Do You Need to be Cleansed?

Cleansing was a big part of Hebrew temple worship. One had to be ceremonially clean to offer sacrifices, and there were huge basins in the temple for the priests to wash in-between sacrifices. David wrote psalm after psalm about needing God to cleanse his heart, and many of the New Testament epistles reiterate that theme. Yet it is not a common idea in today’s church. We balk at the idea of needing to be cleansed, especially after salvation. Is cleansing a one time event or is it something we need to pursue on a regular basis?

Psalm 51:1-3 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness;
According to the greatness of Your compassion blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity
And cleanse me from my sin.
For I know my transgressions,
And my sin is ever before me.

What in us requires cleansing? It is our sin. Our God is holy, He cannot be in the presence of sin, yet we are sinful people. It is our nature. In order to be in His presence, for Him to be able to hear us, we have to be cleansed of our sins. Many try to better themselves, purify themselves, go through the motions on their own, but is this something we can do ourselves?

Proverbs 20:9 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

Who can say, “I have cleansed my heart,
I am pure from my sin”?

Job 9:29-31 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

I am accounted wicked,
Why then should I toil in vain?
If I should wash myself with snow
And cleanse my hands with lye,
Yet You would plunge me into the pit,
And my own clothes would abhor me.

The second passage is quoted by Job, whom God Himself considered righteous, yet Job was not capable of cleansing himself. It is not possible for sinful humans to cleanse themselves any more than it is possible to clean dirty sheets in a mud puddle. No efforts of our own, no matter how good, could ever get the job done. So how do we become clean?

Jeremiah 33:8 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

I will cleanse them from all their iniquity by which they have sinned against Me, and I will pardon all their iniquities by which they have sinned against Me and by which they have transgressed against Me.

1 John 1:9 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Only God can cleanse us through the perfect blood of His Son Jesus Christ. It is only through Jesus’ sacrifice that we can become acceptable. Nothing we do is good enough. We only need to believe in His sacrifice and submit our lives to His will. It is not something we can accomplish on our own.

James 4:7-9 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom.

There is not a one-time-serves-all cleansing. We must come to Him to cleanse every sin. We will never reach a state of perfection in this life; therefore we will always have sin which needs cleansing. We need to regularly come to God, allow Him to examine and eradicate the sin in our lives, repent of it (which means to turn completely away from it), and surrender to His cleansing. Double-mindedness refers to those who confess sin to God with no intention of leaving that sin behind. Our sin, every sin, should cause us to mourn. We should grieve over it until we are cleansed.

Ephesians 5:25-27 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless.

Christ longs to cleanse and perfect us, to mold us into His perfect likeness, but we must be willing to be cleansed. We have to admit our need to be cleansed and then submit to His cleansing. We have to be willing to leave behind our sin, to give up the gossip, the addictions, the bitterness, the fantasies, all of it. That is how we are made holy and pure. That is how we reach our ultimate potential in the kingdom of God.

2 Timothy 2:21-22 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from these things, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work. Now flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.

Are you willing to be cleansed? Are you willing to be used and perfected by God? Are you willing to seek it?