The spiritual life is of different stages, and each stage has many spiritual experiences. As we saw in the previous chapter, the first experience in the spiritual life is regeneration. Many Christians think that they know what God’s salvation is, but most have neglected the aspect of regeneration. God’s salvation has many parts, but the main and central part is regeneration.
According to the teaching of the New Testament, God’s salvation is first composed of the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus. After a person repents and believes-repenting before God, confessing his sins, believing in the Lord Jesus, and receiving Him as his Savior-the first thing God applies to him is the “sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.” This phrase is used in 1 Peter 1:2. (In order to help unbelievers and even young believers, we need to know the experiences of life and the proper passages from the Scriptures.) God applies the sprinkling of the blood to us because we are sinners. We have no ground to receive anything from God; we have no merit in ourselves. The only ground we have is the blood shed by the Lord Jesus for us. In order to receive or claim anything, we need the proper ground. Without the ground we cannot claim anything. The redeeming blood, which is applied to us, is the ground for all the items of God’s salvation. It is the only ground on which we can stand to claim all that God intends to give us.
The second item in God’s salvation is redemption. After the sprinkling of the blood, we are redeemed. Many people in Christianity speak of being redeemed from sin, from Satan, or from hell, but this is not correct. To redeem means “to buy back, to purchase back with a price.” God did not need to pay anything to sin, Satan, or hell to buy us back. Rather, He needed to pay something to the requirement of the law. Therefore, we are redeemed from the curse of the law (Gal. 3:13). We were under the condemnation and curse of the law according to its requirements, so God had to pay something to fulfill its requirements. If there were no fall, there would have been no need of redemption. We need to be redeemed because we fell into the condemnation of the law and came under its curse.
Ephesians 1:7 also speaks of redemption through His blood, and 1 Peter 1:18 and 19 say that we were redeemed with the precious blood of Christ. Acts 20:28 and 1 Corinthians 6:20 tell us that we were obtained and bought. To be redeemed is to be bought, to be purchased with a price, which is Christ Himself. When God sprinkles the blood upon us, we are redeemed by that blood.
Third, we have the forgiveness of sins. God can forgive only those people whom He has redeemed; therefore, redemption comes first and then forgiveness. Ephesians 1:7 says, “In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of offenses, according to the riches of His grace.” Acts 10:43, 1 John 2:12, and Colossians 2:13 also speak of the forgiveness of sins.
After forgiveness we have cleansing. There is a difference between forgiveness and cleansing. Forgiveness deals with the responsibility of sin. Cleansing, however, deals with the stain of sin. If we damage a shirt, for example, we can be forgiven. Our responsibility is relieved, but the shirt still bears a mark or stain. Therefore, after forgiveness we still need the cleansing of the stain. By the blood of Jesus, God not only forgives us; He also cleanses us. That is, He releases us from responsibility and cleanses us from the stain and mark of our fall. First John 1:9 shows us the order of forgiveness and cleansing. It says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” After we are forgiven and cleansed of a sin, it is in the eyes of God as if we had never committed the sin.
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