(John 13:3-11) – ^“3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going to God, ⁴ rose from supper and laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself. ⁵ After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash (Gk: niptó) the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded. ⁶ Then He came to Simon Peter. And Peter said to Him, “Lord, are You washing (niptó) my feet?”

⁷ Jesus answered and said to him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but you will know after this.” ⁸ Peter said to Him, “You shall never wash (niptó) my feet!” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash (niptó) you, you have no part with Me.” ⁹ Simon Peter said to Him, “Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head!”

¹⁰ Jesus said to him, “He who is washed (Gk: louó) needs only to wash (niptó) his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you.” ¹¹ For He knew who would betray Him; therefore, He said, “You are not all clean.”

• Gk: nipto – to wash parts of the body (John 13:5)
• Gk:  louó – to wash in the sense of a full bath, to bathe fully, also means to cleanse from sin v.10.

These two above truths both meaning “to wash” point to the standing of a believer in Christ and his experience.

• The word nipto – changes from time to time during this life.
• The word louó – to bathe fully – remains the same for time and eternity.

Someone has stated: “Union with Jesus is so strong that nothing can break it. Communion with Jesus is so fragile that the slightest sin can break it.”

Meaning:

• To understand this conversation between Jesus and Peter, we need to understand some of the habits of the citizens at that time. Rome had built public baths all over the cities of their empire. A Roman would bathe completely at the public bath, and upon reaching his home, he only needed to wash his feet, for though he was fully washed after the bath, the feet became defiled by walking on the dirt roads – as the sandals were semi-closed footwear.
• Peter refuses to allow the Lord to wash his feet, but when Jesus tells him that if I do not wash your feet, you can have no portion (fellowship) with me.  Then Peter asks to be cleansed from head to toe. To which: ¹⁰ Jesus said to him, “He who is washed (louó – bathed) needs only to wash (niptó) his feet, but is completely clean.

Spiritual Lesson:

Every believer has been cleansed (washed/ bathed) completely from his sins in the precious blood of Jesus once and for all at Calvary.  This is his standing before God – justified, guiltless & righteous. This position has been wrought through the finished work and is permanent and cannot be changed.

If sin comes into a believer’s life, it does not affect this “righteous standing” before the Lord, that we already have, because this standing is in Jesus Christ, who is accepted by God and we in Him.

Thus, if a believer sins, he does not need to go back to Calvary to be saved all over again any more than the Romans needed to go back to the public bath for a fresh bath all over again, just because his feet became dirty on the way home.

Feet stand for a person’s walk through this life, his experience.  As we are on our way home to heaven, sin sometimes enters our lives.  No saint wants to sin.  It is his nature to hate sin. But when sin does enter (dirty feet), then our walk is defiled and needs to be cleansed.

Thus, Jesus said to Peter; If I wash (nipto) thee not, thou hast no part with me.  That is, if we are not cleansed from sin in our daily walk (experience), we have no fellowship with our Lord. Known sin in the life that is held to, and cherished, breaks our fellowship with Him.

The only way to regain that blessed privilege of fellowship is to confess our sins (1 John 1:9), and God will cleanse us and restore us to that communion with our Lord which we enjoyed before.

The word “confess” (Gk: homologeó) – speak the same thing as God speaks about our sin, then that is confession. Our experience (walk) is then cleansed from all defilement and we are restored to fellowship with God.

(John 13:12-17) –¹² “So when He had washed their feet, taken His garments, and sat down again, He said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? ¹³ You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am. ¹⁴ If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. ¹⁵ For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you. ¹⁶ Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. ¹⁷ If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.”

By washing the disciples’ feet Jesus concluded two things:

(1) We are to do the same – by washing one another’s feet in the body of Christ, forgiveness being the key.

(2) He backed up the doctrine of Eternal Security – Once Saved, Always Saved (OSAS) – through the Finished Work.  Once we have received salvation by believing in Christ, by putting all our trust in Him, then we are saved from our sins and we become children of God [See John 3:16; 1:12].

It is He who saves us by grace through faith the moment we believed (Ephesians 2:8-9).  We do not save ourselves in the first place and neither can we un-save ourselves.  We are justified by faith in Christ and His atonement.  All that is needed after this is to maintain a holy walk before Him.  If and when we do get our feet soiled (through sin), then we are to get our feet washed (nipto) again through confession – which is made directly to God as only He has the power to forgive us; “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).