John 15:3: You are already clean because of the Word I have spoken to you (NIV).
As believers in Jesus, we’ve been redeemed from sin through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. Satan no longer owns you, now that you’ve received the Holy Spirit, you belong to God. Does that mean we’re made perfect because of the blood of Christ? No, it doesn’t. We’ve been redeemed by the blood of Jesus, but at the moment of salvation we were not made perfect or mature. Jesus told His disciples, who had remained with Him over three years, that they had been made clean by the Word He had taught them.
When we’re only taught the principles of salvation, but not truly discipled, it can cause us to think that we’ve achieved all that is required of us from the Lord. If all you know about your walk with the Lord is based on salvation teachings alone, and you practice those principles that have been imparted into your life, it can cause you to feel as though you’ve “arrived.”
This is why Jesus requires believers to continue in their faith by hearing and keeping the Word of God in their everyday lives after they become born again. Even though we’ve been cleansed from dead works through the blood of Christ, and our spirits have been regenerated through the Holy Spirit, our souls are yet to be purified. As I wrote previously, the disciples had been with Jesus for almost forty-two months. During this time, Jesus had taught them many truths that had transformed their carnal minds. Through the truths that He revealed to the disciples, they learned the importance of following God’s Law and not the traditions of the elders. As Jesus continued to teach the disciples, they became clean in their souls from the pollution of the world’s ways—which defiles the soul.
One day, as Jesus was teaching in the temple, some Jews believed His teachings. He told those Jews, who believed on Him to continue in His teachings, and they would become true disciples. You see; there is so much more to being saved than just becoming born again. Now that we’re saved, we must continue living in His Word and keeping His teachings in our hearts and lives. This will purge our souls from the fleshly ways that we walked in as sinners.
We’re all fine (or believe we’re fine) until we look in the mirror and see the dirt on our faces. In much the same way, we must look into the Word of God so that it might reveal to us what is hidden just out of our sight . . . but that others can see very plainly. The Word of God will purge your soul and make you free from deceptive pride and fleshly lusts. —submitted by Pastor Asa Dockery, US
daisymarygoldr on August 11, 2011 at 2:00 am
Positionally, we are made clean but practically we still sin—and get dirty. Hence, we need to keep ourselves clean from everything that defiles our body and spirit (2 Cor. 7: 1).
The disciples were already clean but Jesus washed their feet. Similarly, we need to wash each others’ feet with the water of God’s word to maintain a pure relationship with God and with one another.
We cannot be clean on our own and need one another to make us clean. This is why we regularly meet as the body of Christ to study the word of God together with other Christians. Cleaning the feet in a figurative sense means helping fellow Christians get rid of moral defilement in their lives so as to be refreshed and restored back to fellowship.
If we are unwilling to submit ourselves to the word, then we have no part with Christ and His Body. And yes, it requires humility on all accounts—to stoop low and lovingly apply God’s word to others’ feet and to let the other clean my unclean feet that stinks with deceptive pride and fleshly lusts. Thank you Pastor Asa Dockery!