True Christianity # 671
671. It is clear from the following passages that the washings just mentioned prefigured and foreshadowed, that is, symbolized, spiritual washings that purify us from evils and falsities.
When the Lord has washed excrement from the daughters of Zion, and has washed away blood, in the spirit of judgment and the spirit of cleansing . . . (Isaiah 4:4)
Even if you wash yourself with lye and use much soap, the stains of your wickedness will remain. (Jeremiah 2:22; Job 9:30-31)
Wash me from my wickedness and I will be whiter than snow. (Psalms 51:7, 9)
O Jerusalem, wash your heart from evil so that you will be saved. (Jeremiah 4:14)
Wash yourselves; purify yourselves. Remove the evil of your actions from before my eyes. Stop doing evil. (Isaiah 1:16)
[2] As the following words of the Lord make very clear, the washing of our spirit is meant by the washing of our body, and the internal practices of the [Christian] church were represented by the external rituals of the Israelite church.
When the Pharisees and scribes saw that his disciples were eating bread with unwashed hands, they found fault, because the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they have thoroughly washed their hands. They had many other accepted practices as well, such as the washing of cups, clay vessels, copper vessels, and beds. The Lord said to them and to the crowd, "All of you, hear me and understand. Nothing exists outside of you that can make you unclean by going into you. What makes you unclean are the things that come out of you. " ( Mark 7:1-4,14-15; Matthew 15:2, 11, )
This is also clear elsewhere, as in the following passage.
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, because you clean the outside of your cup and plate, but the insides are full of plundering and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of your cup and plate, so that the outside may be clean as well. (Matthew 23:25-26)
This makes it clear that the washing called baptism means a spiritual washing, which is the process of being purified from evils and falsities.
Mark 7:1-4
1
Then the Pharisees, and some of the scribes gathered together to him, having come from Jerusalem.
2
Now when they saw some of his disciples eating bread with defiled, that is, unwashed, hands, they found fault.
3
(For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, don't eat unless they wash their hands and forearms, holding to the tradition of the elders.
4
They don't eat when they come from the marketplace, unless they bathe themselves, and there are many other things, which they have received to hold to: washings of cups, pitchers, bronze vessels, and couches.)
