Revelation 7:9, 14
…there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes… And he said, “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”
Revelation 22:12, 14
“Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done.” … Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city.
I’m encouraged and blessed by contemporary worship artists in recent decades; the music they’ve given us uniquely turns my heart toward God. But I admit, I’m also old school. I miss hymns.
I grew up singing hymns; many are deeply embedded in my thoughts and shaped my faith from an early age. As I read the Scriptures above, lyrics came to mind. In 1878, the year before Edison invented the light bulb, 40-year-old minister Elisha Hoffman wrote one of his 200 “worship songs.” I hope brother Hoffman’s words help you appreciate the “robes” in the verses above. It’s a metaphor of repentance… people realizing they are sinners, symbolized by unclean garments. They have found the way to salvation. The only way to cleanse themselves from sin and be made righteous in the eyes of God is to be washed in the redemptive, precious and power-filled blood of Jesus Christ, the Lamb.
Stanza 1:
Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing power?
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?
Refrain:
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?
Stanza 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?
Stanza 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 the mansions bright, and be washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Stanza 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!
Donielle Winter
EFCC Member