John 13:8: Peter said to
Him, “You shall never wash my feet!” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you,
YOU HAVE NO PART WITH ME.”
ONE OF THE MOST NEGLECTED
TEACHINGS OF JESUS EVER!!!! Also, usually MISUNDERSTOOD when not NEGLECTED! A
twisted or neglected scripture will never do anything but impede the growth of
a believer.
The passage is most often
used to preach about the humility of Jesus, which of course, is true. Buit
there is more than one vein of in this gold mine of teaching!
The point to remember is
that Christians (read the whole passage) DO NOT NEED TO BE CLEANSED FROM THEIR
SIN AGAIN AND AGAIN BY THE APPLICATION OF THE BLOOD. That happened once and for
all, and we are now new, sinless creatures in God's sight forever. How else
would the Spirit of God be able to reside in us unless we are as sinless as
Jesus? In fact, there is NO SIN in Jesus even though we are now in Him. New
creatures are clean before God forever, Christ having borne our sin.
So Christ washing our
feet, without which our intamacy with Him cannot happen, speaks of our heart
and minds being washed from the inescapabvle contact with the filth of the
world we are presently living in. The "water of the Word" washes away
the impressions in our minds of the sin aroiund us and still resident in our
old natures. This is the purpose for saints of the puiblic preaching of the
Word of God!
Once we understand this
principal of washing and regulate 1 John 1:9 to its proper use (evangelizing
unsaved Jews who thought they naturaly had no sin) we are trained to do for
other believers what Christ did for Peter and the other Appostles, just as He
instructed us to do!
So let us "wash feet" by reminding both weak and strong believers, Jesus
paid it all, once and for all, so we could have this fountain of the Spirit
springing up within us all the way to Glory! The water of the Spirit washes us
clean, using the Word. The water of the Spirit also continues to satisfy our
thirst for Jesus. Drink up! Living water!
I like the thought process here.
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