Eph 5

25Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
26That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
27That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
28So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.
29For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church:

How does the Lord treat the Church?

1. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church
Jesus loves us the church the same way a husband loves his wife, and even greater!

Think about it - every wife at least knows how her husband should treat her right, treating her kindly, gently, with words of encouragement, a perfect gentleman. The husband will not treat her in a rough manner.. This is the love of a husband.

How much more Jesus will treat His church the same way as this husband is in a greater proportion!

2. gave himself for it;
Jesus GAVE HIMSELF for us. He says

-I am the Bread of Life.
-I am the Resurrection and the Life
-I am the Way, the Truth and the Life

As a husband who provides for his wife for food, shelter, protection, direction, therefore even our Lord Jesus gave Himself as the provision, as the life, as the direction and all that we, the church, His bride-to-be. It is not His will for His bride-to-be Church to LACK ANYTHING nor His plan to cause anyone to be physically deficient in any way.

Jesus said the record straight - It is the thief who steals, kills and destroys.

Next we will see how does the Lord Jesus sanctify and cleanse His Church..

How the Lord Jesus sanctifies and cleanses the church

There are 2 types of cleansing.

1. Cleansing by the Blood of Jesus

The first is the Blood of Jesus that cleanses us from ALL SIN. This happen the moment the believer is born again.

1 John 1:7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.


When the Word says, ALL SIN, it means ALL OUR SIN, past, present, and even future sin that we haven't committed. The book of Hebrews explains that Jesus has secured for all believers ETERNAL REDEMPTION.


HEB 9:12 Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.

The Blood of Jesus, the offering of His Blood, also has made the believer perfected forever!

HEB 10:14 For by one offering He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.

This means that we already have in our Spirit perfect Peace, perfect Health, perfect Blessings, perfect Righteousness, perfect Mind, perfect Wisdom, perfect Glory, perfect Grace, all of these Perfectness are Jesus Himself!

1COR 1:30 But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:

This Cleansing of the Blood of Jesus is one of the most Powerful Weapon against the enemy accusation. Reliance upon the knowledge of Jesus's perfection brought by the offering of His Blood destroys every satanic accusation and condemnation!

Every time the devil reminds the believer of their weaknesses, the believer should remind the devil of Christ Perfection, knowing that the Blood of Jesus QUALIFIES the believer to receive ALL the Father's favour and blessings and goodness!

ROM 8:32 He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?

The world needs to know that all their sins has been washed with the Blood 2000 years ago, but this forgiveness can only take effect if they respond positively with faith and believe in it.

This is why it is called Good NEWS - because it has already happened in the past! It's already NEWS! Now all that man needs to do is to KNOW about it and believe in it in their heart and start to have faith in Jesus.

The offering of Jesus's Blood unto the Father for us is such a great News that it really breaks the devil's dominion just by hearing about it. Truly it is the MOST EXPENSIVE, COSTLY AND PRECIOUS OFFERING EVER MADE, THAT OFFERED ONCE IS MORE THAN ENOUGH TO REDEEM EVERY MAN, WOMAN AND CHILDREN THAT WILL EVER LIVE.

2. Cleansing by the Word

"26 That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word (rhema),"

Our Lord Jesus cleanses and sanctifies us by His Word...and the greek word for 'word' in this verse is 'rhema'.

'Rhema' means
1) that which is or has been uttered by the living voice, thing spoken, word (from Strong's concordance)

'Rhema' implies that the christian is able to 'hear' Jesus speaks. And our Lord Jesus confirms this when He said that 'my sheep hears my voice' in John 10. This positively means that the more we are tuned in to Jesus speaking in our hearts (rhema), the more we are cleansed.

Jesus also said

John 15:3 Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.

Our positive response to Jesus's words in our hearts is what is called 'faith'. Positive response means we that acknowledge, we believe, we do not doubt, and we allow His word to change our mind.

A negative response is what is called unbelief. Therefore, the christian makes the decision whether he/ she wants to be cleansed or not. We can see this example when Jesus washed Peter's feet. Peter has the choice to refuse Jesus washing his feet, and notice what Jesus said.

John 13:8 Peter saith unto him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me.

It is Jesus's ministry to wash our feet. He wants to serve us, for 'the Son of Man does not come to be serve, but to serve'. It is His ministry to wash the Church with the water of the Word.

How do we receive this cleansing (rhema)? Jesus said that it will spring up from our bosom, from the depths of our heart..

JN 7:38 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

Faith upon Jesus's words (rhema) releases rivers of living water from the depths of our spirit and this cleanses us continually from the mindset of the world (filled with fear, condemnation, guilt, the love of money, the lust of the flesh etc)

The blood of Jesus cleanses us ONCE, but the washing of the water of the Word cleanses us continually.