Are you Washed...the Wayfarer 6/5/16

Are you Washed
  6/5/16

Ephesians 1:2-8King James Version (KJV)

² Grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:

⁴ According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:

⁵ Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,

⁶ To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.

⁷ In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;

⁸ Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence;

Redemption through the blood of Christ Jesus, forgiveness of all sin through the grace of God delivered by faith in His sacrifice, resurrection and mediation for the repentant is central, and paramount to all I believe.

It is His blood, required, and, given freely, that provides the promise of eternal life to the believer. 

No other sacrifice, no other gift, no other means made available, no other means is acceptable to God, Who provided that precious blood sacrifice of His own, only begotten Son .

All other sacrifice was and is insufficient, all other action by any man is insufficient, all other means is unacceptable, except that blood already given by Him.

Today’s title comes from a song heard quite regularly throughout my life, along with others that speak of that precious blood, and the power held within that blood, songs heard in my home, and in those of my grandparents, both sung and hummed as daily chores were accomplished, and most recently, and pleasantly, as well as surprisingly, hummed by a medical technician in the process of doing the tests ordered by a doctor, while disregarding the political correctness too often taking precedence in today’s workplace.

 “Are you washed in the blood”

“Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing power
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb
Are you fully trusting in His grace this hour
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb
Refrain

Are you walking daily by the Savior`s side
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb
Do you rest each moment in the Crucified
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb

Refrain

When the Bridegroom cometh will your robes be white
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb
Will your soul be ready for the mansions bright,
And be washed in the blood of the Lamb

Refrain

Lay aside the garments that are stained with sin,
And be washed in the blood of the Lamb;
There`s a fountain flowing for the soul unclean,
O be washed in the blood of the Lamb!

Refrain

Are you washed in the blood,
In the soul cleansing blood of the Lamb
Are your garments spotless Are they white as snow
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb”

Blood sacrifice has been the requirement for the covering of sin since the occurrence of the first sin in the Garden of Eden.

Despite the often depicted fig leaves that covered the nakedness of Adam and Eve in art throughout the centuries, those leaves, and hiding behind them were not adequate for God, hiding nothing from Him, just as nothing is or may ever be hidden from Him, then and now as well.

Genesis tells us that God clothed them with coats of skins.

Skins are not removed without the shedding of blood to do so!

Genesis 3:21-23 King James Version (KJV)

²¹ Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them.

²² And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:

²³ Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.

Offerings to God were made, also from the beginning, those offerings intended to placate Him, to restore man’s standing with Him, all of which were inadequate in and of themselves, requiring repetition, along with repetition of repentance for the failure engendered through sin which grew proportionally with each generation of this creature called man so precious to God.

Blood sacrifice was more acceptable to God than any other, as noted with Cain and Abel and continuing throughout the history given us in the Old Testament.

Abraham would have sacrificed his own son, Isaac, but was spared the necessity of doing so, God providing the sacrifice instead, as He has provided all sacrifice since clothing Adam’s nakedness, becoming the awareness of sin along with the awareness of that nakedness because of his disobedience.

The more sin that entered into the world through mankind, the more blood that was required to cover that sin.

That covering came only through the sacrifices offered to acknowledge the repentance of that sin.

Yet sin was repeated, and continued, is repeated and continues still.

Supreme sacrifice was demanded, and could only be delivered by God… and was through the sacrifice of HIS Son, a sacrifice that superseded all others making them null and to no effect.

Repentance was and still is required in acknowledgement of that sacrifice, redemption obtained only through faith in the grace given us by God through it.

Acceptance of that sacrifice by God is complete.

Acceptance of that sacrifice by man must be equally complete.

That acceptance entails meeting the requirement set forth, from the beginning of repentance in return for the redemption offered through it, faith and belief in the totality of what has been given, comprehension of the necessity of it having been given, and the fact that there is no other means of obtaining that redemption, no other means of salvation, no other covering for sin, and no other means of becoming acceptable to God without our own acceptance of Christ Jesus as Savior.

That acceptance is not the acceptance of lip service, nor is it acceptance by attempts to please God through any act of our own without meeting the requirement of repentance.

Jesus gave the final sacrifice for all mankind. That sacrifice remains in effect, and remains effective to God only for those who accept that sacrifice.

Acceptance is mandatory, not elective.

Choice, the choice given Adam, remains as well.

Sacrifice, freely given, must be freely, and, fully accepted.

Faith must be freely given, being shown through repentance.

Salvation is once and forever, given through the price of the blood of our Savior Jesus.

Repentance is, and must be an ongoing requirement, evidence of faith in that which has been given.

Jesus gave us complete love through what was done for us on the cross,  that love proven through the resurrection.

Acceptance of that love is acceptance of His sacrifice and adherence to what he preached and taught.

What he preached was repentance of the sins that separate us from God and the kingdom of heaven.

What He taught was love.

Isaiah 1:18 King James Version (KJV)

¹⁸ Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

Revelation 7:14

King James Version (KJV)

¹⁴ And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

Amen and Amen

the Wayfarer