314. Cleanness
Ezekiel 36:25 Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.
“Cleanliness is next to godliness,” so said John Wesley (and Mohammad). While this isn’t in the Bible, spiritually it is a Biblical concept. “The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin.” “You are clean through the word I have spoken to you.” “Create in me a clean heart, O God.” “Cleanse me with hyssop and I shall be clean.” The spiritual idea is that the spirit within is clean of sin. Forgiveness through the Gospel cleans the heart. For it is out of the heart that all the sins Jesus lists come. All outward sins come from the inside. I am a sinner: that is the problem. My actual sins in thought, word, and deed are symptoms of the underlying cause, a sinfully dirty heart. The Law attacks outward behavior and exposes the inside. The Gospel attacks the inward condition and cleanses it.
Therefore, we need cleansing, and this is what the Lord is promising in this verse:
“I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean:” When we are baptized, and when we remember our baptism, the clean water of the Spirit washes over the soul, and we are every whit whole. God promises clean water for the soul, and it is available all the time. Repent and turn to Jesus.
“From all your filthiness, and from all your idols, I will cleanse you.” First, we admit that we are filthy inside, and we acknowledge that we have idols in the heart. Whatever our heart desires outside of God and faith is, or becomes, and idol. An idol is something to trust in other than God, something we really love and want. We need to be cleansed of filthiness. We don’t realize how an attachment to anything without God is idolatry and adultery. We need cleansing.
Second, we receive the forgiveness of sins through faith in the blood of Jesus. In this way we are clean through and through. We may have been cleansed in the morning, but after a day of walking through the world our feet need to be washed, for they have unintentionally become soiled. This happens when the Spirit uses the love of others to mutually “wash our feet,” that is, when we love one another. We sense a need for Christian fellowship, but we don’t normally see what happens in the mutual consolation and conversation of the brethren.
Just like we physically feel better after a shower and clean clothes, so we are spiritually refreshed after contact with a holy and loving God. He keeps His promise: He cleans the heart through and through with the precious Gospel.