Different as they may seem to be in subject-matter, the two passages just quoted are most intimately linked together. The blessedness therein described belongs to everyone who has honestly turned to God in repentance and trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour whose precious blood cleanseth from all sin.
Those who fancy they see in this wondrous cleansing an advance on Paul’s declaration that “by Him all that believe are justified from all things,” thereby betray their ignorance of Scripture and their low thoughts of the value attached by God to the atoning work of His beloved Son. When we speak of justification, we think of the entirety of sin and of sins, from the charge of which every believer is eternally freed. On the other hand, the thought of cleansing suggests at once that sin is defiling, and, till purged from its defilement, no soul can look up to God without guile, and thus be truly pure in heart.
The blessedness of Psalm 32 is not that of a sinless man, but of a man who, once guilty and defiled, has confessed his transgression unto the Lord and obtained forgiveness for the iniquity of his sin. But he has also found in the divine method of cleansing from the defilement of sin, that henceforth the Lord will not impute sin to the one whose evil nature and its fruit have all been covered by the atonement of Jesus Christ. True it is that David looked on in faith to a propitiation yet to be made. We believe in Him who has in infinite grace already accomplished that mighty work whereby sin is now forgiven and iniquity purged. God is just, and cannot forgive apart from atonement. Therefore He justifies the ungodly on the basis of the work of His Son. But God is holy likewise, and He cannot permit a defiled soul to draw nigh to Him; therefore sin must be purged. The two aspects are involved in the salvation of every believer.
He who is thus forgiven and cleansed is the man in whose spirit there is no guile; he is the one who is pure in heart. He has judged himself and his sins in the presence of God. He has nothing now to hide. His conscience is free and his heart pure because he is honest with God and no longer seeks to cover his transgressions. All has come out in the light, and God Himself then provides the covering; or, to speak more exactly, God, who has already provided the covering, brings the honest soul into the good of it.
This is the great theme of 1 John 1:5-105And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. 6There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. 8He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. 9That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. 10He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. (John 1:5‑10), to which we must now turn. For the reader’s convenience, I will quote it in full: “This then is the message which we have heard of Him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: but if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.” Immediately he adds (though, unfortunately, the human chapter-division obscures the connection), “My little children, these things write I unto you that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for [the sins of] the whole world” (1 John 2:1-21And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and the mother of Jesus was there: 2And both Jesus was called, and his disciples, to the marriage. (John 2:1‑2)).
This, then, is “the message,” the great, emphatic message, of the first part of John’s epistle — that “God is light,” even as “God is love” is the message of the last part.
How solemn the moment in the soul’s history when this first great fact bursts upon one! “God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.” It is this that makes all men in their natural condition, unsaved and unforgiven, dread meeting Him who “seeth not as man seeth,” but is a “discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”
When Christ came the light was shining, enlightening all who came in contact with it. He was Himself the light of the world. Hence His solemn words, “This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God” (John 3:19-2119And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 21But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God. (John 3:19‑21)). The unrepentant soul hates the light, and therefore he flees from the presence of God who is light. But he who has judged himself and owned his guilt and transgressions, as David did (in Psalm 32), no longer dreads the light, but walks in it, fearing no exposure, for he has already freely confessed his own iniquity. The day of judgment can hold no terror for the man who has previously judged himself thus, and has then, by faith, seen his sins judged by God upon the person of His Son, when made sin upon the cross. Such a man walks in the light. If any claim to be Christians and to enjoy communion with God who are still walking in the darkness, they “lie, and do not the truth.”
But if we have been thus exposed — if we turn from darkness to light and walk therein — then “we have fellowship one with another;” for in that light we find a redeemed company, self-judged and repentant like ourselves, and we know that we need not shun further manifestation, for “the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.”
We must not pass hastily by this much-abused and greatly misapplied passage. It has been made to teach what is utterly foreign to its meaning. Among the general run of “holiness” teachers, it is commented upon as though it read: “If we walk up to the light God gives us as to our duty, we have fellowship with all who do the same; and having fulfilled these conditions, the blood of Jesus Christ His Son washes all inbred sin out of our hearts, and makes us inwardly pure and holy, freeing us from all carnality.”
Now if this be the meaning of the verse, it is evident that we have all a large contract to fulfil before we can ever know this inward cleansing. We must walk in a perfect way while still imperfect, in order to become perfect! Could any proposition be much more unreasonable, not to say unscriptural?
But a serious examination of the verse shows there is no question raised in it as to how we walk. It is not a matter of walking according to the light given as to our duties; but it is the place in which or where, we walk that is emphasized: “If we walk in the light.” Once we walked in the darkness. There all unsaved people walk still. But all believers walk in that which they once dreaded — the light; which is, of course, the presence of God. In other words, they no longer seek to hide from Him, and to cover their sins. They walk openly in that all-revealing light as self-confessed sinners for whom the blood of Christ was shed.
Walking thus in the full blaze of the light, they walk not alone, but in the company of a vast host with whom they have fellowship — for all alike are self-judged, repentant souls. Nor do they dread that light and long for escape from its beams; for “the blood of Jesus Christ,” once shed on Calvary’s cross, now sprinkled upon that very mercy-seat in the holiest from whence the light — the Shekinah-glory — shines, “cleanseth us from all sin.” Literally, it is, “cleanseth us from every sin.” Why fear the light when every sin has been atoned for by that precious blood?
