The Blood of Jesus

[aiki]

Yes but you also refer to a practical sanctification and the two seem to cross over somewhat.

That's right. There can be no proper, practical sanctification in my daily condition if there isn't first the perfect, complete sanctification of me in and through Jesus Christ. My spiritual position in him is what is reflected with increasing clarity and fullness, over time, in my practical condition.

Do you believe you can stand before God in your practical, mundane condition without need for further sanctification?
Questions like that are not really helpful and are disingenuous.

Not at all. I have encountered a surprising number of Christians who believe they are as perfect in their mundane condition, as totally sanctified in it, as they are in their spiritual position in Christ. My question was genuine and, for me, anyway, an important point of clarification.

Do you think this degree of sanctification is always necessary for dealing with demonic oppression/possession situations.
If you have unconfessed sin you are vulnerable to spiritual opposition.

But there are in your life and mine, regions of darkness, of sin, that we aren't aware God thinks are sin. We might even enjoy things God regards as evil, or hold beliefs that are false, or imagine things of others that are unjust and utterly in error, and so on. Only as the Spirit works in us, over time revealing these deeply-hidden regions of darkness in us, are we even able to see them, let alone abandon them. In other words, we are never perfectly holy in our lives, though we may become far more holy over time than we are at present. What, then, of our sin making us vulnerable, or impotent, to the demonic? It can't be our practical holiness, our practical sanctification, that is the important thing but Christ's perfection and power.

Do you think perfect sanctification in your actual, daily living is necessary to successfully overcoming the demonic in someone else's life?
No because 'perfect sanctification' is not possible in this life.

There is a difference between not dealing with known sin, and not being aware of sin.

Are you advocating that believers should engage in opposing the demonic in others lives regardless of their own spiritual state ?

No, I'm not advocating for such a thing. But I do wonder about just how sanctified a person must be before they are "safe" in engaging the demonic directly. I don't think anyone really knows, though there is a lot of urging to attain the condition before dealing with overtly demonic stuff.

I agree that willful sin and sin of ignorance are not identical sorts of sin. But the reason for a sin does not change the fundamental fact that it is still a sin. That we can wage spiritual warfare directly with the demonic even though we are not utterly free in our practical living of sin suggests to me that the important thing is not how we are (sin free) but who we are: People clothed in the armor of God, indwelt by the Spirit of Christ, set-apart ambassadors of the Lord.

Jesus spoke of preparation before dealing with the demonic here...

Mark 9:28-30 KJV
28 And when he was come into the house, his disciples asked him privately, Why could not we cast him out?
29 And he said unto them, This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting.

??? I don't see anything in these verses about spiritual preparation. Instead, Christ offers the means of bringing forth the demonic, not the necessary preparation for doing so. The parallel account in the Gospel of Matthew sheds more light on what Jesus said:

Matthew 17:18-20
18 And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him, and the boy was healed instantly.
19 Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?”
20 He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.”

In the Gospel of Luke, too, the matter of faith is brought to the fore, rather than prayer and fasting:

Luke 9:41-43
41 Jesus answered, “O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you and bear with you? Bring your son here.”
42 While he was coming, the demon threw him to the ground and convulsed him. But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit and healed the boy, and gave him back to his father.
43 And all were astonished at the majesty of God....they were all marveling at everything he was doing...

It isn't, of course, merely that the disciples of Christ had little faith, but that they had little faith in God Almighty, who alone can overcome the power of the demonic. This was the real underlying problem, the true reason, the disciples could not cast out the demon. Their lack of faith is revealed particularly in the account by Luke who wrote that the disciples were "astonished" and "marveling" at what Christ could do. Why would they be astonished and marveling at him if they were well-settled and confident in the fact of his power and supremacy over the demonic? Well, obviously, they weren't; their faith in Christ's divine power was still fairly nascent, still growing, revealed in their inability to cast out a particularly stubborn "unclean spirit."

When believers look to themselves, to their labor in prayer and their level of self-denial in fasting rather than to the Person of Christ, confident in his power over the demonic, they are setting themselves up for failure - and, possibly, worse.

Here we must agree to disagree.

The Greek for 'put on' in Ephesians 6 is ενδυσασθε. this is an action - something we are required to do.

