1 John 1:7-9 … but 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 say that 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.
O.K. So we’ve known for some time that our house needed painting. Actually we’ve known for about five years,but it never seemed to be the top priority. This year, though, it finally got to the top of the list. The first stage, of course, is a power wash. The man who’s doing the work has just finished — and even before the new paint goes on it looks beautiful. (He’s doing a great job — if anyone needs a good Christian house painter, let me know!) But here’s the thing … We know that in a few years we’ll have to do the whole thing all over again.
All this made me think of that passage in 1 John, and the cleansing work of the Holy Spirit. The passage is often given less than its due weight. Especially, verse 9 is often trivialized as the “Christian bar of soap”. Now it is true that it is the only verse in the New Testament that tells us that we are to confess our sins to God to obtain forgiveness. But if we think that there is some magical process that wipes out each sin as we confess it, and that that’s all that’s going on, we surely misunderstand and misrepresent the work of the Spirit. Let us not, by any means think of ourselves like the wall of a house being soiled over time by contact with the world and periodically cleansed by the Holy Spirit power wash!
Alexander Maclaran expresses the point so much better than I ever could:
‘The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin.’ Now if you will notice the whole context, and eminently the words a couple of verses after my text, you will see that the cleansing here meant is not the cleansing of forgiveness, but the cleansing of purifying. For the two things are articulately distinguished in the ninth verse: ‘He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.’ So, to use theological terms, it is not justification, but sanctification that is meant here.
The Holy Spirit is engaged in a slow, steady, permanent DEEP cleansing process. Where His work is complete no mud will stick — that repeated soiling by contact with the world will not recur.
If we take such a view of things perhaps two things become apparent. The first is that where we continue to sin, it is not evidence that we are still un redeemed, but that there are still areas where the work of the Spirit is not yet complete. The second is that as we confess our sins, we confess our recognition of those areas and our desire for the process to continue. When we are faithful to confess our sins then, it can be no surprise that a loving Savior will lovingly forgive us.
The cleansing of the Holy Spirit is a real power wash. Slow, certain, and once for all!