What Can Wash Away My Sins.....?

"Some of us, oppressed by our own weakness, may at times have been tempted to think that there are sins which are almost unforgivable. Let us remember the word: 'The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from every sin.' Big sins, small sins, sins which may be very black and sins which appear to be not so black, sins which I think can be forgiven and sins which seems unforgivable, yes, all sins, conscious or unconscious, remember or forgotten, are included in those words: 'every sin.' The blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from every sin, and it does so because in the first place it satisfied God." -Watchman Nee, The Normal Christian Life

To this day I am stilled baffled as to why the great wisdom and clear writings of Watchman Nee are not required reading for Seminary students. At one time in my life, in 1995, I had a copy of The Normal Christian Life and Release of the Spirit tucked deep in my back-pack, and would sneak around the campus to read it, like it was contraband or something. Not only was it not on any syllabus, it was considered by most to be heresy. Funny. Thankfully, God brought these books to me (I cannot remember how) and they contributed to changing the entire course of my life. In those days I would attend daily Chapel where we'd often sing the song, "What Can Wash Away My Sins." Later, while in the basement classroom of the main Bible building, alone, I would sit and weep over a tear-soaked Bible and a worn out copy of Nee's book, just filled with the thankfulness to God for His real sacrifice for me.

Today the snow is mostly melting but I'm left with a thankful, peace-full, and just altogether full heart. What a great and glorious God we serve! What amazing truth that "while were still sinners Christ died for us." What an amazing gift of unconditional and all together over-whelming LOVE the Father has for us, that He would give His one and only Son as a ransom. Can we really even fathom this gift? Only by faith can we even come close. We cannot comprehend the grand purpose of the Blood, from its incredible beginning with God's Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16) to it's justification for our own sins through the death of God's very own son (Romans 5:8,9) . That's why the first chapter of The Normal Christian Life, The Blood of Christ," is one of my favorites. I've returned to the book this morning and it brings back memories; my highlighter is working over-time once again:

• "It is God's holiness, God's righteousness, which demands that a sinless life should be given for man. There is life in the Blood, and that Blood has to be poured out for me, for my sins. God is the One who requires it to be so. God is the One who demands that the Blood be presented, in order to satisfy His own righteousness, and it is He who says, 'What I see the blood, I will pass over you.' The Blood of Christ wholly satisfies God."
• "Now the whole trouble with us is that we are trying to sense it; we are trying to feel its value and to estimate subjectively what the Blood is for us. We cannot do it; it does not work that way. The Blood is first for God to see. We then have to accept God's valuation of it. In doing so we shall find our valuation."

val·u·a·tion –noun 1. the act of estimating or setting the value of something; appraisal. 2. an estimated value or worth.

• "We have to believe that the Blood is precious to God because He says it is so (1 Peter 1:18, 19)."
• "The Blood has satisfied God; it must satisfy us also. It has therefore a seond value that is manward in the cleansing of our conscience." (Hebrews 9:12; 10:22) 
• "A heart of faith and a conscience clear of any and every accusation are both equally essential to us, since they are interdependent. As soon as we find our conscience is uneasy our faith leaks away and immediately we find we cannot face God. In order therefore to keep going on with God we must know the up-to-date value of the Blood. God keeps short accounts, and we are made nigh by the Blood every day, every hour and every minute." 

Wow. Can we really understand the importance of that Blood? I know how important it is to my own physical life. I didn't earn this red fluid pulsing through my body to keep me alive. Nor did I, nor you, earn salvation from God and the removal of our sins, or victory over our sin-nature, by our own merit. (See "Thoughts on Freedom.") This is where I think Nee writes it best: 

• "I approach God through His merit alone and never on the basis of my attainment; never, for example, on the ground that I have been extra kind or patient today, or that I have done something for the Lord this morning. I have come by way of the Blood every time. The temptation to so many of us when we try to approach God is to think that because God has been dealing with us -- because He has been taking steps to bring us into something more of Himself and has been teaching us deeper lessons of the Cross -- He has thereby set before us new standards, and that only by attaining to these can we have a clear conscience before Him. No! A clear conscience is never based up on our attainment; it can only be based on the work of the Lord Jesus in the shedding of His blood." 

The shedding of His blood is so very important for us to understand. We need God to help us. I am aware that some nominal Christians have taken advantage of the Blood in the Gospel and become lazy in their walk, and lackadaisical in the lives. But we should not over-react and throw out the Blood with the bathwater. The Blood is as important to God as it ever was. And it is just as important for us, for without it we do not know who we really are in Christ.

But the shedding of His blood and the redemption of sins was not God's ultimate goal. The cross-sacrifice was merely a means to an end for God. God's desire was, and is to this day, to have A People. We cannot stop short of God's real heart -- He wants to inhabit the Earth through Christ's Body. The Blood is a real thing but it's not the main thing. That our sins are completely forgiven by the Blood of Christ is a grand truth, but it's not the Truth. The Truth is Christ Himself. While dying on the cross, I picture that Christ thought not only just of me as His blood dripped down, but that He thought of a mighty, redeemed group of people where His Spirit would dwell and where a power-full, spiritual army would rise up in the new Kingdom of Heaven and declare together: "What Can Wash Away OUR Sins?!"

Nothing but the blood. Nothing but the blood. Nothing but the blood of Jesus.