In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the title character and his wife conspire to murder the king. Afterward, MacBeth fears that he’ll never be able to wash the blood from his hands, but Lady MacBeth reassures him, saying, “A little water clears us of this deed.” However, with time she is driven mad with guilt. She obsessively wrings her hands together as she sleepwalks through the castle, trying in vain to wash away imaginary bloodstains.
Recent studies have found that washing one’s hands may actually help reduce feelings of remorse. Psychologists have dubbed this the “Macbeth effect,” but as Christians, another story comes to mind: that of Pontius Pilate. Pilate knows he is putting an innocent man to death, but tries to distance himself from the affair by ceremoniously washing his hands of the matter.
So was Pilate onto something? It’s true that studies have shown the act of hand washing helps reduce participants’ feelings of regret and guilt, even when they know their actions to be unethical—but this hardly constitutes a loophole, for it doesn’t make one blameless in the eyes of God.
Clean hands and a clear conscience are not reliable indicators of an unmarked soul, and unless we reconcile ourselves with God, the Bible assures us that we will have to answer for our sins. Although men often attempt to pardon themselves, it is impossible. Even given an entire ocean, no man can wash away his own sins. They are not his to forgive because he has not sinned against himself, but against God.
There is only one way to have our sins washed away: we must repent of our sins and be baptized, being cleansed not merely by water, but by the blood of our savior Jesus Chirst (I John 1:7; I Corinthians 1:12-13). No man can wash away his own sins, but he can allow them to be washed away through his obedience to the Gospel.
-Tyler Walker, The Weekly Bulletin, July 8, 2012