Mike Focht 8/21/2026
John records a particularly interesting and encouraging word of the Lord. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you (John 15:3). Jesus was contrasting the state of the believing disciples with that of unbelievers who, like fruitless branches, would be thrown into the fire. The disciples were clean because they had believed the Word of Christ’s gospel, had been pruned by His Word, and continued to abide in His Word. Save for Judas, who never believed, they were His disciples indeed.
Wonderfully, disciples of Jesus Christ are still made clean by continually abiding in His Word. Or in other words, faith and obedience. Just think of how much of the Word of God relates to our cleansing! How much is the gospel, declaration, truth, reproof, rebuke, correction, instruction in righteousness, admonition, calls to repentance, etc.? So much of the Word of God is related to our cleaning. Praise God for that. We need it.
But, think for a moment, what will happen when we are made clean once and for all? Indulge with me for a moment of sanctified speculation. We will not travel far down this path, but we will stand on our toes for a moment and stretch out our necks for a few glimpses into the utmost bound of the everlasting hills. What will Christ say to us when there is no longer a need for Him to humbly serve us by speaking with the intent to clean us up? If His teachings are perfect and pure and wonderful in relation to our sin, what type of wonders will we hear when cleansing from practical sin is no longer a necessary topic? What will the Word of Christ be? What future revelation will come from Him?
We see hints of this through the Scripture. We know the Word of God will not pass away. We catch moments of the character and majesty of God revealed through the Word. At times, the prophets declare visions of Him high and lifted up in Isaiah 6, Ezekiel 1-3, Daniel 7, and Habakkuk 3. There is a true heavenly air to the words of Jesus Christ’s prayer in John 17. Paul the apostle lifts our view to the heavenlies in Ephesians 1-3, and John the apostle copies down the very words and actions of the hosts of heaven throughout the book of Revelation.
Still, amazing and awesome as these passages are, they are only foretastes of what is to come. Even these exalted views of God and heaven often retain something of the necessity of dealing with sinful human beings. The Word of God, as pure, holy, righteous, spiritual, and magnified as it is now, will reveal God in an entirely new way when it is no longer focused on making and keeping us clean. When the cleansing is done, the worship will only have just begun. That in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
In eternity, we will have new revelation in His eternal Word and from the Eternal Word. What will His Word be?