White in the Blood of the Lamb

In the great vision Nephi received, the angel said this to him as he beheld the twelve apostles who would come in the meridian of time: “And these twelve ministers whom thou beholdest shall judge thy seed. And, behold, they are righteous forever; for because of their faith in the Lamb of God their garments are made white in his blood. And the angel said unto me: Look! And I looked, and beheld three generations pass away in righteousness; and their garments were white even like unto the Lamb of God. And the angel said unto me: These are made white in the blood of the Lamb, because of their faith in him” (1 Nephi 12:10-11). The angel asserted that these righteous saints—both the apostles and the seed of Lehi—had their garments made white in the blood of the Lamb. In this vision the angel connected what Nephi saw with the revelation of John, and indeed we see the same idea there when an angel similarly said to John: “These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Revelation 7:14). We all of course know that in general blood will stain garments so that they are not white, but only in the case of the Lamb of God will blood remove stains so that they become white. Through the shedding of His blood in Gethsemane and on the cross, we can receive forgiveness of our sins so that our garments are figuratively white.  

               This idea of washing garments in the blood of the Lamb is repeated several times in the Book of Mormon. Alma spoke of righteous high priests this way: “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). Amulek said this to the Zoramites: “And this I know, because the Lord hath said he dwelleth not in unholy temples, but in the hearts of the righteous doth he dwell; yea, and he has also said that the righteous shall sit down in his kingdom, to go no more out; but their garments should be made white through the blood of the Lamb” (Alma 34:36). Moroni encouraged us in these words: “O then ye unbelieving, turn ye unto the Lord; cry mightily unto the Father in the name of Jesus, that perhaps ye may be found spotless, pure, fair, and white, having been cleansed by the blood of the Lamb, at that great and last day” (Mormon 9:6). He also described the coming of the New Jerusalem in the last days with these words: “And then cometh the New Jerusalem; and 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. And then also cometh the Jerusalem of old; and the inhabitants thereof, blessed are they, for they have been washed in the blood of the Lamb” (Ether 13:10-11). Those in Zion will be those who have been figuratively washed through the blood of the Lamb of God.

               I have to wonder if the Gadianton robbers were trying to mock this imagery when they came up to battle against the Nephites. Mormon gave us this description: “And it came to pass that they did come up to battle; and it was in the sixth month; and behold, great and terrible was the day that they did come up to battle; and they were girded about after the manner of robbers; and they had a lamb-skin about their loins, and they were dyed in blood, and their heads were shorn, and they had head-plates upon them; and great and terrible was the appearance of the armies of Giddianhi, because of their armor, and because of their being dyed in blood” (3 Nephi 4:7). They took lamb-skin and put it around their loins, and then they died their bodies in blood, perhaps even with the blood of the lambs they killed to put on their skins. These were Nephite dissenters who had surely once known about the teachings of Nephite prophets that we are cleansed through the blood of the Lamb, and I have to think that they wanted to mock this by showing that when the blood of a lamb is applied you look red, not white. But whatever their purpose in this most unusual manner of adorning their bodies for war, the Lord was with the Nephites and through the power of the Lamb of God they were preserved: “And their hearts were swollen with joy, unto the gushing out of many tears, because of the great goodness of God in delivering them out of the hands of their enemies” (3 Nephi 4:33). The outcome of their terrible war confirms that we find help and safety and salvation through the Lord, and even if the world mocks sacred things we can trust indeed in the true blood of the Lamb of God which will cleanse and save the faithful.