ARE YOU CLEAN EVERY WHIT?
Copyright 1994 - 2008 Endtime Prophecy Org
Last Updated : July 23, 2006
An Interesting Interpretation Of Jesus' Symbolic Act,
And An Admonition To Beware Of The Bite Of The Serpent!
Following the fall of Adam and Eve in Genesis chapter three,
we find the Lord pronouncing part of His judgments against
Satan who has adopted some type of serpentine form in order
to seduce the First Pair:
"And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast
done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every
beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust
shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: And I will put
enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and
her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise
his heel." (Genesis 3:14-15)
As stated in other articles, whatever serpentine form Satan
may have taken when he appeared to Adam and Eve, it may be
that it was not that of an actual snake as most people are
led to believe. There are those who theorize that he may
have appeared as some kind of erect bi-pedal being which was
LATER doomed to crawl on his belly AFTER the curse. This
would seem to be consistent with the above passages.
However, inasmuch as this present discussion is concerned,
it is a minor detail. In the above verses we are then told
that Eve's seed will bruise Satan's head, and that Satan
will bruise the heel of Eve's seed. It is interesting to
note that this is exactly what poisonous vipers do. Most can
only strike as high as the calf of one's leg. However, as I
have recently discovered, there are other verses which point
to a deeper spiritual implication contained in these words
as well. Part of this mystery can be found in a symbolic act
performed by Jesus on the evening of His final meal with His
Disciples just prior to His betrayal by Judas Iscariot:
"After that he poureth water into a basin, and began to wash
the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel
wherewith he was girded. Then cometh he to Simon Peter: and
Peter saith unto him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet? Jesus
answered and said unto him, What I do thou knowest not now;
but thou shalt know hereafter. Peter saith unto him, Thou
shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I wash thee
not, thou hast no part with me. Simon Peter saith unto him,
Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. Jesus
saith to him, He that is washed needeth not save to wash his
feet, but is clean every whit: and ye are clean, but not
all. For he knew who should betray him; therefore said he,
Ye are not all clean." (John 13:5-11)
What Jesus said here is truly amazing! Take special note of
the words: 'He that is washed needeth not save to wash his
feet, but is clean every whit'. For a long time I never
fully understood this verse. One explanation given to me
many years ago, which I now find quite lacking, is that most
diseases enter our bodies through our feet; thus if our feet
our clean, our whole body will be clean. While this may be
true, (and I certainly cannot prove this being as I am not
in the medical field), I find the Lord's direct revelation
to me much more revealing, and closer to the spiritual
reality of what He was really saying. In short, to have
clean feet means to be submitted to the Lord's Spirit in
your life. When you are submitted to God's Spirit and His
Will for your life, you allow Him to direct your spiritual
walk with Him; you allow Him to direct your steps. As an
example, after his defeat of Goliath and his brothers, King
David sang a song to the Lord. Part of that song says:
"Thou hast enlarged my steps under me; so that my feet did
not slip." (2 Samuel 22:37)
During the course of his sufferings, Job made the following
statements:
"For now thou numberest my steps: dost thou not watch over
my sin?" (Job 14:16)
"My foot hath held his steps, his way have I kept, and not
declined." (Job 23:11)
"Doth not he see my ways, and count all my steps?"
(Job 31:4)
In his psalms, King David continued to show the importance
of having 'clean feet' by walking in the ways of the Lord:
"Our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps
declined from thy way;" (Psalms 44:18)
"Righteousness shall go before him; and shall set us in the
way of his steps." (Psalms 85:13)
The prophet Jeremiah also realized the foolishness of trying
to direct our own steps as man has been trying to do for
thousands of years:
"O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is
not in man that walketh to direct his steps."
