James the Just, half-brother of Jesus and earliest Christian church leader in Jerusalem (after the Apostle also named James, brother of John, was beheaded by Herod Agrippa and Peter and some other early Church leaders fled Jerusalem,) wrote the New Testament Letter from the James to the Jewish diaspora scattered throughout the Mediterranean Basin.
Today the Spirit calls to our attention to but one verse found the Letter from James verse 4:8. “Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. “
Christians have the greatest privilege of all, individual access to God. In Old Testament times, the right of approach to God was solely the province of the priests. (Exodus 19:22.) In that time, the presence of God was thought to be contained in the Ark of the Covenant that was housed in the Inner Sanctum, the Sanctum Santorum, the Holy of Holies. If you have seen Raiders of the Lost Ark, you have seen a representation of the Ark.
At God’s order, the ancient Hebrews housed the Holy of Holies in a tent called the Tent of Meeting or the Tabernacle. There, the Ark was separated from the remainder of the tent and later, in the temple, by a veil, a thick curtain woven in a pattern of cherubim, flying angelic beings.
Even the priest was not permitted to enter the presence of God there in just any ordinary manner. He was to come near to God only in the prescribed manner and only for the purpose of making atonement (setting relationships with God aright) for “sin-stained people.” (Ezekiel 44:13). The “sinner” who needed atonement in that time was any member of Israel, the chosen people of God; each and all of them collectively and individually. This atonement had to be performed annually.
The Spirit guides us now to New Testament times as there are differences in the OT and NT passages cited supra.
The first difference is that in James’ letter, the Greek word for “sinner” has a darker, more personal meaning. James does not address the average man or woman – we could say, “The Average Sinner-in – the-Street” – but the “hamartēlos,” the hardened sinner, the one whose sin is obvious. This word refers to the sin that lawyers would call “open and notorious.” Likewise, the word refers to the person living a sinful lifestyle.
There is a second, and happier, difference. In James’ time, as in ours, we need no priest. Through the work of Jesus Christ, any believer can come boldly before the throne, the very presence, of God, where such a person will unfailingly find mercy and grace to help in times of need (Hebrews 4:16). We are the priests, and Christ is our High Priest. (I Peter 2;9, Revelation 1:6.) The writer of Hebrews tells us that though there was a time, now “dead,” when only the high priest might enter the Holy of Holies to make atonement for our sin, we have a new and a living way, a better hope by which we draw near to God. (Hebrews 7:19). But there is a problem.
Then as now, only a person who is perfect and clean can stand before a Holy God. For any time and in any generation, the Psalmist proclaims, “Who may ascend the mountain of the LORD? Who may stand in his holy place? The one who has clean hands and a pure heart.” (Psalm 24:3-4 NIV.) “Ay, there’s the rub.” William Shakespeare: Hamlet: Act 3 Scene 1 Page 3, (Hamlet’s “To be or not to be” soliloquy.) How does one become “clean?”
In OT times, the priest first had to meet a high standard of racial, lineal, and moral purity. He had to be a Jewish man who was a descendant of Aaron of the tribe of Levi. Leviticus sets out in exquisite (some would say, “excruciating”) detail these requirements. Having met all these requirements, the priest then had to undergo ritual cleansing. The specifications for ritual cleansings were set out at length in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy in much too much detail for this writing. Suffice it to say. The priest had to clean himself from head to toe, inside and out, upside and down, backward forwards, and – you get the picture.
Then, his clothes had to be the right kind and cleansed the proper way. This extreme ceremonial cleansing was undertaken each and every time that priest approached the Holy of Holies to make atonement. The practice began sometimes around the 10th Century BC and continued until the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem in AD 70 by the Romans.
Back to James’ (and our) time. William Barclay writes in his commentary on James,.
Biblical thought demands a fourfold cleansing. It demands a cleansing of the lips (Isaiah 6:5–6). It demands a cleansing of the hands (Psalm 24:4). It demands a cleansing of the heart (Psalm 73:13). It demands a cleansing of the mind (James 4:8).
Even having done with all the volumes of OT rules and regulations about cleansings, we are still left with Hamlet’s dilemma, how can we possibly be clean enough to stand before a Holy God?
There’s good news and bad news. The bad news is that we cannot. The Apostle Paul writes in Romans 3:10.
As it is written: ‘There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one. (Romans 3:10 NIV.)
Here’s the good news. Paul continues in vv. 23-26.
[F]or all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.
The answer to how a human being can become clean enough, pure enough, sanctified enough, holy enough to stand before a Holy God is one word: “Jesus.” The writer of Hebrews continues Paul’s answer.
Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. (Hebrews 4:14-16 NIV.)
Clearly, “Jesus” is the answer to the conundrum, but, how does one appropriate this priestly blessing – the grace bestowed by God in the Person of Jesus? Acts 16:24-40 details the account of a sinner-man who asked just such a question. That passage also gives him – and us – the answer. After Paul and Silas had been thrown in jail in the City of Philippi, God sent an earthquake to rattle the chains loose and the doors open. The chief jailer, the man in charge who would be held mortally responsible for the “jail-break,” was amazed to find that all the prisoners were still in their cells. He recognized the power of Jesus and Jesus’ Holy Spirit, and the jailer burst forth the succinct and all-important question of all the ages.
And the jailer called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas. Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds, and he was baptized at once, he and all his family. Then he brought them up into his house and set food before them. And he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God. (Acts 16:29-34 NIV.)
Now you know the answer to the question of the ages, how to cleans a sinner, even the “hamartēlos,” how to cleanse me, and how to be cleansed yourself from the vice-grip of sin. “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.”
One more question for you comes from the words of the old Hymn published by Elisha A. Hoffman in 1878, “Are You Washed in the Blood?”
Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing power? Are you washed in the blood of the lamb? Are you fully trusting in His grace this hour? Are you washed in the blood of the lamb?
Are you washed in the blood, In the soul-cleansing blood of the lamb? Are your garments spotless? Are they white as snow? Are you washed in the blood of the lamb?
OK, it’s that’s more than one question – but you get the gist. I’ll summarize. “What’s your answer?
So let it be written, so let it be done.
johnthebaptist15 