First John 1:7 says, “If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.” When we live in the divine life, we are under its enlightenment, and it exposes, according to God’s nature, all our sin, trespasses, failures, and defects, which contradict His pure light, perfect love, absolute holiness, and excelling righteousness. At such a time we sense in our enlightened conscience the need of the cleansing of the redeeming blood of the Lord Jesus, and it cleanses us in our conscience from all sins so that our fellowship with God and with one another may be maintained.
The tense of the verb “cleanses” in Greek is present and continuous. This indicates that the blood of Jesus the Son of God cleanses us all the time, continuously and constantly. Cleansing here refers to the instant cleansing of the Lord’s blood in our conscience. Before God, the redeeming blood of the Lord has cleansed us once for all eternally (Heb. 9:12,14), and the efficacy of that cleansing lasts forever before God, needing no repetition. However, in our conscience we need the instant application of the constant cleansing of the Lord’s blood again and again whenever our conscience is enlightened by the divine light in our fellowship with God.
In 1:7 the words “all sin” denote every single sin we have committed since we have been regenerated. The sins we commit after regeneration defile our purged conscience and need to be cleansed away by the blood of Jesus in our fellowship with God.
It is significant that 1:7 speaks of “the blood of Jesus His Son.” The name Jesus denotes the Lord’s humanity, which is needed for the shedding of the redeeming blood, and the title “His Son” denotes the Lord’s divinity, which is needed for the eternal efficacy of the redeeming blood. Thus, the blood of Jesus His Son indicates that this blood is the proper blood of a genuine man for redeeming God’s fallen creatures with the divine surety for its eternal efficacy, an efficacy which is all-prevailing in space and everlasting in time. The blood by which we are cleansed is the blood of a wonderful person-the Lord Jesus-who has both humanity and divinity. The Lord’s humanity qualified Him to have the blood to shed for our redemption. His divinity insures the efficacy of the power of this redeeming blood. The efficacy of the cleansing blood of Jesus is insured forever by His divinity.
The believers are washed not only by the blood of Jesus but also in the Spirit. First Corinthians 6:11 reveals that, as believers, we are washed in the Spirit of our God. This washing is subjective and is accomplished in the power and realization of the Holy Spirit. To be washed in the Spirit is actually to experience the dispensing of the Spirit into us. The Spirit dispenses His element into us, and this dispensing of the Spirit is His washing. This washing is inward, subjective, and dispositional.
The believers experience God’s redemption continuously in being sanctified. Romans 6:19 says, “Present your members as slaves to righteousness unto sanctification.” Sanctification is not only a matter of position, that is, to be separated from a common, worldly position to a position for God, but also a matter of disposition, that is, to be transformed from a natural disposition to a spiritual one. Dispositional sanctification involves a long process, beginning with regeneration, passing through our entire Christian life, and reaching completion at the time of maturity.
Romans 6:22 says, “Having been freed from sin and having been enslaved to God, you have your fruit unto sanctification, and the end eternal life.” This verse speaks of dispositional sanctification in life. Sanctification issues in the riches of life. It brings us into the enjoyment of the riches of the divine life.
Home | First | Prev | Next