Theme Scripture

Revelation 1: 4 – 6

4 John, to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from Him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne,

5 and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood,

6 and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Exposition

The process of washing engages wringing. What is wringing? To wring according to the dictionary means “a twisting or a twist, squeeze or compress in order to extract liquid. Washing is the working of cleansing, usually with soap and water. Sometimes it may involve scrubbing; depending on what you are washing and sometimes a soft sponge will do the trick; again, depending on what you are washing and how much dirt needs to be removed. No doubt, all the processes of washing require a level of force or pressure.

The ultimate outcome is that whatever goes through the process, comes out clean, especially if you use a good detergent. Some detergents may not get rid of stains because they are not strong enough, but others have within them chemicals that deal with stains and therefore whatever you wash comes out clean and without stains. 

The blood of Jesus washes away ALL sin and installs us unto royalty and priesthood (Rev 1:5). This is how empowering the shedding of the blood of Jesus is. 

As Christians, we must be very weary and in fact reject teachings that suggest that being washed by the blood of Jesus does not necessarily result in genuine repentance or turning away from the sin that made it necessary to be cleansed by the blood of Jesus in the first place. Sadly amongst Christians, it is often suggested that because we are the righteousness of God, there is no need to be righteous or live righteously because we cannot or do not have the capacity to be righteous and therefore grace covers all.

Now, imagine your father gives you a nice pure white dress or shirt. When you put on that garment, are you not careful not to dirty it? When you go to that restaurant and you are served with your favourite palm nut soup and fufu; are you not careful to ensure that none of it ends up in your white outfit so you do not walk around with a stained dress or shirt? Are you not careful throughout the day to ensure that you keep the outfit as clean as possible? – YES  you are! Does it mean you will never have to wash the outfit again or that the outfit would never be dirty? – NO it does not. In fact there will always be a need to wash it and in fact keep washing but not because you deliberately went out of your way to dirty it – but that you accidentally or unconsciously picked up dirt along the way. No sound person wears a white dress or shirt and goes out of their way, deliberately, to make the outfit dirty – they don’t – even if they know they have a detergent that can wash the dirt out of it. When we wear our white dress, we are always careful to ensure we do not stain it. At the end of the day, we still  wash the white dress/shirt to get rid of the dust or dirt we may have picked up along the way.

The way you carry yourself when you wear a white dress is different from the way you carry yourself when you wear a black dress. Wearing a white dress awakens your consciousness to the fact that you must be careful not to stain it. So when you are getting in the car, you make sure the seat is clean; some people go a step further to ensure the seatbelt is clean; you put a napkin on your chest before you eat, etc. Wearing that white garment just makes you more careful. It somehow empowers you to be conscious of your actions i.e. where you sit, what you do, what activities you take part in, etc.

One can liken what I have just described above to sin, forgiveness and the grace factor. The efficacy of the blood of Jesus, through His death on the cross, makes us clean and whole. The process is a complete one; however, it leaves us with a charge to live a holy and righteous life. God knows that we might slip and that is why grace is available – and like the scenario above of how we do not go about in our clean white  attire and deliberately pick up marks and stains, is the same way we have to be careful with our salvation and not be careless by going back to the same sin(s) that the blood of Jesus washed us of. This is why we have the Holy Spirit.

Galatians 5:1 is instructive. It reads, “stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage”. The finished work on the cross brings liberty – liberty from bondage; liberty from foul addictions and behaviours. We must not, after we have been forgiven, go out and entangle ourselves again in those same old behaviours and repeat the same old patterns so that we turn to grace. 

As Paul says in Romans 6: 1-3, “shall we continue to sin, that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall he who died to sin, live any longer in it? We read in Romans 6: 12 – 14 the following:

“12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. 13 And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. 14 For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace”

And this is what the real message of grace is!

The blood that makes us clean and whole is empowering. Its potency is sufficient to awaken our consciousness to desire to live righteously and to live above sin.

Be empowered and live in the consciousness that the washing away of your sins also leaves you with a charge to live righteously. Therefore, go and sin no more!

Prayer

Dear Lord Jesus, thank You for your precious blood which you shed for me for the remission of my sins.  Thank you that by that act, you have also empowered me to live above sin. Today, I accept the charge to live a holy and righteous life. With the help of the Holy Spirit I prevail over sin. May my spirit be awakened and may my desires and actions yield to the potency of Your blood that empowers me to live above sin, in Jesus’ name. Amen!

THE BLOOD THAT WASHES AWAY OUR SINS, IS POTENT TO TRANSFORM. 

Be transformed in the name of Jesus.