This doesn't actually do anything to rebut or refute what I've pointed out about Ephesians 6:10-18. I have never denied that Paul commanded the Ephesian Christians to "put on" the whole armor of God. I have not denied, either, that this phrase communicates an action. But as I noted in my last post to you, the Ephesian believers did not "put on" their armor in a literal way, did they? They didn't have the "armor of God" hanging in a closet somewhere, right, that they took out and strapped on. In what way, then, were they to "put on" their spiritual armor? By faith. Paul, though, had already made it clear to the Ephesians in his letter to them that they were, as born-again children of God, in Christ who is to all believers Truth, Peace, Righteousness, Salvation, and the Object and Ultimate Source of their faith. Read the first three chapters of Paul's letter to the Ephesians. For this reason, Paul prefaces his words in Ephesians 6:10-18 with the command to "be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might."

The spiritual power of the armor of God, its spiritual usefulness, is located in the Person of Christ, not in the believer's carefulness to put it on (which they did when they were saved - Romans 13:14; Galatians 3:27; Ephesians 1:3).

You may disagree with me here, but, so far, you haven't offered any reason that properly grounds your disagreement in Scripture.

I was called to inner city evangelism and we had an open home and a 24 hour drop in centre for at risk youth.

In this spiritual environment the power encounter between light and dark is a little more intense than what one usually encounters in the church.

I disciple men and have witnessed battles with the flesh and the World in the lives of these men that, in their own way, were just as "intense" - perhaps more so - than a direct encounter with the demonic. In my own life, the spiritual battles that have gone on with my own flesh and the corrupting influence of the World have been excruciating, exhausting, and frightening. Of course, the devil is in the mix, too, though in a much more subtle, more difficult to discern, way than a nose-to-nose confrontation with his demonic agents. If anything, this makes battling with him much harder.

Anyway, I would be careful about elevating one ministry of the saints over another, making one more "cutting edge," spiritually, than another. I don't see this sort of thing in God's word, do you?

You don't get involved in this arena of service for selfish reasons.

No work of the Lord, no service to him, is properly undertaken for selfish reasons.

 

[Carl Emerson]

I have never denied that Paul commanded the Ephesian Christians to "put on" the whole armor of God. I have not denied, either, that this phrase communicates an action. But as I noted in my last post to you, the Ephesian believers did not "put on" their armor in a literal way, did they? They didn't have the "armor of God" hanging in a closet somewhere, right, that they took out and strapped on. In what way, then, were they to "put on" their spiritual armor? By faith.

Exactly what I have been saying...

I am concluding that you have engaged on an exercise of challenging my understanding when we are in agreement on almost every point.

Now you agree that we put on the armour of God, and that is an action.

Thanks for that.

We have used a lot of ink to get there but at last you agree with what I first claimed.

Tell me, how do you prepare before dealing with the demonic ?????

Please be specific.

 

[aiki]

Exactly what I have been saying...

I'm not so sure... It sounded to me like you thought the armor was distinct from Christ and put off and on, as real armor might be. But if the "armor of God" is, as I've explained, the Person of Christ, he can't be put off and on. An ignorant believer might not understand all that is theirs in him, of course. But by understanding who he is for them - peace, salvation, truth, righteousness, etc. - and, by faith, standing in the truth of these things, they "put on" their spiritual armor who is Christ. But this "putting on" is no more, really, than acknowledging the truth of their fully-established position in Christ and living by faith in it. Is this how you understand "putting on" the "spiritual armor" of Ephesians 6:10-18? It didn't sound like it...

I am concluding that you have engaged on an exercise of challenging my understanding when we are in agreement on almost every point.

Mmmm...maybe...Didn't sound like it to me...

Now you agree that we put on the armour of God, and that is an action.

Thanks for that.

If by "putting on the armor" you mean "acknowledging who I am in Christ and by faith standing in my position in him," then, yes, we agree. But every believer is wearing the "armor" who is Christ, regardless of whether they realize it or not. One cannot be saved and not be clothed in Christ. Believers can't stand in this reality, however, until they know and consciously choose in faith to do so. Only when they do can they benefit from the fact that they are "armored" in Christ.

We have used a lot of ink to get there but at last you agree with what I first claimed.

See above.

Tell me, how do you prepare before dealing with the demonic ?????

Please be specific.

