The Lee County journal. (Leesburg, Ga.) 1904-19??, 1920-03-05

FACW VI AAio SUMS AZ nv $1,000
in love that cannot change.
"Jesus knowing that the Father had
given all things into his hands, and
that he was come from God and Went
to God; he riseth from supper" Oh,
think of It'll These are the hands that
will not shrink from taking our soiled
feet in them to put away their stain.
1t was the Passover supper, th| we'll
known type of his death. He must
rise from the dead to go back to God,
and no special amounting of the eye
IS required to see in this rising from
supper a figure of his resurrection
from the dead.
The scene that follows is the shad-
owing forth Of his present service there
in the presence Of the Father where he,
the girded Servant of our need, ap-
pears as Advocate on account of our
sins. This is emphasized by the Lords
words to Peter: "What | do thou
knOwest not now; but thou shalt know
hereafter" and his later words to the
twelve: "Know we what l have done
unto you?" Certainly Peter and the
rest knew what he had done, if the
washing of their feet were all and had
no significance other than humility.
And when Peter cries out against
him: "Thou shalt never wash my
feet" he is met with this answer: ''1f
/ wash thee not, thou hast no part
with me-" 1t is not. "If you do not
wash yourself" but "If I wash thee
not" 1t is not Peters sense of need,
not yours and mine, that leads the
Lord to serve him and us, but his own
sense of our need. Peter could not
wash away sin, nor can /. There is
One alone who can. And because
am united to him, he must do it, for he
would be put to everlasting shame if
he allowed the slightest stain to re-
main for an instant upon the poorest
member Of his mystical body.
He does not say, "NO part in me"
but with me-" "In Christ" is the
interchangeable position of every
Christian, and it is because we are in
him that he is 50 concerned about us.
But with Christ is fellowship, and that
this may be maintained, and restored
when broken, he must see to the
cleansing from the defllement Of our
practical ways. The twenty-third
verse of the chapter reveals what that
part with" him is: "NoW there was
leaning on Jesus bosom one of his
disciples whom Jesus loved" The
mention of that disciples name here
would have spoiled the whole story,
for he is but the representative Of
them all, as verse one declares ::
Having loved his own f. ne loved
them unto the end" This is the holy
intimacy to which he invites and well
comes all his OVID.
Peter then goes to the other ex-
IRENE, 'Not my feet only, but also my
hands and my head" And to this
the Lord replies: "He that Is washed
needeth not save to wash his feet, but
is clean every whit" Here are two
different words for "wash" whose sig
nificance is not brought out in the
translation. The first means Ito
bathe'' and the second "to rinse" He
that is bathed, with the washing of
regeneration" is clean every whit. It
is the judicial cleansing that his blood
accomplishes once for all. The cleans
ing effected in the new birth is not re-
peated. Now, for the saint, it is 'the
washing of water by the word" He
died to make us clean. He lives to
keep us clean. We are made as clean
as his precious blood can make us.
We are kept as clean as the water in
his basin and the towel in his hands
can keep us. The feet are the SYM
Dol of our walk, and it is in our walk
here on earth that we become defled,
needing his gracious ministry, our
soiled feet in his blessed hands. where
the responsibility becomes his. "The
underlying imagery" says Doctor SEQ
field as of an oriental returning from
the public baths to his house. His feet
would contract defilement and require
cleansing, but not his body. SO the
believer is cleansed as before the aw
from all sin 'once for ALL but needs
ever to bring his daily sins to the Fa-
Their in confession"