Why do believers who are already saved still need their feet washed?
Believers are already washed and forgiven in salvation, but as they walk in a sin-filled world they become defiled. Their feet get dirty through daily contact with sin. Therefore they need continual cleansing, pictured by foot washing and accomplished through the cleansing of the Word, not another bath for salvation.
Les explains that in John’s Gospel Jesus washed the disciples’ feet, and Peter objected. The Lord told Peter that if He could not wash his feet, Peter would have no part with Him. Peter then asked for a bath, but the Lord said Peter and the other ten, all but Judas, had already been washed—they had their salvation. Yet because they were still in this old sin-filled earth, their daily walk was being defiled and their feet were getting dirty. That was the whole lesson in foot washing. Les then takes this into Ephesians, where Paul speaks of a daily cleansing, not with a tub of water or a washcloth, but with the cleansing of the Word. All through Scripture there is this apparent need of cleansing even for the believer, because we are left in this old world to be defiled. Les illustrates this especially for the Jew of Jesus’ day: they usually bathed at a central bath, and after putting on open-toed sandals and walking home, their feet were filthy. Even though the rest of the body was clean, the feet needed constant washing. The lesson is that even though believers have been cleansed and forgiven, they still need that daily cleansing.