The moment the soul apprehends this, all fear is gone. Notice, it is no question of the blood of Christ washing out my evil nature — eliminating “sin that dwelleth in me” — but it is that the atoning work of the Son of God avails to purge my defiled conscience from the stain of every sin that I have ever been guilty of. Though all the sins that men could commit had been laid justly to my single account, yet Christ’s blood would cleanse me from them all!
He therefore who denies his inherent sinfulness, and declares he has not sinned, misses all the blessing stored up in Christ for the one who comes to the light and confesses his transgressions. It is perhaps too much to say that verse 8 refers to holiness professors; yet such may well weigh its solemn words: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” Primarily it describes such as ignore the great fact of sin, and would dare approach God apart from the cross of Christ. They are self-deceived, and know not the truth.
But it is surely serious enough to think of real Christians joining with these, and, while still in danger of falling, denying the presence of sin within them. Far better is it to say, honestly, with Paul, “I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing” (Rom. 7:1818For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. (Romans 7:18)).
The great principle on which God forgives sin is declared in 1 John 1:99That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. (John 1:9). “If we confess,” He must forgive, in order to be faithful to His Son, and just to us for whom Christ died. How blessed to be resting, not only on the love and mercy of God, but on His faithfulness and justice too! To deny that one has sinned, in the face of the great work done to save sinners, is impious beyond degree; and the one who does so is stigmatized by that most obnoxious title, “a liar!”
These things are written that believers might not sin. But immediately the Holy Spirit adds, “If any man sin, we [that is, we Christians] have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” My failure does not undo His work. On the cross He died for my sins in their totality; not merely the sins committed up to the moment of my conversion. He abides the effectual propitiation for our sins, and, for the same reason, the available means of salvation for the whole world. Trusting Him, I need hide nothing. Owning all, I am a man in whose spirit there is no guile. Living in the enjoyment of such matchless grace, I am among the pure (or single) in heart who see God, revealed now in Christ.
To be pure in heart is therefore the very opposite of double-mindedness. Of some of David’s soldiers we read, “They were not of double heart;” or, as the Hebrew vividly puts it, “not of a heart and a heart.” “A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways,” but the pure in heart are consciously in the light, and the inward man is thus kept for God.
In the man of Romans 7 we see described, for our blessing and instruction, the misery of double-mindedness; while the close of the chapter and the opening verses of Romans 8 portray the pure in heart. The conflict there set forth has its counterpart in every soul quickened by the Spirit of God who is seeking holiness in himself, and is still under law as a means of promoting piety. He finds two principles working within him. One is the power of the new nature; the other, of the old. But victory comes only when he condemns self altogether, and looks away to Christ Jesus as His all, knowing that there is no condemnation to those who are before God in Him.
The man in Romans 7 is occupied with himself, and his disappointment and anguish spring from his inability to find in self the good which he loves. The man of Romans 8 has learned there is no good to be found in self. It is only in Christ; and his song of triumph results from the joy of having found out that he is “complete in Him.” But it will be necessary to notice these much-controverted portions of the Word of God more particularly when we come to the consideration of the teaching of Scripture as to the two natures, in our next chapter; so we refrain from further analysis of them now.
Coming back to the central theme of our present chapter, I would reiterate that “cleansing from all sin” is equivalent to “justification from all things,” save for the difference in view-point. Justification is clearing from the charge of guilt. Cleansing is freeing the conscience from the defilement of sin. It is the great aspect of the gospel treated in the beginning of Hebrews 10.
This has been already taken up at some length in the chapter on Sanctification by the Blood of Christ, and I need not go into it again here, save to add that the purging of the conscience there referred to should be distinguished from maintaining a good conscience in matters of daily life. In Hebrews 10 the conscience is looked at as defiled by the sins committed against God, from which the atoning work of His Son alone can purge. But he who has been thus purged, and has therefore “no more conscience of sins,” is now responsible to be careful to have always a conscience void of offence toward God and man, by walking in subjection to the Word and the Holy Spirit. By so doing a “good conscience” will be enjoyed, which is a matter of experience; while a “purged conscience” is connected with our standing.
Should I, by lack of watching unto prayer, fall into sin, and thus become possessed of a bad conscience, I am called upon at once to judge myself before God and confess my failure. In this way I obtain once more a good conscience. But as the value of Christ’s blood was not altered in the sight of God by my sin, I do not need to seek once more for a purged conscience, as I know the efficacy of that atoning work always abides. So far as my standing is concerned, I am ever cleansed from all sin; otherwise I would be accursed from Christ the moment failure came in; but in place of this, the Word tells one, as already noted, that “if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and He is the propitiation for our sins.” Satan will at once accuse the saint who sins; but the Father’s estimation of the work of His beloved Son remaining unchanged, every accusation is met by the challenge, “The Lord rebuke thee ... is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?” (Zech. 3:22And the Lord said unto Satan, The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan; even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee: is not this a brand plucked out of the fire? (Zechariah 3:2)). And at once, as a result of the advocacy of Christ, the Holy Spirit begins His restoring work, using the Word to convict and exercise the soul of the failed one, and, if need be, subjecting him to the rod of chastening, that he may own his sin and unsparingly judge himself for taking an unholy advantage of such grace. When this point is reached a good conscience is again enjoyed. But it is only because the blood cleanseth from every sin that this restoring work can be carried on and the link not be broken that unites the saved soul to the Saviour.