Washed White Through the Blood of the Lamb

When Alma preached to the people of Zarahemla, he taught, “There can no man be saved except his garments are washed white; yea, his garments must be purified until they are cleansed from all stain, through the blood of him of whom it has been spoken by our fathers, who should come to redeem his people from their sins.” He suggested that their garments were figuratively “stained with blood and all manner of filthiness.” He questioned them in these words, “Could ye say, if ye were called to die at this time, within yourselves, that ye have been sufficiently humble? That your garments have been cleansed and made white through the blood of Christ, who will come to redeem his people from their sins?” (Alma 5:21-22, 27). So, in two related metaphors he likened their sins to their garments being stained with blood and likened the cleansing power of Jesus Christ to those same garments being washed with blood of the Lamb of God. An example of the first is seen in the story of Seantum who murdered his brother Seezoram, for Nephi prophesied that they would “find blood upon the skirts of his cloak” as a sign of his guilt (Helaman 9:31). Any time we sin we figuratively leave blood upon our garments that is a symbol of our guilt. The second metaphor is more surprising—can one wash blood-stained clothes in blood to make them clean? Of course, normally the answer is no; but when it is the blood of the Lamb of God, His blood acts like bleach to turn our garments white like the color of a lamb. His divine blood takes away our mortal stains to make us clean.  

                Several other passages in the Book of Mormon similarly use this metaphor, encouraging us to figuratively wash our garments in His blood. Alma, speaking of righteous high priests, said, “Therefore they were called after this holy order, and were sanctified, and their garments were washed white through the blood of the Lamb” (Alma 13:11). In Nephi’s great vision, he saw the twelve disciples of his people. The angel said to him, “And, behold, they are righteous forever; for because of their faith in the Lamb of God their garments are made white in his blood.” Nephi then saw those who were righteous after the coming of the Savior, and the angel said again, “These are made white in the blood of the Lamb, because of their faith in him” (1 Nephi 12:10-11). When the Savior was among them, He taught, “And no unclean thing can enter into his kingdom; therefore nothing entereth into his rest save it be those who have washed their garments in my blood, because of their faith, and the repentance of all their sins, and their faithfulness unto the end” (3 Nephi 27:19). We cannot be saved without washing our garments in His blood. When Moroni spoke of the New Jerusalem in the last days he likewise said, “Blessed are they who dwell therein, for it is they whose garments are white through the blood of the Lamb; and they are they who are numbered among the remnant of the seed of Joseph, who were of the house of Israel” (Ether 13:10). All of these scriptures invite us to come unto the Lamb of God who can take away the sins that symbolically have stained our clothes. Just as the Nephites under the law of Moses would shed the blood of a lamb as an offering to be forgiven of sins, so too we look to the blood of the Lamb of God offered in Gethsemane and on the cross to purge us from all iniquity and make our clothes white again. How washing in His red blood will turn our clothes white is a mystery, perhaps reminding us that we do not fully understand how His atonement can satisfy the demands of justice and cleanse us from sin. But we have faith that it does and trust that we can be “sanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the shedding of the blood of Christ, which is in the covenant of the Father unto the remission of your sins, that ye become holy, without spot” (Moroni 10:33). His blood, applied to our stained garments, leaves no spot so that we can become perfect in Him.