One cannot often "prepare"; one does not always know when a confrontation with the demonic will occur. And if a believer does have such forewarning, and needs to prepare for it, I would suggest to you that such a believer is not walking rightly with God. As Jesus pointed out in the instance of the stubborn demon plaguing the child, his disciples could not cast out the demon, not because they had neglected to enact appropriate preparations, but because they simply lacked faith in the power of God.

If any preparation to confront the demonic can be done, it is done by walking rightly with God every day, all day. And this is done by constant submission to the will and way of the Holy Spirit (James 4:7), by keeping short accounts with God (1 John 1:9), and by being well-informed of who one is in Christ and standing by faith unmoved upon one's identity in him (1 John 4:4; 2 Corinthians 10:3-5). No special "deliverance ministry training" is necessary; just a proper, Christ-centered, holy walk with God.

 

[Carl Emerson]

@aiki
One cannot often "prepare"; one does not always know when a confrontation with the demonic will occur. And if a believer does have such forewarning, and needs to prepare for it, I would suggest to you that such a believer is not walking rightly with God.

Then why did Jesus mention fasting ?

As Jesus pointed out in the instance of the stubborn demon plaguing the child, his disciples could not cast out the demon, not because they had neglected to enact appropriate preparations, but because they simply lacked faith in the power of God.

Could it be that fasting increases faith?

And yes in common life confrontations with the demonic cannot be anticipated.

However in church life a minister set aside for the ministry of deliverance will have time to prepare.

 

[aiki]

@aiki
One cannot often "prepare"; one does not always know when a confrontation with the demonic will occur. And if a believer does have such forewarning, and needs to prepare for it, I would suggest to you that such a believer is not walking rightly with God.

Then why did Jesus mention fasting ?

Why indeed? Jesus doesn't say. But in all three Gospel accounts, it is faith that is the basic problem that Jesus identifies, not the neglect of fasting. He also points out that a particular kind of demonic possession may involve prayer and fasting, not all direct encounters with the demonic. Only when one has ascertained that one is dealing with the kind of possession that plagued the child in the Gospel account is prayer and fasting necessary. But these two things, then, aren't a preparation for dealing with the demonic, but a response to encountering a certain type of demonic possession. And Jesus seems to imply that if the disciples' faith was of a proper measure, these things would not be necessary.

As Jesus pointed out in the instance of the stubborn demon plaguing the child, his disciples could not cast out the demon, not because they had neglected to enact appropriate preparations, but because they simply lacked faith in the power of God.

Could it be that fasting increases faith?

But the fasting wouldn't have been for the benefit of the disciples, to increase their faith, but to ask God to free the demon-possessed person from their possession; they would be fasting (and praying) for the sake of the possessed person, not to magnify themselves in some respect.

Off the top of my head, I can't think of any passage in Scripture that indicates fasting enlarges one's faith. Can you?

 

[Carl Emerson]

Well - how about Mark 9 28:30...

Incidentally do you have a background in deliverance ???

 

[aiki]

Well - how about Mark 9 28:30...

Incidentally do you have a background in deliverance ???

Where does Mark 9:28-30 actually indicate that fasting increases faith? I can think of other places in Scripture that speak directly to enlarging one's faith and they say nothing about fasting.

God gives a "measure of faith" to every man.

Romans 12:3
3 For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God has dealt to every man the measure of faith.

Faith in God comes by knowledge of the word of God.

Romans 10:17
17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

Faith is constituted of:

• knowing the truth.
• being persuaded that the truth is the truth.
• acting on one's settled confidence in the truth.

2 Timothy 1:12
12 ...for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.

Faith in Christ comes from Christ and is sustained and matured by him.

Hebrews 12:2
2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

And so on.

I wouldn't say I have a "deliverance ministry." I have, though, encountered the demonic directly and indirectly several times and been witness to the incredible power of the name of Christ over the demonic. My grandfather, however, had what you would call a "deliverance ministry," helping perhaps hundreds of people come free of demonic possession/oppression. He even wrote a book about his experiences called "Fellowship With The Fallen." He never described how God used him to help people (mostly believers) get free of either possession or oppression by demons as a "deliverance ministry." In fact, he would have bridled strongly at the idea that a believer can have a special demon-oriented "ministry" and be what the Roman Catholics call an "exorcist." There is no such gifting mentioned in any of the three lists of spiritual gifts given in the New Testament. (Romans 12:6-8; 1 Corinthians 12; Ephesians 4:11-16) and making dealing with the demonic a matter of a specialized gifting encourages believers to shrink back from helping those in bondage to the demonic to get free. Only the "specialist" ought to "deliver" the demon possessed, these believers think, and wash their hands of being used by God to bring the possessed person free of their bondage.

