Ephesians 4:3-6; One baptism, part 4. Cleansing by the blood of Christ makes us holy before God.

None of the offspring of fallen Adam and Eve are clean before a holy God.

Pro 20:9

Who can say, "I have cleansed my heart,

I am pure from my sin"?

Much later, through the contemporary prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel, God promised Israel that He would cleanse her.

Jer 33:8

'And 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.

Eze 36:25-26

“Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. 26 Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you;”

Eze 37:23

"And they will no longer defile themselves with their idols, or with their detestable things, or with any of their transgressions; but I will deliver them from all their dwelling places in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them. And they will be My people, and I will be their God.

The cleansing from God has nothing to do with ritual. Rituals represent real things, but are themselves not the real. In Jer 33:8 they are cleansed from iniquity, in Eze 36:25 they are cleansed from filthiness and idols, and in 37:23 cleansing is associated with the removal of idols, detestable things, and transgressions.

We saw that God provided cleansing rituals in the Mosaic Law, particularly in Lev 11-15. But then this section is directly followed by the ritual of the Day of Atonement – the one day in which animal blood was taken into the holy of holies.

Notice how Moses begins the chapter:

Lev 16:1-3

Now the Lord spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they had approached the presence of the Lord and died. 2 And the Lord said to Moses, "Tell your brother Aaron that he shall not enter at any time into the holy place inside the veil, before the mercy seat which is on the ark, lest he die; for I will appear in the cloud over the mercy seat. 3 Aaron shall enter the holy place with this: with a bull for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering.

Lev 10:3

Then Moses said to Aaron, "It is what the Lord spoke, saying,

'By those who come near Me I will be treated as holy,

And before all the people I will be honored.'"

Holiness is close to this subject of baptism, or cleansing and purity. No one may approach God unless he is holy, and since no one in Israel was, the proper rituals had to be performed that God prescribed in the Law. Nabab and Abihu offered incense that God had not commanded.

Holiness before God, cleansing from all iniquity, filthiness, and detestable things, is necessary to be with Him. Removal of idols, the removal of all things that are loved more than God, is also essential to existing as a member of His kingdom. Holy before Him and loving Him purely and devotedly is the glory of the kingdom of God. What God so wonderfully wrought in this age, though Israel rejected her Messiah, was to give us the New Covenant (Jews and Gentiles), making us clean and pure and holy, not ritualistically or ceremonially, but truly by nature so that we might walk through life in the love and obedience of God and soak up the joy it brings.

Now, we know how this cleansing came to us, and it was no ritual. Water baptism couldn’t ever clean anything besides the outside. The cross of Christ, represented by the phrase the blood of Christ, was the means of our cleansing.

Tit 2:11-14

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, 12 instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, 13 looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus; 14 who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.

The pure are zealous to do things that are pure.