(Jeremiah 10:23)
Paul also spoke of the importance of our spiritual walk with
the Lord when he wrote to the Corinthians:
"I desired Titus, and with him I sent a brother. Did Titus
make a gain of you? walked we not in the same spirit? walked
we not in the same steps?" (2 Corinthians 12:18)
While Peter did not initially understand why Jesus had to
wash his feet, the Lord had promised him that he would
understand later; and he most certainly did! Consider what
Peter later said in one of his Epistles under the anointing
of the Holy Spirit:
"For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also
suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should
follow his steps:" (1 Peter 2:21)
So as can be seen, this whole idea of the serpent biting
man's heel has some deep spiritual implications. When Satan
bites our heel, it is to try to cause us to fall out of step
with the Lord; and when that happens, we may fall into
iniquity as David tells us:
"Order my steps in thy word: and let not any iniquity have
dominion over me." (Psalms 119:133)
Notice that the way to stay submitted to the Lord and to
walk in His ways is by knowing His Word; because His Word
tells us exactly what His Will is for our lives. In other
psalms, David tells us:
"The law of his God is in his heart; none of his steps shall
slide." (Psalms 37:31)
"BETH. Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by
taking heed thereto according to thy word." (Psalms 119:9)
"Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin
against thee." (Psalms 119:11)
"I have declared my ways, and thou heardest me: teach me thy
statutes." (Psalms 119:26)
"Make me to go in the path of thy commandments; for therein
do I delight." (Psalms 119:35)
"I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto thy
testimonies." (Psalms 119:59)
If we walk in the ways of the Lord, not only can we walk,
but we can run! And not only can we run, but we can fly in
the Spirit! It is similar to these guys who jump off of
high hills or cliffs with their gliders. You have to start
off slow, make a run for it, and then off you go soaring in
the Spirit! That's how I feel sometimes when I write these
articles. I'll start off slow, but as I keep going, the Lord
just shows me deeper and more profound connections which
just send me soaring high in the Spirit:
"I will run the way of thy commandments, when thou shalt
enlarge my heart." (Psalms 119:32)
"But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their
strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they
shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not
faint." (Isaiah 40:31)
That is so true! My old flesh gets so tired sometimes, but
when the Lord really starts pouring it on, I get so into the
Spirit that I forget about time and my aching body. The next
thing you know, I see the sunlight peeking through my
window! The quiet of the night is a great time for getting
things from the Lord when all other distractions have been
lessened. Well, if you would like to continue this study on
having clean feet, use search words such as 'ways' 'path'
and 'feet' instead of 'steps', and you will also come up
with some very interesting results.
The point is, when we walk in the ways of the Lord, He frees
us from the bondage of Satan's grip; and we are free and at
liberty to soar as high as we want to:
"And I will walk at liberty: for I seek thy precepts."
(Psalms 119:45)
This is the very thing which Jesus came to do as prophesied
by Isaiah. In fact, Jesus used these very verses when He
began His ministry:
"The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD
hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he
hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim
liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to
them that are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the
LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all
that mourn;" (Isaiah 61:1-2)
"And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet
Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place
where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the
poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach
deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the
blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach
the acceptable year of the Lord." (Luke 4:17-19)
Paul likewise preached about this very same thing when he
said:
"Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from
the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the
children of God." (Romans 8:21)
"Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the
Lord is, there is liberty." (2 Corinthians 3:17)
"Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath
made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of
bondage." (Galatians 5:1)
In the case of Adam and Eve, they listened to the lies of
Satan, and this is exactly what happened to them. They
believed in his false promise that they would be as gods;
and they lost the freedom of the Spirit, and fell under the
bondage of sin:
"While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the
servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of
the same is he brought in bondage." (2 Peter 2:19)
This is also what happened to Judas Iscariot. Due to his
unbelief, he fell away from The Path. He let his feet slide
into sinning against the Lord. This is why after washing
their feet, Jesus said that not all were clean; because
Judas did not walk in the ways of the Lord:
"The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and he
delighteth in his way." (Psalms 37:23)
Judas did not truly accept Jesus as the living Word of God.
