There are certain phrases that should give you chills. Some things are automatic stomach churners. One string of words that should cause an immediate negative reaction simply does not have the effect you think it would among followers of Jesus. The phrase: “Washed in the blood.”
If someone came up to you and said they were “washed in the blood,” you would probably back away and hope they don’t invite you to the “blood bath.” But this saying was not sparked by Wes Craven or the latest Hollywood slasher flick. No, this comes from an unlikely source.
It is a popular saying among followers of Jesus, but it can cause those who do not follow Christ to be taken aback. When Christians use the phrase “washed in the blood” they’re not talking about gore. It is much deeper and more positive than that. The idea is taken from the book of Revelation where it says that those who followed Christ have “washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”
Washed in the blood became a reference to what happens to someone when Christ changes his or her life. It is a way of stating that their dirty past is now made clean through the blood of Christ. In other words, it is shorthand for having your life made new again through Christ’s sacrifice of his own blood.
What makes the phrase interesting is that we are talking about blood—something that we are usually trying to clean up. But this is no ordinary blood. It is the blood of an innocent man. It is the blood of the Son of God. This innocent blood symbolic for the sinless life that is substituted for the sinful life that has made us spiritually dirty. So being “washed in the blood” is not about being a part of some new cult, and it’s not the proving ground for a new cleanser.
It is about the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross and the blood that was spilled on the behalf of those Christ came to save. Being washed in the blood sounds disgusting, but actually it’s one of the most authentic and genuine ways you can be made clean.
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