Stress Test Devotional May 11
May 11, 2024
REVELATION 7:13-14 | 13 Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, robed in white, and where have they come from?” 14 I said to him, “Sir, you are the one that knows.” Then he said to me, “These are they who have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
This imagery is counter-intuitive until we remember the way sacrificial language works. Those who endured the great trouble shown in the first vision have “washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb.” Now washing robes in blood is a strange cleansing process! Dirty robes were a metaphor for human sin and guilt and in the ancient world no one could approach a deity or enter a temple with soiled clothing. For instance, Isaiah 64:6 says, “we have become unclean, all our righteous deeds are like a dirty garment.” In the Christian story, God, in the person of Jesus, suffers to redeem this situation. It is the sacrificial blood of the perfect Lamb that bestows purity on those who by faith trust in God’s grace. They are forgiven and made clean. This is an active process, a gift that must be claimed—they “wash their robes in blood.” To us, blood is a sign of death, but to the Hebrews it is a life sign. That is why the orthodox cannot eat anything with blood in it (see Genesis 9:4).
Can you picture yourself resplendent, unstained, and glorious?
Meditate on these verses about Jesus and the power of His blood:
1 John 1:7—It cleanses
Romans 3:25—It expiates
Romans 5:9—It justifies
Ephesians 1:7—It redeems
Colossians 1:20—It makes peace