But God says to all of His children, "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you." (James 4:7) There is no qualification to what James wrote, confining his words to the "deliverance expert." From all who are living in submission to God and resist the devil, the devil will flee. The apostle John, describing what is true of all believers, wrote, "You are of God, little children, and have overcome them; for greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world." (1 John 4:4) John does not indicate that only the person in a "deliverance ministry" has the capacity to overcome the demonic. All children of God are, in Christ, spiritual "overcomers." And so, Paul wrote to the Ephesian Christians: "have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness but rather reprove them," exposing the "works of darkness" for what they were (Ephesians 5:8-13).

It is actually pretty natural and inevitable for a believer who is truly walking well with the Lord, shining brightly for him in the darkness of the World, to come into direct conflict with the demonic. This was certainly the case for my grandfather. Even I, who has nowhere near the wide-ranging work among believers as my grandfather did, have bumped up against the demonic. And pastor friends of mine all have stories of face-to-face encounters with the demonic.

 

[Carl Emerson]

Faith comes from hearing the Word of Christ and this often comes during fasting.

Your perspective and mine are pretty close as you outlined in the last post.

I have never claimed to have a 'deliverance ministry'

I do think it is legit for churches to support persons called to this area of service, being suitably gifted and mature in faith. This is not just the domain of the RC church.

 

[aiki]

Faith comes from hearing the Word of Christ and this often comes during fasting.

Yes, I suppose fasting might have this effect, at times, when coupled to Bible study. The prayer and fasting in the case of a stubborn demon possession, though, isn't for faith-building but for the sake of freeing the possessed from demonic bondage. In which case, the fasting isn't a preparation for dealing with the demon(s) but accompanies the believer's prayers for the possessed person as a concrete token of the earnestness of the request the believer is making to God on behalf of the possessed person.

I guess part of my concern about making prayer and fasting a preparation for dealing with the demonic is that it turns these things away from being for the benefit of the possessed person and orients them instead upon the person seeking to help the possessed person be free. In context, though, the prayer and fasting are for the sake of the possessed person, to get them free of the demonic powers binding them, not for the benefit of the Christian who is praying and fasting on their behalf. There is, then, it seems to me, a subtle reorientation of the purpose of the prayer and fasting Jesus spoke of, making it a self-centered thing, me-focused, rather than a sacrificial, spiritual labor made on behalf of another.

Your perspective and mine are pretty close as you outlined in the last post.

Well, that's cool. I'm glad that after all of the "ink" of discussion, this is how things fall out. I find myself thinking of you as a brother in the Lord very readily, so I'm delighted to know that we are fairly aligned in our thinking on things spiritual.

I have never claimed to have a 'deliverance ministry'

No, I don't think you ever made such a claim. My comments on this matter were of the "if the shoe fits" sort. My apologies if they seemed to assert about you something you never claimed about yourself.

I do think it is legit for churches to support persons called to this area of service, being suitably gifted and mature in faith. This is not just the domain of the RC church.

Is there such a "calling," though? I don't know...

You are dead right, though, that anyone making a common practice of going nose-to-nose with the demonic ought to be "mature in the faith." Sadly, these days, what this description means has begun to seriously degenerate.

Anyway, thanks for the confab. I find these back-and-forth exchanges - confused as they may sometimes be - a great stimulation to thought and study of God's word.

Blessings, brother.

 

[ARBITER01]

Each of these three would seem to be descriptive of how victorious believers acted.

So the Blood of the Lamb...

At passover the Blood of the Lamb was physically smeared on the House over the doorway.
One sacrificed Lamb for each Household.

Now I know references on this subject are scant but the Holy Spirit leads us into all Truth.

I pretty much pray daily for our house and property to be covered by the Blood of the Lamb.

I pray for angels to minister here and the presence of the Holy Spirit to be strong.

Like the Armour of God has to be put on, we similarly apply the Blood.

Now I am well aware that there are different views on this and no one should be surprised that such a central matter of faith will be hotly contested.

Some will insist that doing this is little more than superstition, nonsense, even witchcraft.

This would seem to be a very important topic to get right.

What is God saying ?

Good topic Carl.

