“The Blood of Jesus Christ his Son
Cleanseth us from all Sin.”
Cleanseth us from all Sin.”
1 John 1:7
There’s a painful truth that glares out to us from this beautiful text and that is this – sin must be cleansed. But not just any old sin, it is our personal sin that needs to be cleansed. The blood cleanses “us” from all sin! Since our sin needs to be cleansed, it must, therefore, be filthy and polluted, but more than that, without this cleansing we are left filthy and polluted. It’s a painful picture, isn’t it?
There is a tendency today to forget just how horribly wretched sin is. We’ve dulled our spiritual senses so much that we cease to see sin as being what the Bible says it is, “exceeding sinful” (Rom 7:13). What a choice of words! “Exceeding sinful.” God, wanting to call sin by the worst of words could have called it vile or wretched or any number of names, yet He chose to call it by its own name “sin”. Literally, sin is heinous beyond all measure. When a person begins to see how ruinous and awful sin is and at the same time to see just how holy God is, it is then that they begin to wonder whether or not they, as polluted sinners, could ever meet the all-holy God in peace. It is only when we see these two things – our utter pollution by sin and the absolute holiness of God – that the Gospel begins to make any sense. Indeed, unless we see these things we will have a very low notion of the Lord Jesus and His saving work. Furthermore, our life will not be filled with Gospel wonder and astonishment concerning Him.
Sin, like roundabouts and swings, has made us both losers and gainers. For example, through sin we lost the image of God; lost God’s presence and lost God’s fellowship; but through sin we gained God’s wrath; gained God’s disfavour; gained God’s displeasure; gained God’s rejection and gained God’s curse. Furthermore, God’s holy justice is incensed against sin and cries out against it. Heaven’s gates are shut tight and Hell’s gates yawn wide open for the unsaved sinner. It is no wonder then that our sins need to be cleansed.
So listen again to this truth – “The blood of Jesus Christ….. cleanseth us from all sin.” This is exceedingly good news for those who feel their need of cleansing. It tells us something of mercy and power, for the blood cleanses us from the entire defilement of our sin. Our pollution is no match for the blood of Christ, for through the blood we are pronounced clean. We know, based on the Word, that we have been truly and really cleansed from all sin by the blood! This is not something to be felt before it is believed, but something to be believed before it is felt. We receive our sight by faith and not the reverse. If Christ took our sins away then it follows, that in God’s eyes, we no longer, legally, have any sin. We no longer have it because the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin.
There is an old, long forgotten truth – our sin cannot be in two places at the one time. If Christ Jesus as the Lamb of God has taken our sins away (John 1:29) then we no longer have them. If Jesus has already been punished for our sin, our sin cannot be punished again, unless God is unjust; and for God to be unjust, He would have to cease to be God.
“If Thou hast my discharge procured,
And freely in my place endured
The whole of wrath divine,
Payment God will not twice demand,
First at my bleeding Surety’s hand,
And then again at mine.”
Miles McKee – Minister of the Gospel,
New Ross, County Wexford, Southern Ireland.
