23. The blood of Jesus Christ is the saint's daily resource for cleansing. As it is written:-" 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 [i.e. saints] say 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." (1 John 1:7-97But 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. 8If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:7‑9).)
Notice this, because many get a doubting whether they are Christians at all, on account of their discovering evil in themselves. Now this is to make one of the proofs God gives of my being a Christian-the proof that I am not one: which is a strange argument. They that walk in the light, as He is in the light-What? have no sin? No: but have an incessant application of the blood-the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth such from all sin. For as light discovers darkness, so it is impossible for one that walks in the light, as He is in the light, to say, "I have (at this present time) no sin." If he said so, he would prove the truth was not in him. Well, but if he confesses the sins thus discovered, God- is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Observe, "faithful and just," to forgive "us "-for he is here speaking of those who have been set apart to God Himself and Christ by the blood; and not of God's mercy and grace by the blood toward the poor world. If I walk out and can see pits and wells in the ground, it is the proof there must be some light; for if there were no light we could not see them: and the stronger the light the more manifest is the darkness of any pit you look down into. Just so the nearer the saint lives in communion to God and Christ, the more does he know and see of his own vileness and badness in himself; and discovering the evil in his heart, he finds power from God to judge it and not to walk according to it.