I do know one way from tangible experience how the blood of Jesus can be applied regularly to our human spirit,...

1Jn 1:7 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.

Church services around other born again believers routinely provide a cleansing by the blood of Jesus. This is a tangibly felt experience during the service,... and even more so if you are around really strong Christians.

 

[Presbyterian Continuist]

Dear friends,

I want to raise an important topic.

In the passage below we read of three keys to overcoming and being effective for Jesus.

Rev 12:11
“Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day and night. 11 And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death. 12 For this reason, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them. Woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, knowing that he has only a short time.”

Each of these three would seem to be descriptive of how victorious believers acted.

So the Blood of the Lamb...

At passover the Blood of the Lamb was physically smeared on the House over the doorway.
One sacrificed Lamb for each Household.

Now I know references on this subject are scant but the Holy Spirit leads us into all Truth.

I pretty much pray daily for our house and property to be covered by the Blood of the Lamb.

I pray for angels to minister here and the presence of the Holy Spirit to be strong.

Like the Armour of God has to be put on, we similarly apply the Blood.

Now I am well aware that there are different views on this and no one should be surprised that such a central matter of faith will be hotly contested.

Some will insist that doing this is little more than superstition, nonsense, even witchcraft.

This would seem to be a very important topic to get right.

What is God saying ?

I think that the reference is speaking of the victory that Christ had over the devil and his angels when He shed His blood on the Cross. This means that the moment that Christ died on the Cross and rose again from the dead, the devil became a defeated foe, and every genuine convert to Christ already has the victory and has overcome the devil, not because of anything we have done, but what Christ has already done 2000 years ago when He shed His blood on the Cross, rose from the dead, then ascended to the heavenly Holy of Holies and presented His blood as the one-time sacrifice for sin. This makes sense of the Scripture, "We always have the victory through Christ". The war has already been won for us. All we need to do is to step into that victory through faith.

 

[Carl Emerson]

All we need to do is to step into that victory through faith.

This is the nub of the issue...

How in your view do we do that.

Our definition of faith probably doesn't match for starters.

We can only appropriate by faith what we have first heard from God.

From that we have a choice to be in agreement with Him or be in unbelief.

So when Paul says "put on..." we do it in faith...

As the cross is a timeless event we simply agree with what is happening for us now.

So we can agree with the blood covering and put it on.

Thoughts?

 

[Carl Emerson]

Pondering further on this I note that Ezekiel was often required to 'act out' the Word that the Lord had given as part of the procedure to establish the fact prophetically.

I also believe we need to consider how we appear spiritually with armour on or off, with blood on or off.

Not I am mindful that taken the wrong way this could amount to spiritual manipulation but not if He has said it, which He has.

Personally I at times kneel physically before the Cross and release stress to Him given that He has taken it there for me already.

Likewise I take pieces of the armour and put them on 'by faith'.

So I see two truth's intersecting - the the armour is on because we have been in truth, in faith, in the gospel, in salvation, in righteousness etc.
But also we put the armour on because He has made it complete for us on the Cross.

Both are valid but the latter is not often preached or explained.

 

[Presbyterian Continuist]

This is the nub of the issue...

How in your view do we do that.

Our definition of faith probably doesn't match for starters.

We can only appropriate by faith what we have first heard from God.

From that we have a choice to be in agreement with Him or be in unbelief.

So when Paul says "put on..." we do it in faith...

As the cross is a timeless event we simply agree with what is happening for us now.

So we can agree with the blood covering and put it on.

Thoughts?

Firstly, I don't believe in a "blood covering". I don't see any teaching in the New Testament about that. We have the victory won for us, our sins washed away, and have been redeemed by the blood of Christ, but there is nothing to say that we covered by it.

It is true that we have to put on Christ, that is that through the transformation that genuine conversion to Christ that the Holy Spirit does in us, we are able to develop the mind of Christ. That is what the Scripture tells us to do.

The only place where the blood of Christ was applied was in the heavenly Holy of Holies, representing the one-time sacrifice for sin for all those who genuinely come to Christ. It was a one-time act completed 2000 years ago.

The covering that we actually have is the righteousness of Christ which has been given to us as a free gift, to cover our sinfulness.

While I worked for the Manukau District Court, the defence of one defendant was that his offence was "under the blood". I don't think the judge knew what he was talking about and it made no difference to the outcome of the case. But there is no Scriptural support for our sins being "under the blood". Our sins have been remitted by the blood of Jesus, by the shedding of the blood, our debt of sin was fully paid.

