God’s provision for spiritual cleansing always includes these two divine agents…the blood of Christ shed upon the cross and the washing of water. Does the washing with water mean this is done by His word or simply to take baptism like going under water?
You are right in saying that the two divine agents for cleansing are “the BLOOD of Christ” and “the washing of WATER.” Your question is so important as to the WATER, so let’s see what Scripture teaches us about this. After Jesus had died on the cross, we read the following: “But when they came to Jesus and saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs. But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately BLOOD and WATER came out” (John 19:33-34). Here we see the “the shedding of Christ’s blood” and that “water came out as well.” I believe the BLOOD speaks of the “cleansing from the GUILT of our sin” as we see in 1 John 1:7, “the BLOOD of Jesus Christ His Son CLEANSES US FROM ALL SIN.” I believe the WATER symbolizes the “moral cleansing from the POWER of sin through the Word of God. Before we look at some scriptures that prove the WATER typifies the Word of God which cleanses us from the defilement of sin, I would like to quote the lines of a well-known hymn which brings out these two truths.
“Rock of Ages, cleft for me! I am hidden safe in Thee:
For the WATER and the BLOOD, From Thy riven side which flowed,
Have of sin the DOUBLE CURE, CLEANSED me from its GUILT and POWER.”
The hymnwriter (Augustus Toplady) surely had in mind these two truths. We did need this “double cure”; we needed to be cleansed from all sin to remove our GUILT which we had because of our sins, but we also needed to be cleansed morally to remove the POWER of sin from the fallen, sinful nature we were born with (see Psalm 51:5 with John 3:6a).
Now let’s look at scriptures that speak of the WATER and how it typifies the “Word of God” that cleanses us morally. In John 3:3 Jesus told a man named Nicodemus, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is BORN AGAIN, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (verse 3). Nicodemus replied in verse 4, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” He failed to realize that Jesus was speaking of a “spiritual birth,” not a “natural birth.” So, Jesus went on to say, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of WATER and the SPIRIT, he cannot enter the kingdom of God” (verse 5). He was teaching Nicodemus (and us!) that because we were “born in SIN,” we need a New Birth, and this “spiritual birth” is the result of WATER and the SPIRIT. We know the “Spirit” here is speaking of the Holy Spirit, but what does the “water” speak of? Here are a few scriptures to show us that the WATER is indeed the “Word of God.”
- “How shall a young man CLEANSE his way? By taking heed according to Your WORD” (Psalm 119:9).
- “You are already CLEAN because of the WORD which I (Jesus) have spoken to you” (John 15:3).
- “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and CLEANSE her with the WASHING OF WATER BY THE WORD” (Ephesians 5:25-26).
Some may be thinking, “But where does Scripture say clearly that the Word of God is used to produce the New Birth?” 1 Peter 1:22-23 declares, “Since you have PURIFIED your souls in obeying the TRUTH through the SPIRIT in sincere love of the brethren….Having been BORN AGAIN, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, THROUGH THE WORD OF GOD which lives and abides forever.” Peter is writing to believers who had been “born again” by the Word of God. They had been “purified by obeying the TRUTH through the SPIRIT.” This confirms what Jesus had told Nicodemus when He said he must be “born of WATER and the SPIRIT.” (DO) (734.1)