Exodus 30:18-21 - Homiletics

The Brazen Laver.

Primarily, the brazen altar has its antitype in THE CHRISTIAN FONT . "Baptism saves us," says St. Peter ( 1 Peter 3:21 ). "Arise and be baptised, and wash away thy sins," said Ananias ( Acts 22:16 ). "There is one baptism for the remission of sins," said the Nicene Fathers. As the priests had to wash at the laver ere they might enter the sanctuary, so entrance into the Church, by the institution of Christ, is by baptism. To wash, of course, is by itself not enough—each of us must "lead the rest of his life according to this beginning." So the priests, besides washing, had to observe all God's other ordinances.

Ultimately, both the laver and the font, both the priestly ablutions and the Christian sacrament of baptism, are types of the true washing, which is WASHING IN THE BLOOD OF CHRIST . This washing is—

I. ABSOLUTELY , AND IN ALL CASES , NEEDFUL . Only "the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin" ( 1 John 1:7 ). "If Christ wash us not, we have no part in him" ( John 13:8 ). The saved in heaven are those who have "washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb" ( Revelation 7:14 ). Baptism is "generally necessary" since Christ came and instituted it; yet no one doubts that many unbaptized persons have entered heaven. But not one has entered, or will ever enter, whom the blood of Christ has not cleansed. "Wash me, Saviour, or I die," is the constantly repeated cry of every Christian heart.

II. A SOVEREIGN REMEDY THAT NEVER , FAILS TO SAVE . Thus "washed," we are at once both "justified and sanctified" ( 1 Corinthians 6:11 ); both pardoned and made pure. Thus washed, we have access to the Father; we are made fit to enter his courts; our robes are made white, and not only our robes, but our souls. God will never reject one who comes to him in the wedding garment of a robe that Christ has cleansed. Only we must be sure to keep our robes clean—we must not "defile our garments" ( Revelation 3:4 )—we must wash them again and again in the purifying blood; we must look nowhere else for salvation, but only to the Cross, and we must look to that perpetually.