So what do we do about it? The Scripture says that the work of God is that we believe on Him whom He has sent. When we believe on Christ, the Holy Spirit works in us to produce the works pre-ordained by God that we should walk in them.

So, we don't continue to apply the blood to our lives, when it has been once and for all applied to the Heavenly Mercy Seat for the remission of our sins. To say that we continually apply the blood is to agree with the Catholic Mass that repeats the sacrifice of Christ every Sunday morning.

 

[Carl Emerson]

Firstly, I don't believe in a "blood covering". I don't see any teaching in the New Testament about that. We have the victory won for us, our sins washed away, and have been redeemed by the blood of Christ, but there is nothing to say that we covered by it.

It is true that we have to put on Christ, that is that through the transformation that genuine conversion to Christ that the Holy Spirit does in us, we are able to develop the mind of Christ. That is what the Scripture tells us to do.

The only place where the blood of Christ was applied was in the heavenly Holy of Holies, representing the one-time sacrifice for sin for all those who genuinely come to Christ. It was a one-time act completed 2000 years ago.

The covering that we actually have is the righteousness of Christ which has been given to us as a free gift, to cover our sinfulness.

While I worked for the Manukau District Court, the defence of one defendant was that his offence was "under the blood". I don't think the judge knew what he was talking about and it made no difference to the outcome of the case. But there is no Scriptural support for our sins being "under the blood". Our sins have been remitted by the blood of Jesus, by the shedding of the blood, our debt of sin was fully paid.

So what do we do about it? The Scripture says that the work of God is that we believe on Him whom He has sent. When we believe on Christ, the Holy Spirit works in us to produce the works pre-ordained by God that we should walk in them.

So, we don't continue to apply the blood to our lives, when it has been once and for all applied to the Heavenly Mercy Seat for the remission of our sins. To say that we continually apply the blood is to agree with the Catholic Mass that repeats the sacrifice of Christ every Sunday morning.

1 John 1:
7...if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.

Here the promise of the blood covering is conditional on walking in the light.

This statement would appear to challenge your position.

 

[Carl Emerson]

Further if righteousness is part of the armour that we have to put on, and this righteousness is only possible through His Blood then we effectively cover with His blood by putting the armour on.

 

[Presbyterian Continuist]

1 John 1:
7...if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.

Here the promise of the blood covering is conditional on walking in the light.

This statement would appear to challenge your position.

My position is that cleansing from all sin happen effectively 2000 years ago when Jesus died on the Cross, but it became actual for us when we receive Christ as our Saviour. When we sin and confess as in 1 John 1:9, we are forgiven and cleansed from all unrighteousness. This happens because we have already been positionally cleansed from sin by the blood of Jesus the moment it was offered up to the Father in the heavenly Holy of Holies.

I guess being covered by the blood of Jesus is a way of saying it, but it is not a covering like a garment that we "wear" every day. It is a different meaning of "covering" in that the cleansing of our sin is covered by the offering up of His blood to the Father straight after Jesus told Mary in the garden that "Don't hold me, because I now go to your Father and Mine." Jesus went to the Father and offered up His blood, then came back and revealed Himself to His disciples. Then after 40 days, He finally ascended to the Father to be our advocate in heaven. It is the same principle as our home and contents is "covered" by our insurance policy and premiums.

 

[Presbyterian Continuist]

Further if righteousness is part of the armour that we have to put on, and this righteousness is only possible through His Blood then we effectively cover with His blood by putting the armour on.

My response is that we put on the armour of God when we receive Christ. We receive the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith, the belt of truth, and the feet shod with the Gospel, If we have not put on any part of that armour, we are not genuinely converted to Christ. But we continue to use the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God, and All-prayer, which avails much against the evil one.

The moment we take off any part of the armour, we lose our salvation, because we need to continue to wear all of it to maintain our walk in the Spirit. We don't repeatedly get born again day after day. The putting on of Christ according to the Scripture is what we do to develop our sanctification day after day.

 

[Carl Emerson]

The moment we take off any part of the armour, we lose our salvation, because we need to continue to wear all of it to maintain our walk in the Spirit.

Wow... that sounds flakey !!!

 

[Carl Emerson]

If we are faithless He is faithful, because He cannot deny Himself....