Getting cleaned up
by Charles Bertelsmeier
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For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water (Hebrews 10:22b).
Read Hebrews 10:11–25
Those of us who have grown up in the church may be so used to biblical and theological terms and jargon that we may not realise that those new to Christianity may struggle to understand statements such as the above verse, or even may be offended by them.
If we got blood splattered on us, I’m sure that most of us would rush to get it washed off. So why would we want to let ourselves be sprinkled with Jesus’ blood? Anyway, Jesus is no longer physically here on earth, so how do we get sprinkled with his blood? What does this really mean?
To understand, we really need to go back to the Old Testament. After Moses led the Israelite slaves out of Egypt and got them settled down at the foot of Mount Sinai, God gave the Israelites instructions on how they were to worship him (as well as instructions on how they should live and interact with each other). Worship was organised around a temple (initially made out of a tent or tabernacle) and was led by priests who had special priestly garments to wear. Connected with the tabernacle were furniture and utensils used in the worship rituals. All of these were dedicated for holy use, and part of the dedication ceremony involved the sprinkling of the blood of a sacrificed animal. (Details are given in the Old Testament in Exodus chapters 25 to 31 and 35 to 40 and in Leviticus chapter 8.)
God wanted it to be clear to his people that not living to God’s standards was serious business and that, according to God’s standards, any failure deserved death. Because God was looking forward to Jesus being our substitute and dying in our place, he instituted the sacrifice of animals as the substitute in the meantime. The blood of the sacrificed animal was sprinkled on people to cleanse them of their guilt before God.
Once Jesus died on the cross as the substitute for us, the animal sacrifices were no longer needed since Jesus’ substitutionary death is effective from the beginning of time to the end of time. Whereas the Israelites were reminded daily of God’s grace and mercy through the regular animal sacrifices, we are reminded in the regular meal of holy communion of God’s grace and mercy through Jesus’ sacrifice. And in our baptism, we are washed clean with pure water.
If you haven’t already done so, or haven’t done so for some time, why not commit to reading through the first five books of the Old Testament, prayerfully asking God to open your heart and mind to understand how he organised the Old Testament religious practices to point forward to the saving work of his Son, Jesus?
Heavenly Father, thank you for making me clean and holy as your child through the sacrifice that Jesus made because of his love for me. I now surrender my life to you to live as your child. Amen.
Charles is a retired engineer who has worked on communications projects for the Air Force, Army and Navy. He lives in a retirement village in the outer north west suburbs of Sydney with his wife, Diane. Together they have four children and eight grandchildren whom they love spending time with. He keeps himself busy with their pot plants, community vegetable garden, researching his family history and volunteering at LifeWay Lutheran Church.
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