the children of God! In verse 6, Peter says "Lord! My sovereign master! Would you wash my feet?" And then in verse 8, he proceeds to tell his sovereign Lord what he's going to do! He proceeds to tell the Lord, 'You aren't washing my feet!' Now wait a minute, if He's the Lord, I don't tell Him. He tells me. 'Lord, it would be totally out of character for You to wash my feet! And Lord, let me tell you something! You ain't doing it!' Wait a minute, wait a minute! Who's Lord here, Peter? Well you are, I'm just telling you what you're not going to do. Wait a minute.

Isn't it amazing here? You see a conflict within Peter. One, he recognizes the Lordship of Christ and here He's going to wash feet; but on the other side he fails to recognize the full import of that Lordship. That means, 'Peter, you submit to Me even though you don't understand!' It's easy to read here and say, 'Yeah, Peter, isn't he a character!’ But you know what—that's about how we function, isn't it? I don't have to understand everything that the Scripture tells me. I do much of what the Scripture tells me even though I do not understand it. But it's amazing how we as believers will stop and in effect tell God, 'I don't understand this and I'm not going on until I do.' This invariably comes up when we talk about the sovereignty of God, election, and man's responsibility. And I do not understand all that is involved in both sides of this— God's sovereignty and my responsibility. But I need to be careful, know why? I know what God says about His absolute sovereignty as Lord of all, and I know what He says about my responsibility to act. I need to be careful that I don’t study the sovereignty of God and say, 'Well, I understand the sovereignty of God, therefore I'm not going to do this.' Wait a minute, I thought you just said you understood something about the sovereignty of God. 'I do, that's why I'm not going to do this because man's responsibility doesn't fit.' Wait a minute, God says 'Here, Gil, do this.' But I don't understand how that fits with the sovereignty of God. That's alright. Do it anyway. I mean I can be talking about the sovereignty of God and at the same time telling this sovereign God what I'm going to do. God, you are the sovereign God and you said 'Do this' and I don't understand it. Jesus didn't say, 'Peter, don't let me do this until you understand.' What did He say? 'Peter, this is what I'm going to do and you'll understand about it in the future.'

Ever have a new Christian who's mired down on a point and you have to say to them, 'Just continue to study the Word and grow, don't get bogged down there.' And they say, Look I can't go on until I understand it. You say, You just have to mature and grow in the Word; and the more you grow in the Word, the more the various parts of the Word will fit together. 'No, I'm going to understand this or I'm not going on.' Basically, Peter here is unwilling to accept what Jesus says. 'You'll understand in the future.'

Now you note here. Christ responded to Peter's first statement with understanding and appreciation. He could appreciate the fact that Peter was taken back that the Lord of glory would wash His feet, and He gave him the explanation, "Peter, you don't understand now but you will." But the second time around, He gets very stern. When Peter tells the Lord of glory what he's going to do, Jesus responds very bluntly. In the middle of verse 8, "Jesus answered him, 'If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.'" Now that's getting right down to the point. Peter, let Me tell you how it is. You don't understand, but if I don’t wash you, you have no part in Me, whether you understand or not.’ Now one thing I appreciate about Peter. He is not too proud to change his mind in front of anybody. You know, some of us make a statement and we know on the inside it was wrong, but we’re going to beat our head against that wall regardless because it would cost us our pride to change our mind. He did not right here in front of the other disciples. No problem. ’’Lord, if that's the issue, give me a bath!” Just turn around. And you’ve got to appreciate Peter. He's so much like us. There are things to be admired here even in the areas that ought not to have been. You can see the change at least. But you note again, he wants to go too far. I’ve just got to do what the Lord tells me, and Jesus wasn't telling Peter ’I want to give you a bath.’ He was simply telling Peter, ’I’m going to wash your feet.’ First Peter says 'You’re not going to wash my feet!’ The next thing He wants to do is tell Him to give him a bath! Peter, we’ll do it My way. It’s not that I’m not going to wash your feet, and furthermore I’m not going to give you a bath. I am going to wash your feet! Now sit back and relax.

