blood. The Scripture tells us that without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin. There are two aspects of salvation included in the shed blood of Christ. In Romans 3:25 we read: “Whom God hath set forth to be a propitia tion through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the re mission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God.” This deals with the shedding of His blood for our justification. Through this we are cleansed from the guilt, judg ment, and condemnation of sin. There is a second aspect, however, to the cleansing power of the blood. For “the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” This relates to our sanctification and deals with cleansing from the dominion and power of sin. Here the present tense is used again, which is the tense of continuous action, so we have the thought that the blood keeps on cleansing us from all sin. Justification does not complete sal vation; it only begins it. Through justification we are acquitted from the guilt and condemnation of sin and at the same time given a place of righteousness befo re God in Christ. But this is not all there is to the great work of redemption. Justin declares: “At the same time we were justified we were given the Holy Spirit who sealed us. This seal ing is described as the ‘earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory’ (Eph. 1:14). Now we are waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our bodies accord ing to Romans 8:23. Our being sealed by the Holy Spirit is God’s assurance that He will complete the work of redemption, and when the body is redeemed, the consummation of salvation will have been reached.” As we have already noted, justifi cation pronounces us righteous in God’s sight and acquits us of the guilt of sin and sin’s condemnation. Sanctification, however, has to do
with cleansing from the power and dominion of sin in our present life, and it is here that the blood of Jesus Christ continuously cleanses us from all sin. As we walk in the light, the blood continuously cleanses us from sins of omission, sins of commission, sins of thought, and all the works that the flesh would produce in us. We are not speaking here of the eradication of the flesh nature, but rather of vic tory over it. Through the Holy Spirit God enlightens us, and then by the blood of Jesus Christ we are con tinuously being cleansed if we walk in the light, and God says, in effect, “I will see to it that you will not ful fill the lusts of the flesh” (Gal. 5 :16). The second religious sinner is de scribed in verse 8 where we read: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” Now there are some who claim to have reached an advanced stage of Christian experience where they have no sinful nature. Epp writes: “Christians who are walking in the light become increas ingly conscious of the holiness of God and of the sinfulness of sin and are not deluded into denying that they have a sinful nature. They realize that they still have sinful tendencies which are expressed in fleshly im pulses, non-spiritual inclinations, and standards of living that are patterned after the world rather than after God. These are all sin in the sight of God, and to call them righteous ness rather than sin is to walk in darkness. Should we even so much as waver in our trust, in God, we sin, for the Word says, ‘That which is not of faith is sin.’ ” What is the condemnation then for such? God says they deceive them selves. They lead themselves astray. God is never deceived by these pre tensions and very few human beings are either. The presence of Jesus in the heart as the light increases the believer’s sense of the holiness of God, and his 33
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