He had not been cleansed by the Word of God. Thus, he was
not every whit clean as Jesus had said:
"Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto
you." (John 15:3)
Spiritual cleanliness only comes through acceptance of and
belief in the Word of God. It is only through humble
submission to His Word that we allow the Lord to direct our
steps. What I also find interesting is that, just as the
Apostle Paul spoke of the 'son of perdition' in his second
Epistle to the Thessalonians, Jesus also referred to Judas
as the 'son of perdition'. In Spanish, it is the verb
'perder' which means to lose; and in Latin it is 'perdere'
which also means to lose or to destroy. Thus, Judas was
lost; he was the 'son of perdition':
"While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy
name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of
them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture
might be fulfilled." (John 17:12)
What is also interesting is that in one Bible I have, in
both the above verse, as well as in Paul's description of
the one who will sit in the Temple of God claiming to be
'God', instead of calling him the 'son of perdition', this
other Bible calls him the 'son of hell'. According to my
dictionary, this is a second definition of the word
'perdition'. In describing what motivated Judas to betray
Jesus, John tells us:
"And supper being ended, the devil having now put into the
heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him;"
(John 13:2)
Luke was even more bold about it and tells us directly that
Satan actually entered into Judas:
"Then entered Satan into Judas surnamed Iscariot, being of
the number of the twelve." (Luke 22:3)
In dealing with Jesus, it appears that Satan wanted to
handle the matter directly himself by getting as close to
Jesus as he possibly could. I think this may be exactly what
he did when he temporarily possessed Judas Iscariot. It was
Satan himself, just as Luke tells us. It wasn't a minor
demon, but the King of Demons himself making certain that
the job was done right!
Returning to the idea of the serpent biting us on the heel,
as I have pointed out in other articles, the lies Satan
tells us are like fiery darts which fill our minds with
lethal poison, just like the venomous bite of a viper:
"Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall
be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked."
(Ephesians 6:16)
If we aren't careful, that old Serpent can inject us with
his poison so that we get dizzy, or double-minded, and fall
off of or stray away from The Path set before us due to
indecision in our lives. Jesus spoke of this very same Path
upon which we must keep our feet when He said:
"Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and
broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many
there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate,
and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few
there be that find it." (Matthew 7:13-14)
James described the effect of the Serpent's bite quite well
when he said:
"A double minded man is unstable in all his ways."
(James 1:8)
Indecision, being on the fence, is one of the hardest places
at which a person can be. The only way to avoid straying off
of The Path, or to keep from getting hung up on the fence,
is to keep our eyes on the goal. In other words, we need to
be single-minded and not double-minded. We need to keep our
eyes on Jesus and not be led astray by the things of the
world:
"Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith;
who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross,
despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of
the throne of God." (Hebrews 12:2)
"The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be
single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine
eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If
therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great
is that darkness! No man can serve two masters: for either
he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will
hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God
and mammon." (Matthew 6:22-24)
"Love not the world, neither the things that are in the
world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is
not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the
flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is
not of the Father, but is of the world." (1 John 2:15-16)
So, we need to watch out for that Serpent, and not allow him
to distract us by dangling beautiful things in front of our
eyes which cause us to become sidetracked. We need to bash
him on the head before he gets a chance to lunge at us and
fill us with his poisonous lust for the things of the world.
Once that poison enters our bloodstream, it can cause us to
become dizzy. We might acquire double vision so that we
can't distinguish the True Path from the false one. The only
way to avoid this is to stay close to the Lord and submitted
to His Word; for it is through His Word that we acquire
Faith; and it is with this Shield of Faith that we can
deflect all of the fiery darts of the wicked:
"So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of
God." (Romans 10:17)
Have you allowed Jesus to wash your feet? Are you clean
every whit? Are you allowing your steps to be ordered by the
Lord? I certainly hope so! I pray this article has been a
help and a blessing to many.