"If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me." Lord, give me a bath! Explanation. Verse 9, the way Peter said it, "Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head." All of me. I mean, if it’s a question of being part of You, belonging to You, having a relationship with You, then I want as much as possible. Christ's explanation. "Jesus said to him, 'He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you.’" Judas is here. Not every one of the disciples is clean, there is one who is unclean. But for the eleven, they are clean. The picture here—You are invited to dinner at someone's house in biblical times. You went and got a bath if you went to the public baths. You got all bathed up, all perfumed up, then you put on your open sandals and walked a dusty road to the dinner place. By the time you got there, your feet were covered with dust. And furthermore, when you ate in those days, you reclined at the table so there’s your dirty feet sticking up in the air! Not very desirable. So they provided the washing of the feet as you came into the home. Either a servant or for you to wash your own feet, so then you were clean all over. They didn’t offer to give you a bath, you were expected to have the bath before you came. But only to provide the needed cleansing.

Now Jesus here is talking about a spiritual truth here not a physical one, obviously. Because when He said, 'He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you' He's not saying Judas has a dirty face! He's moved into the spiritual truth. You have all experienced a spiritual bath, spiritual cleansing, except for one. So you don't need a bath. You simply need the cleansing of the part that has become defiled. The picture here is in the spiritual realm. When a person comes to believe in Jesus Christ, he is cleansed from his sin. He is washed from the defilement. All the guilt, all the defilement of sin is washed away. I am clean. But in my journey through life, I do sin. I do become defiled. I do rebel against God on occasion. In effect, my feet get dirty in my walk in this life. And the provision has been provided in Jesus Christ for the cleansing.

Now note something here before we look at some other passages. One, it is Jesus Christ who does the cleansing. Provision is made by Him for the cleansing. Initially for the bath, and then for the washing. And should note here if you're using a King James Bible, in verse 10. There are two different words here—the first word 'bath' as you have it, bathed, in the New American Standard, both words are translated 'wash' in the King James Version. That means a total bath, total cleansing. The second word 'wash' has to do with a washing the part of the body. In other words, when you tell your child to go get a bath, you mean to go wash himself completely. You tell him to go wash his hands for supper, you don't expect him to get in the bath tub. (You're usually happy if he just gets his hands in the sink!) Why? He just needs to wash part. That’s the idea here.

Now Jesus Christ, in His death on the cross, has provided salvation completely. Now in the provision of this salvation, it provides for my initial, complete, total cleansing. It also provides for my continual cleansing every day from the continual defilement I experience from sin. So it’s important to see that the total provision is provided for in Jesus Christ. Those here who have been bathed are those who have been washed. And for the one who has not been bathed, there is nothing that can be done for his cleansing. He is totally defiled—the man, Judas. He is unclean. The washing of his feet has no effect for him.

Now Scripture is clean then. Our salvation provides for our initial cleansing and then for our daily cleansing from the defilement of sins. And verse 8 makes clear, if you’re not experiencing this regular washing of the parts from the daily defilement of sin, you don't have any part in Christ. In other words, everyone who has been bathed by Christ is cleansed by Him daily, from the defilement of sin. And those who are not being cleansed by Him daily from the defilement of sin are those who have no part in Him at all. They have never been bathed by Him. They have never experienced cleansing from Him.

Several passages, beginning back in First John. Usually when we think of the daily cleansing of the believer, we think of 1 John chapter 1 but we're not thinking of the verse that is often thought of. 1 John 1:9, in the confessing of our sins, I take it has to do with our salvation. Those who have come to agree with God about sin are those who have been bathed by God, have been cleansed by God, have been forgiven and cleansed. That talks about the salvation we have experienced. But in verse 7, the walk that we have, "But if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light (remember that concept through the first twelve chapters of the Gospel of John? Being in the light, we are sons of light. So this is the realm in which we live, in which we walk. Those walking in the light are those who have believed in Jesus Christ as personal Savior.)...we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us (present tense: keeps on cleansing us) from all sin." So for those of us who have believed in Jesus Christ, who have experienced the bath of complete cleansing, there is the continual cleansing that goes on from the daily defilement in our daily walk with God. How this is worked out is in the first two verses in chapter 2 of First John. "My little children, I am writing these things to you that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, (any little children sin now, any believers) we have an Advocate (a representative, a lawyer in effect) with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He is the propitiation (word that means satisfaction; He Himself is the satisfaction) for our sins, not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world."
In other words, I have come to believe in Jesus Christ as my personal Savior.
I have received a bath from the defilement and guilt of sin. Now in my daily walk I do rebel against God on occasion. I do indulge in sin. I defile myself, and Jesus Christ is my representative in the presence of the Father to say,
"Yes, and I died for that sin. I paid the penalty for that sin. He is cleansed from that sin because of what I have done for him." So you note, my daily cleansing is dependent on the present work of Jesus Christ which is a continuation of what He accomplished for me on the cross. Now note, the cross provided a complete and full salvation. The outworking of that is the present ministry of Jesus Christ in providing the daily, continual cleansing. This is automatic for everyone who has trusted Jesus Christ as Savior. I am cleansed for sins that I haven't even recognized that were sins, and I have been cleansed from sins weeks before I ever brought myself to talk to God about the fact that I did sin weeks ago! Because my representative in heaven is acting on my behalf all the time.

