Cleansing by Water

 •  1 min. read  •  grade level: 20
 
This is a truth taught both in the Old and New Testament. A Jew who had been cleansed by the blood of the sin-offering on the great day of atonement, was liable to become again defiled by contact with various uncleannesses, and to remove this defilement it was water, not blood, that was applied, but water that owed its efficacy to an accomplished sacrifice, as Num. 19, plainly teaches. So we, who have been cleansed by the blood, and perfected forever by that offering as to our standing, become practically defiled by contact with evil in the world, but in order to be cleansed we do not “come back to the blood,” but are cleansed by the “washing of water by the word,” as applied by the Holy Ghost We thus get cleansing by blood in 1 John 1:77But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. (1 John 1:7), and by water in ver. 9.