The Jewish people were washed and anointed with oil.

Ezekiel 16:9

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“Then I washed you in water; yes, I thoroughly washed off your blood, and I anointed you with oil.” Ezekiel 16:9

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To be washed is to be cleansed of sin by believing in Jesus Christ and to be anointed with oil is to receive the presence of the Holy Spirit. Before the coming of Jesus Christ, being washed and anointed with oil were symbolic acts, known as the scarlet cord, which pointed to Jesus Christ who would come to bring forgiveness of sin and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

Before the coming of Jesus Christ, the Jewish people were washed by living by the Ten Commandments and other such laws. This was an expression of belief in the word of God, which made them righteous in the eyes of God. The anointing of oil of the Jewish people was an expression of being consecrated and dedicated to God as His children. Once the Ten Commandments were given to the children of God, they were washed from the ways of the world and from the many people and nations around them that didn’t have a clue about how to live for God. The Jewish people were truly set apart as the consecrated people of God. No other people in all the world had anything like the Ten Commandments to guide them.

In the New Testament, Nicodemus, being rooted in Old Testament rituals, didn’t have a clue that being born-again had to do with the washing of the soul and the infilling of the Holy Spirit, “Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” John 3:3-5

Since the coming of Jesus Christ, we realize that being washed and anointed with oil has to do with what happens within our soul and spirit.

Jesus Christ gave His life as a sacrifice on the altar of the Cross, as the Lamb of God, to wash away the sin of whoever believes in Him. “For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” Hebrews 9:13-14

As followers of Jesus Christ, we are anointed with the oil of the Holy Spirit from within. The Apostle Paul asks this question, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” So they said to him, “We have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit.” And he said to them, “Into what then were you baptized?” So they said, “Into John’s baptism.” Acts 19:2-3 John the Baptist said this, “I indeed baptize you with water; but One mightier than I is coming, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” Luke 3:16

Jesus said, “But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” John 4:14 This is the Holy Spirit who washes us from within.

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“….to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets,“
‘I will not impose any other burden on you, except to hold on to what you have until I come.’”
“I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown.”
Revelation 2:24-25, 3:11