DOES THE BIBLE REALLY SAY ...

OUR SINS ARE WASHED AWAY WHEN WE COME TO JESUS?

Yes and no.

If by ‘our sins are washed away’ we understand that God removes sin from our hearts, the answer is ‘no’. Christians are still sinners. Christians still sin. The New Testament makes this clear:

Romans 3:22, 23 – ‘There is no difference, for all ...fall short of the glory of God.’

1John 1:8 – ‘If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.’

1John 1:10 – ‘If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.’

The New Testament letters all assume that Christians sin. They are constantly telling us not to sin, commands which would be meaningless if sin had been washed out of our hearts. In addition, if sin were washed out of our hearts we could then stand in the presence of God on our own two feet, in our own sinlessness, without any need for Christ as our mediator. His saving work for us would be purely initial; we would have no continuing need of him.

But the Bible does teach that God washes and cleanses us:

David prayed ‘Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin’, and ‘Cleanse me with Hyssop, and I will be clear; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow’ – Psalm 51:2, 7.

John wrote ‘If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness’ – 1John 1:9 (see previous meditation. )

Jesus said to his twelve disciples – ‘...you are clean, though not every one of you’ and, after Judas had left, ‘You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you’ – John 13:10 and 15:3. But it is very clear that they were still sinners, for very soon after this they ran away in fear, very soon after this Peter denied Christ three times, and then Thomas refused to believe the reports of Christ’s resurrection.

This imagery of washing and cleansing is one of many physical images that God uses to convey what he does when he forgives sin. There are many other images of forgiveness: sin is removed from us ‘as far as the east is from the west’ (Psalm 103:12); it is ‘covered’ (Psalm 32:1); it is thrown into the depths of the sea, and it is stamped under God’s foot (Micah 7:19); it is thrown behind God’s back (Isaiah 38:17); it is nailed to the cross (Colossians 2:14); God hides his face from it (Psalm 51:9).

If we understand, as some do, that when God says he ‘washes’ our sin away he means it literally, then we run into problems. If sin is literally washed away from our hearts it can’t be all of these other things too. They are all, including the ‘washing’ concept, God’s way of assuring our minds, our hearts and our souls of the thoroughness and completeness and certainty of what God does to us when he forgives our sins.

He no longer takes our sin into account. He no long holds our sin against us. It no longer impacts or impedes his relationship with us and our relationship with him. He washes it off our record. He deletes it off our file. It is no longer itemised on our account. The record of our sin, along with the accompanying guilt and condemnation, are cancelled for ever, nailed to the cross of Jesus Christ where he paid its full penalty, he took its full judgement, he bore its full condemnation.

‘Blessed is the man whose sin the LORD does not count against him’ – Psalm 32:2; Romans 4:8.

‘...God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them’ – 2Corinthians 5:19.

Our hearts are still sinful. We are still sinners. We still sin. But that sin no longer separates us from our God. Jesus Christ, our substitute, took sin’s separation for us (Matthew 27:46). And he did this so completely and so competently, that we, sinners though we are, may live in the presence of God without guilt, without condemnation, without fear of judgement and rejection (Romans 8:1, 33, 34).

Because we trust in Christ, not in ourselves. And in that there is peace. In that there is indescribable joy.