In compiling a shopping list there are times when you will want to include washing powder or a detergent. These are products that we need frequently – sometimes unexpectedly. Perhaps you have spilt some oil or food containing a dye on your clothing. This is when a stain remover is needed. There are plenty of products available, and advertisers will do all they can to convince you that what they have on offer will be the best.

A different kind of cleansing is needed, however. The Bible tells us that we are all unclean in the sight of a holy God – morally and spiritually. Writing a little more than 500 years before the end of the Old Testament, Zechariah (in the verse quoted above) mentions a fountain being opened to deal with sin and uncleanness. What did he have in mind? The answer is found in John 19:34. As Jesus hung upon the cross, “one of the soldiers with a spear pierced His side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.” Zechariah was looking ahead to this moment.

It is made clear in the Bible that “without shedding of blood is no remission,” (1). God has declared that in order to cleanse away sin, blood must be shed. His own Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, has provided that “fountain … for sin and for uncleanness” by which the stain of our sins can be removed. Have you thought of this moral and spiritual cleansing that, as a sinner before God, you need? Have you asked God to cleanse your guilty soul through that wonderful fountain?

Nothing but the blood of Jesus!

What can make me whole again?

Nothing but the blood of Jesus!

Oh, precious is the flow

That makes me white as snow!

No other fount I know,

Nothing but the blood of Jesus!