Q.-What is the difference between “washed us from our sins” (Revelation 1:5); “washed their robes” (Revelation 7:14); and “our bodies washed with pure water” (Hebrews 10:22)? R. M.
A.-In Revelation 1 “the disciple whom Jesus loved” addresses “the words of the prophecy” (ver. 3) to the seven churches in Asia, and wishes for them grace and peace “from him which is, and which was, and which is to come, and from the seven spirits which are before his throne; and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth.” No sooner is the Lord Jesus in His life and death, resurrection and kingdom relationship before the mind of the apostle than he breaks forth in words that can be taken up by all saints since Pentecost. For the knowledge of Christ's redemption, evokes from our hearts the confession of His worth who died for us and rose again. It is He who has washed us from our sins in His own blood, and made us a kingdom, priests to His God and Father. We “have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins (or offense), according to the riches of his grace” (Ephesians 1:7). As this could not be known and enjoyed before redemption was accomplished, so is it characteristic of the time since then and not yet ended. John therefore speaks for himself and for those who have believed on Jesus through the apostles' word. It is the Christian note of praise, and anticipates the universal ascription of glory and might to the One who went down into death for us.
But in Revelation 7 (and 22:14, “Blessed are they that wash their robes, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city”) we appear to have rather what applies to an earthly (i.e., a people for the earth, whereas the Christian is for heaven) and millennial people who pass through “the great tribulation” and are not (as we) kept “out of the bonds of temptation which shall come upon all the habitable world.” They have been given to wash their robes and make them white in the blood of the Lamb. “Therefore are they before the throne of God,” though not in heaven, as verse 16 clearly shows. For hunger, thirst, or the falling of the sun on them, or heat, has not to do with a people above the sun in heaven. Gentiles on earth, they are followers of the Lamb who leads them to living fountains of waters, and, like another company (of Jews, chap. xiv.) they are not defiled. Nevertheless, we cannot suppose them at all up to the heights of Christian truth as we enjoy it in the possession of a purged conscience: but their walk is according to their knowledge of what the blood of the Lamb has effected.
“Our bodies washed with pure water” is the effect of the cleansing power of the word of God (John 15:3; Ephesians 5:26). As “not by water only but by water and blood,” Jesus came, so here we have the heart sprinkled from an evil conscience by the blood (Hebrews 9:14), and the body cleansed through the operation of the truth, as in John 13 He that is “washed"... “and ye are clean, but not all. For he knew who should betray him; therefore said he, Ye are not all clean.”