A RIVER OF BLOOD

#7 – How The Blood Works

Are You Washed In The Blood?

A common phrase to discuss rebirth

Concepts bolstered by centuries of assumptions

What does the Bible say about HOW the blood does its work?

Do We CONTACT The Blood?

• Commonly taught that we CONTACT the blood of Jesus in baptism.

• Insisted that we cannot be saved until we CONTACT the blood.

• Baptism in water is commensurate to washing in blood.

• The Bible does not know the phrase CONTACT THE BLOOD

How The Doctrine Is Stated: Can you visualize yourself going into the baptismal water with your crucified Savior and being washed in His blood? This is what John and Paul saw when they wrote their epistles…. How critical is the faith in the blood of Jesus Christ during the water baptism? Water, in itself, has no power to wash away sins. Without the witness of the Holy Spirit and the presence of the blood of Jesus Christ the baptism has no effect of washing away sins. --(Unknown)

The Lyrics Of Several Hymns

“Are you washed in the blood, in the soul-cleansing blood of the Lamb?”

“What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus…Oh precious is the flow, that makes me white as snow, no other fount I know, nothing but the blood of Jesus.

What Happened To The Blood?• The actual blood was given, in its entirety, to God at Golgotha (Calvary). It was shed on the ground there.

• …how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience….” Heb. 9:14

Clarifying The Issue “We purify our souls by obedience to this

covenant, this truth, and not by some mystical application of the blood of Christ, as if the literal blood of

Christ has been preserved… And I

have heard brethren make this argument: ‘The blood of

Christ was shed in his death, and to come into contact with his blood we must be

baptized into his death.’

The Symbolic Nature Of The Blood

“…Christ died for us, we are redeemed by his blood, saved by the merits of his blood, but not by coming into literal contact with it; and to talk about coming into contact with it is folly.”

Robertson L. Whiteside

Doctrinal Discourses, 1955

“But the reference to the blood by the conditions of salvation is one that signifies trust or reliance. There is no necessity of inventing an imaginary, figurative, or legal ‘contact’ with the blood. It is faith in the blood, or faith in Christ who shed his blood that is required.”

K.C. Moser

The Gist Of Romans, 1957

“…no serious Bible student affirms that there is any inherent power in the literal

(corruptible) water of baptism. Certainly the sinner is washed

in the Lamb’s blood (but not even that –

literally speaking. Instead, it is the application

of the Savior’s blood to the sinner’s soul – in the mind of God – that supplies the

efficacy.”

Wayne Jackson

Christian Courier

Of washing their robes in the blood of the lamb (Revelation 7:14)…

“The washing is attributed to the Savior’s blood. But Saul was told to “be baptized and wash away your sins”(Acts 22:16). The washing by blood, and the washing of baptism, are not mutually exclusive; they compliment one another – each in its own place, being essential….There is, of course, no virtue in the act of baptism per se; there is however, validity in obeying God’s plan in order to receive the cleansing effect of the Savior’s death.” Wayne Jackson

A Deeper Look At Certain Verses

• 1 John 1:7 – “…but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.”

• Cleanses = KATHARIDZO = cleanses, purges, purifies

Revelation 1:5

“…and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him wholoves us and released us from our sins by His blood…(NASB)

“…and washes us from our sins in his own blood…” (KJV)

LUO or LOUO – frees? Or washes?

Hebrews 10:22

“…let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.”

1 John 5:6-8 “This is the One who came by water and

blood, Jesus Christ; not with the water only, but with the water and with the blood. It is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three that testify: the Spirit and the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement.”

Revelation 7:14

“…And He said to me, ‘These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

Revelation 19:13 – “He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called the Word of God.”

Romans 6:4-5

Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection….