What Can Wash Away My Sins?

            The old song asks, “What can wash away my sins?” For most people the question is meaningless, because they do not realize they even need such a cleansing. If you realize that your every thought that comes short of God’s perfection is sinful and earns you a real spot in hell’s flames, the question becomes incredibly meaningful.

            The song continues with the right answer to the question, “Nothing but the blood of Jesus.” What is so special about the blood of Jesus? Was his blood magical, or is something else going on? Why did Jesus have to die?

            The answers to these questions relate to a right understanding of the atonement of Jesus. Atonement is a theological term that summarizes the work of Jesus Christ upon the cross. Four words will help us grasp the Bible’s teachings.

            Satisfaction. On the cross, Jesus fully satisfied the wrath of God on behalf of sinners. The Bible says, “For the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). Every sin we commit is adding fuel to God’s wrath against us (think about that the next time you are tempted to think a lustful thought—see Matthew 5:27-28).

            2 Corinthians 5:21 begins, “He (God) made Him who knew no sin (Jesus) to be sin on our behalf.” God treated Jesus as if he had committed our sins, and poured out his furious wrath upon Jesus on the cross. The prophet Isaiah predicted this would happen 700 years before Jesus was born. “The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him...But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him...But the LORD was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief; if He would render Himself as a guilt offering...” (Isaiah 53:5-6, 10).

            Substitution. As amazing as it is that Jesus satisfied God’s wrath, it may be even more amazing that it was wrath that WE deserve. He took our punishment on the cross.  Several verses clearly teach that the cross was a substitutionary event. “Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried...But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities,” (Isaiah 53:4-5).

            Peter echoes Isaiah’s prediction in 1 Peter 3:18, “For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, in order that he might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit.” Have you considered that Jesus did not just die in some vague general way? If you are one of his children, each and every sin you have ever committed was placed upon him and he tasted of the very wrath of God that you deserve.

            While animal sacrifices provided a temporary solution to man’s sin problem, the perfect solution was found in Jesus. God’s Son being eternal and perfectly righteous fulfilled all of the requirements of God’s laws, and offered himself as the once for all substitute for sinners. When John the Baptist saw him he cried out, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29).

            Far from being a victim of circumstances, Jesus willing gave his life on the Roman instrument of shameful torture and execution, the cross. The Bible says that the life of a person is identified with their blood (Leviticus 17:14). Jesus died a bloody death because he was pouring out his life on behalf of others, like the blood sacrifices in the Old Testament.

            Sufficient. If every person who ever lived in the entire world were to be forgiven, nothing else beyond the work of Christ would have been necessary. Because Jesus is eternal God in human flesh, his death has eternal and infinite worth. Jesus invites all that will come to him for full pardon to come. None will ever be turned away. The sacrifice of Christ will never wear out, or run out of forgiving power.

            Jesus said, “All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out,” (John 6:37). His sacrifice was not given for Jews only, but the whole world. If you have never come to Christ for forgiveness, it is available for you this day. Come to Christ and be cleansed from all your sin.

            Saving. Even though everyone is invited to come to Jesus for forgiveness, the Bible tells us that many will recklessly ignore the offer and die in their sins. Those people are never forgiven and will pay the price for their sins for all of eternity in the lake of fire (John 8:24; Revelation 20:11-15).

            For all those who believe, however, God has made a saving application of the work of Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” On the cross, God treated Jesus as if He had committed all of these sins, so that He could justly treat every believer as if he or she had perfectly lived out the righteousness of Christ.

            In a special way, Jesus’s work literally saved future believers while on the cross. Of course, those saving benefits were not applied to the person until they believed, but their salvation was literally accomplished on the very cross of Christ. We know God accepted the sacrifice, because He raised Jesus from the dead.

            Even before Jesus was born, the angel told Joseph, “And she will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for it is He who will save His people from their sins,” (Matthew 1:21). Jesus did not die generically to make everyone savable. He died purposefully to save his people, and to offer salvation to everyone in the entire world.

            No amount of goodness can atone for the least little sin. Our only hope is in the atoning work of Jesus. Are you living as if you are OK with God? Do you think he will let you into heaven based on your level of goodness? Friend, God would NEVER have put his Son through hell on the cross if you could just earn a ticket to heaven.  Please repent of your foolish self-confidence, and cry out to God with Christ-confidence. His blood will cleanse you today if you will believe.