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"The blood of Jesus Christ.....cleanseth us from all sin - 1 John 1:7.
According to the scriptures the blood of Christ is divinely appointed from before the foundation of this world, as the means of cleansing and cure. It is as we learn from Hebrews 13:20, "the blood of the everlasting covenant'. From all eternity the Persons of the Godhead had decreed to bring many sons to glory through the obedience and blood-shedding of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He undertook, as representing the ever blessed Trinity, as well as sinful men, to suffer and die in order to atone for the transgressions of mankind. That covenant was sealed on the cross, and ratified by the resurrection. For it was "through the blood of the everlasting covenant' that the Father brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, that great Shepherd of the sheep'. 'His blood is the vital energy by which He fulfils His work' says Bishop Westcott.
Christians have not done with the cross once they are converted. Jesus died not only to rescue us from past sin, but to prevent us from falling into present sin. The blood is central in sanctification as in salvation. That is the significance of what Thomas Cook used to call 'the blessed present tense of cleansing' in 1John 1;7. "The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin" - it cleanses and goes on cleansing. There is no once-and-for-all purification. It is a moment-by-moment experience in which we are continually kept clean. Holiness is a maintained condition. The blood of Jesus is the perpetual agent. The sanctified life is lived under the precious blood.
According to the scriptures the blood of Christ is divinely appointed from before the foundation of this world, as the means of cleansing and cure. It is as we learn from Hebrews 13:20, "the blood of the everlasting covenant'. From all eternity the Persons of the Godhead had decreed to bring many sons to glory through the obedience and blood-shedding of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He undertook, as representing the ever blessed Trinity, as well as sinful men, to suffer and die in order to atone for the transgressions of mankind. That covenant was sealed on the cross, and ratified by the resurrection. For it was "through the blood of the everlasting covenant' that the Father brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, that great Shepherd of the sheep'. 'His blood is the vital energy by which He fulfils His work' says Bishop Westcott.
Christians have not done with the cross once they are converted. Jesus died not only to rescue us from past sin, but to prevent us from falling into present sin. The blood is central in sanctification as in salvation. That is the significance of what Thomas Cook used to call 'the blessed present tense of cleansing' in 1John 1;7. "The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin" - it cleanses and goes on cleansing. There is no once-and-for-all purification. It is a moment-by-moment experience in which we are continually kept clean. Holiness is a maintained condition. The blood of Jesus is the perpetual agent. The sanctified life is lived under the precious blood.
