After a man has believed in the Lord Jesus, all his past sins are forgiven by the redemptive work of the Lord. But what should he do if he sins again after he has believed and is saved? It is not right to sin, but sinning is a fact of life. It is a shame for a Christian to sin, but it is also an undeniable fact that Christians do sin. We know that we should not fail and that we should not make mistakes, but we have to admit that we do have times of failure and we do make mistakes. What then will we do with these sins? To put it more accurately, what will God do with these sins? Earlier we mentioned temporary chastisement. God warns us that if we become apostate, we will be punished in the millennial kingdom. But if we want to deal with our sins and if we want to be cleansed of our sins, what should we do? How can our sins be washed away and forgiven? Although there are only three or four places in the whole Bible that mention this problem, they afford us clear light. In order to know how to deal with this problem, all we have to do is to read these few passages.
Tonight let us start from the beginning. We know that when the Lord Jesus was crucified on the cross, He shed His blood to wash away all of our sins. After He washed away our sins, He sat down at the right hand of God (Heb. 1:3). If, after we are saved and have been cleansed of our sins, we sin again and are defiled again, will the blood of the Lord Jesus wash away our sins again? Man thinks that if he sins, the blood of the Lord Jesus will have to cleanse away his sins again. But there is no such truth in the Bible. The blood cleanses away our sins only once; it never cleanses twice. There is no such thing as a re-cleansing of man's sins.
The book of Hebrews shows us clearly that there is only one cleansing of sin. Hebrews 10:1-14 says, "For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, not the image itself of the things, can never by the same sacrifices year by year, which they offer continually, perfect those who draw near. Otherwise would they not have ceased to be offered, because those worshipping, having once been purified, would have no longer had the consciousness of sins? But in those sacrifices there is a bringing to mind of sins year by year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Therefore, coming into the world, He says, `Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but a body You have prepared for Me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You did not delight. Then I said, Behold, I have come (in the roll of the book it is written concerning Me) to do Your will, O God.' Saying above, `Sacrifice and offerings and burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You did not desire nor delight in' (which are offered according to the law), He then has said, `Behold, I have come to do Your will.' He takes away the first that He may establish the second, by which will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest stands daily, ministering and offering often the same sacrifices, which can never remove sins; but this One, having offered one sacrifice for sins, sat down forever on the right hand of God, henceforth waiting until His enemies are made the footstool for His feet. For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified."