In the progressing stage of God’s full salvation the believers not only experience and enjoy the processed Triune God in His triune dispensing but also experience God’s redemption continuously.
The believers experience God’s redemption in being forgiven of their sins. For God to forgive us of our sins means that He releases us from the offense of our sins.
God’s forgiveness is continuous, and we need it moment by moment. We should not think that once we have been saved we no longer need God’s forgiveness. As long as we are living on earth in the old creation we need God’s redemption daily. Whenever we contact Him, we should sense that we need His forgiveness.
Our sin, the indwelling sin in our nature (Rom. 7:17), has been taken care of by Christ as our sin offering (Lev. 4; Isa. 53:10; Rom. 8:3; 2 Cor. 5:21; Heb. 9:26). Our sins, our trespasses, have been taken care of by Christ as our trespass offering (Lev. 5; Isa. 53:11; 1 Cor. 15:3; 1 Pet. 2:24; Heb. 9:28). After our regeneration we still need to take Christ as our sin offering, as indicated in 1 John 1:8, and as our trespass offering, as indicated in 1 John 1:9.
Some Christians claim that sin has been eradicated from the believers. The Bible, however, does not teach that sin has been eradicated from our being. First John 1:8 says, “If we say that we do not have sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” To say that we do not have sin is to say that we do not have indwelling sin within our nature. In his first Epistle, John inoculates the believers against this false teaching. First John 1:7-2:2 deals with the believers’ sinning after regeneration. This sinning interrupts their fellowship with God. If after regeneration the believers do not have sin in their nature, how could they sin in their conduct? Even though they sin only occasionally, not habitually, their sinning is an adequate proof that they still have sin working within them. The apostle’s teaching here condemns today’s teaching of perfectionism, the teaching that a state of freedom from sin is attainable or has been attained in earthly life. The apostle’s teaching also annuls the erroneous teaching of the eradication of the sinful nature, which, by misinterpreting the word in 3:9 and 5:18, says that regenerated persons cannot sin because the sin in their nature has been totally eradicated. To say that, because we have been regenerated, we do not have sin is self-deceiving. It denies the actual fact of our own experience and thus causes us to lead ourselves astray. We should not say that we no longer have sin. Sin, after our regeneration, still remains in our flesh, in our sinful nature.
On the one hand, the Bible reveals that our old creation has been crucified with Christ. On the other hand, in practicality our old creation, our old man, is still with us, and we are still very much under its influence. Only when our body has been transfigured, redeemed, will we be able to say that sin is no longer with us. But while we are still living in the old body sin remains with us, and, perhaps unwillingly or subconsciously, we may become entangled with it and stained by it. Therefore, every moment we need the cleansing blood of Jesus to be applied to our actual situation.
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