Look back in the Book of Hebrews. Hebrews chapter 7. This ties to the high priestly ministry of Jesus Christ. And Hebrews ties this all together as the package of our salvation. He is our High Priest, and His becoming a man (going all the way back to the opening chapters) and by being identified with those that He would provide salvation for, in the offering of a sacrifice that was acceptable, in His present ministry in the presence of God on our behalf. Hebrews 7:25, "Hence also He is able to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them." I am saved eternally. How do I know? Jesus Christ lives eternally to represent me. So throughout my life, ’Oh, I know, I trusted Christ some 20 years ago and He cleansed and forgave me, but I sinned today. What about that?’ Well, the salvation I experienced then made provision for today 28 years later, because Jesus Christ still represents me and He will for all eternity. So I am eternally secure before God.

Chapter 9, verse 24 of Hebrews. "For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us." He is my Advocate, He is my high priest in the presence of God. Gil Rugh sinned again! The accuser of the brethren is there to point it out. Yes, and Jesus Christ is there to say, "Yes, and I died for that sin, he is cleansed from that defilement."

Romans chapter 8, verse 34. "Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us." In other words, who can condemn me? Christ Jesus is the One who died for me, and He was the One who was raised from the dead. He is the One who intercedes for me today. There is no condemnation against me.
Not because of my goodness, not because of my faithfulness, but because of what He has done and continues to do on my behalf. As God sees me today, He sees me perfect in Jesus Christ. He sees me as undefiled. No guilt, because I’ve been cleansed through the finished work of Jesus Christ.

Something this does, though. It points up the importance of our daily walk. That’s why Paul writes so specifically like in passages like 1 Corinthians 11 about the tragedy of sin, Romans chapter 6, in the life of a believer. Jesus Christ has died. Those sins are what necessitated His death. My daily walk is to be a reflection of His character. It is so important that my daily walk be pure before God. That provision is made to maintain it in the sight of God on the level that God demands. But I need to be careful to recognize the importance of my daily walk that it be what God wants it to be. But even more important than that is the daily work of Jesus Christ. His daily work of interceding for me, interceding for you as a believer to provide that cleansing. And that's what was symbolized as Peter had his feet washed. 'Peter, I cleansed you, I forgave you. But you know what? Your feet get dirty. You are defiled just like now when you're resisting My will. But I have provided for that cleansing for you.'

Two questions. One, have you ever been bathed? Have you ever experienced that bath of cleansing that comes when you come to believe that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died for you? Have you recognized that you are a sinner defiled before God? Do you recognize that Jesus Christ the Son of God died on a cross to pay the penalty for your sin?

Secondly, if you have received a bath, are you living as though you have been cleansed? Are you living in light of the cleansing that you have received? Is your daily walk a reflection of the character of the One who has provided for your forgiveness? Let's pray together.

Father, we thank you this morning for Jesus Christ and what He has done for us. Thank you for the greatness of your forgiveness in Jesus Christ. Lord, for the joy and privilege of belonging to You.

We pray, Father, for those who are here this morning who have not trusted Christ that they might come to believe in Him and experience that cleansing this morning.
For those of us who have, Lord, pray that Your purposes will be accomplished in our lives in every way, for we pray in Jesus' name