Question 155: Please explain 1 John 1:7. C. M.
Answer: The Christian is in the light. He walks there because he is there. (Sometimes he does not walk according to the light.) We have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all (every) sin. This is not telling when or how we are cleansed, but of what cleanses.
Question 156: Explain different types of forgiveness. From C. M.
Answer: When a soul believes on the Lord Jesus Christ, his sins are eternally forgiven, not some of them, but all his sins. “I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name’s sake” (1 John 2:12). And “By one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified” (Heb. 10:14). Sins can never be charged up again to the believer, for “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1).
1 John 1:7 is governmental forgiveness. 1 John 2:12 shows us that he is a forgiven child of God, but this verse provides for everyday failures. The Father wants happy children, and we cannot be happy if careless about our walk. If we grieve the Spirit, He will reprove us, and confession and self-judgment is the means for our restoration to communion with the Lord.
Romans 8:3 shows that the flesh under law could produce no fruit for God. So Christ’s death, as a sacrifice for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, “in order that the righteous requirement of the law should be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit.” Our old place as in the flesh is gone in the death of Christ.
2 Corinthians 5:17. Here the same truth is brought out more fully; by Christ’s death all are seen to be dead. There is no good in the flesh, but those who live should no longer live unto themselves, but to Him who died for them and rose again. Our blessing and standing before God is in Christ risen from the dead. It is in Christ, and He is raised from the dead: it is a new creation. There is no improvement of the flesh, but a setting aside of the flesh in the death of Christ. We have now a new life, which finds its delight in Him who died for us. We have new creation life, and the Holy Spirit dwelling in us now (John 20:22; Rom. 8:2). Christ, as risen from the dead, is the beginning of this new creation (Col. 1:18; Rev. 3:14). We partake in it now (Gal. 6:15-16), but when it is completed,
“All taint of sin shall be removed,
All evil done away;
And we shall dwell with God’s Beloved
Through God’s eternal day.