I will never forget hearing the hymn Nothing but the Blood sung by more than 200 men in Old Folsom Prison Chapel. The lyrics to the song struck deep with the inmates. “What can wash away my sin?/ Nothing but the blood of Jesus./ What can make me whole again?/ Nothing but the blood of Jesus.” It felt like that historic chapel’s stone walls were going to crumble from the shouts of praise. What a mighty declaration of Jesus’ atoning work on the cross for our sin!
As Jesus entered the Jordan River to be baptized by John the Baptist, His death on the cross and perfect sacrifice to remove the guilt and shame of all our sins lay ahead. By this act Jesus identified with us fully, despite the fact that He was sinless. In Christ we now find new life in the everlasting love of our Father in Heaven.
Baptized into the finished work of Jesus Christ in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we too sing out, “Oh! Precious is the flow/ That makes me white as snow;/ No other fount I know;/ nothing but the blood of Jesus.”