With It I Must Begin; With It I Must Go On

The deep spiritual lessons which lie beneath the surface.

For one thing, I learn that all need to be washed by Christ. 

• "If I wash you not, then have no part in Me." 
• I cannot be saved unless my sins are washed away in Christ's precious blood.
• Nothing else can make me clean or acceptable before God. 

I must be "washed, sanctified, and justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of my God." (1 Cor. 6:11.) 

• Christ must wash me, if I am ever to sit down with saints in glory. 
• Then let me take heed that I apply to Him by faith, wash and become clean.
• They only are washed who believe.

For another thing, I learn that even those who are cleansed and forgiven need a daily application to the blood of Christ for daily pardon. 

• I cannot pass through this evil world without defilement. 
• There is not a day in my life but I fail and come short in many things, and need fresh supplies of mercy. 

Even "he that is washed needs to wash his feet," 

• and to wash them in the same fountain where he found peace of conscience when he first believed. 
• Then let me daily use that fountain without fear. 
• With the blood of Christ I must begin, 
• and with the blood of Christ I must go on.

Finally, I learn that even those who kept company with Christ, and were baptized with water as His disciples, were "not all" washed from their sin. 

• These words are very solemn--"You are clean--but not all." 
• Then let me take heed to myself, and beware of false profession. 
• If even Christ's own disciples are not all cleansed and justified, I have reason to be on my guard. 
• Baptism and Church membership are no proof that I am right in the sight of God.

Adapted Excerpt From

The Gospel of John

J. C. Ryle