You Are Clean

May 30, 2022

You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you (John 15:3).

At the Passover supper in the upper room, as Jesus washed the disciples’ feet, He said to Peter (who refused to have his feet washed by Jesus), He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you (John 13:10). The pruning of the branches noted in 15:2 is the same Greek word (katharos, from which we get the English word ‘catharsis’) used in 15:3 and 13:10. Pruning the branches cleanses them and the vine from those things that would infect, corrupt, and eventually kill the plant. The same is true for the Christian. If the Father did not care for us by convicting us of sin and correcting us with the truth of His Word, or with His chastisements, sin would eventually take control and destroy us.

The cleansing in 15:2 refers to the believer’s state, while the cleansing in 15:3 refers to the believer’s standing before God. One is progressive (15:2), the other is absolute (15:3). Our soul has been cleansed through our obedience to God’s truth as revealed to us by the Holy Spirit. (1 Peter 1:22) Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart. However, the cleansing process needs to continue after we are saved because we continue to live in this sinful flesh, being tempted and exposed to all manner of evil and wickedness in this sinful world. (1 John 3:3) And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. We have been spiritually washed, and yet there is need for us to be continually washed from the spiritual contamination of the world.

1 Corinthians 6:9-11, Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.

Titus 3:4-7, But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. 

Herein do we see the great love, grace, and mercy of the Lord who, through His death on the cross, has cleansed us from all sin when by His grace, through faith, we were saved, and who, through the sending of the Holy Spirit to indwell us, He continues to cleanse us from all sin and unrighteousness until the day this sinful flesh returns to the dust from which it was made. Thanks be to God for this unspeakable gift! Amen.

Pastor

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