1
Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing pow’r?
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?
2
Are you walking daily by the Savior’s side?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Do you rest each moment in the Crucified?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
3
When the Bridegroom cometh will your robes be white!
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Will your soul be ready for His presence bright,
And be washed in the blood of the Lamb?
4
Lay aside the garments that are stained with sin,
And be washed in the blood of the Lamb;
There’s a fountain flowing for the soul unclean,
O be washed in the blood of the Lamb.
Elisha Albright Hoffman (1839-1929)
This simple hymn has echoed through the world. It was sung in the filthiest slums of London while General William Booth, Founder of the Salvation Army, pounded his bass drum, calling sinners to repentance. This hymn has found its way to untold numbers of churches and brush arbors where preachers and evangelists have proclaimed the Gospel in thousands of languages. But what does it mean to “be washed in the blood of the Lamb?” What Lamb does the hymn mean, and how can blood possibly clean anything?
When I was a medical student, one of the first things I learned was how to get blood out of a white uniform-apply hydrogen peroxide until it foams away the blood and then rinse with cold water. Left alone, blood stains garments, not cleanses them. But the stains here are sin stains-the filthy rotting marks that evil always leaves on our souls.
Bill Bright, Founder of Campus Crusade, now Cru, developed a pamphlet outlining the Four Spiritual Laws. You can find it at https://www.crosswalk.com/faith/spiritual-life/what-are-bill-brights-four-spiritual-laws.html
The main points are these:
- God loves you and offers a wonderful plan for your life.
- We are sinful and separated from God. Therefore, we cannot know and experience God’s love and plan for our lives.
- Jesus Christ is God’s only provision for our sin. Through Him alone we can know God personally and experience God’s love and plan.
- We must individually know Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord; then we can know and experience God’s love and plan for our lives.
Throughout the Old Testament, God repeatedly orders the Israelites to make blood sacrifices as atonement for sins. But these sacrifices must be repeated frequently because the blood of an animal cannot permanently wipe out sin. No matter how much we might love the animals around us-and I am a fervent animal lover-on the scale of creation, human beings still rank higher. Only the blood of a sinless man dying a death he does not deserve can cleanse us from sin. This is why God has sent Jesus to die for our sins. It is the blood that Jesus shed when he died on the cross at Calvary that cleanses us spiritually.
PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and caring for us. Lord, please let Your Light and Your Truth penetrate our hearts so we will see the great work You have done by sending Jesus. It’s in His mighty and precious Name we pray. Amen.
I mentioned General William Booth, the Founder of the Salvation Army, earlier. Google him-he was an amazing man. Here is Vachel Lindsay’s poem about him:
General William Booth Enters into Heaven
[To be sung to the tune of The Blood of the Lamb with indicated instrument]
[BASS DRUM BEATEN LOUDLY]
Booth led boldly with his big bass drum—
(Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?)
The Saints smiled gravely and they said: “He’s come.”
(Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?)
Walking lepers followed, rank on rank,
Lurching bravoes from the ditches dank,
Drabs from the alleyways and drug fiends pale—
Minds still passion-ridden, soul-powers frail:—
Vermin-eaten saints with mouldy breath,
Unwashed legions with the ways of Death—
(Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?)
[BANJOS]
Every slum had sent its half-a-score
The round world over. (Booth had groaned for more.)
Every banner that the wide world flies
Bloomed with glory and transcendent dyes.
Big-voiced lasses made their banjos bang,
Tranced, fanatical they shrieked and sang:—
“Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?”
Hallelujah! It was queer to see
Bull-necked convicts with that land make free.
Loons with trumpets blowed a blare, blare, blare
On, on upward thro’ the golden air!
(Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?)
[BASS DRUM SLOWER AND SOFTER]
Booth died blind and still by Faith he trod,
Eyes still dazzled by the ways of God.
Booth led boldly, and he looked the chief
Eagle countenance in sharp relief,
Beard a-flying, air of high command
Unabated in that holy land.
[SWEET FLUTE MUSIC]
Jesus came from out the court-house door,
Stretched his hands above the passing poor.
Booth saw not, but led his queer ones there
Round and round the mighty court-house square.
Yet in an instant all that blear review
Marched on spotless, clad in raiment new.
The lame were straightened, withered limbs uncurled
And blind eyes opened on a new, sweet world.
[BASS DRUM LOUDER]
Drabs and vixens in a flash made whole!
Gone was the weasel-head, the snout, the jowl!
Sages and sibyls now, and athletes clean,
Rulers of empires, and of forests green!
[GRAND CHORUS OF ALL INSTRUMENTS.
TAMBOURINES TO THE FOREGROUND]
The hosts were sandalled, and their wings were fire!
(Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?)
But their noise played havoc with the angel-choir.
(Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?)
O shout Salvation! It was good to see
Kings and Princes by the Lamb set free.
The banjos rattled and the tambourines
Jing-jing-jingled in the hands of Queens.
[REVERENTLY SUNG. NO INSTRUMENTS]
And when Booth halted by the curb for prayer
He saw his Master thro’ the flag-filled air.
Christ came gently with a robe and crown
For Booth the soldier, while the throng knelt down.
He saw King Jesus. They were face to face,
And he knelt a-weeping in that holy place.
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
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