God's Word For You is a free Bible Study site committed to bringing you studies firmly grounded in the Bible – the Word of God. Holding a reformed, conservative, evangelical perspective this site affirms that God has provided in Jesus Christ his eternal Son, a way of salvation in which we can live in his presence guilt free, acquitted and at peace.

 
 

THOUGHTS FROM JOHN’S LETTERS

THE BLOOD OF JESUS

We have seen in previous meditations on 1John 1 that John holds several things together: that if a person has received/acknowledged Jesus Christ, then everything else John mentions also applies to that person.

These things are:

(Eternal) life.
Light.
Fellowship with God the Father and the Son.
Fellowship with each other.
Purification from all sin.
Acknowledging oneself to be a sinner who sins.
Purification from all unrighteousness.

This list is quite significant, because here in John’s list are many things that were lost in our Genesis 3 rejection of God:

There we became spiritually dead. But John says we have eternal life.

There we were catapulted into spiritual darkness. But John says we walk in the light.

We became separated from our fellow-humans. But John says our relationship with others is restored.

There we became separated from God. But John says our relationship with God is restored.

There we became sinners, with our sins adding up every day. But John says we are cleansed from all sins.

There we became unrighteous – legally guilty. But John says we are cleansed from all unrighteousness.

How can this be? How can God walk hand in hand with sinners? How can death, which is both the result and the penalty of sin, be overturned and replaced with eternal life? How can God forgive the sinner and acquit the guilty?

John anticipates our questions. He gives us the answer before we ask: ‘If we walk in the light, as he is in the light ... the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.’

Just as John in the first few verses of this letter has taken us right to the heart of questions about Jesus’ identity, so here in verse seven he takes us right to the very heart of the salvation that Jesus Christ obtained for us by his death. The death of Jesus Christ was ‘an atoning sacrifice for our sins’ (2:2). Jesus Christ, in his death, and by God’s eternal purpose and will, dealt with our sin. He died as our substitute under the just judgement of God.

He carried our guilt.
He bore our sins.
He paid our penalty – the full out-pouring of God’s wrath and condemnation.

We might ask ‘How much of it?’ How many of our sins? How much of our guilt? How much of the wrath and condemnation?

And John answers: ‘for all our sins.’

And just in case we missed it in verse seven, he repeats in verse 9: ‘all unrighteousness’.

This word ‘unrighteousness’ draws our attention to the legal nature of the death of Christ and the legal nature of what that death does for us. The word ‘unrighteousness’ is a legal term; it means legal guilt. So what is John saying? He is saying that the death of Jesus Christ was a legal transaction: Jesus, who was legally innocent (‘righteous’), and had no sins of his own to attract legal accusation, willingly put himself in the place of us, the legally guilty (‘unrighteous’). God debited him with our sin, and credits us with Christ’s righteousness. He bore the punishment: we are acquitted – declared legally innocent.

This incredible exchange is applied to us at the very moment we receive Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour. At that very moment we become ‘justified by faith’, we receive, freely given, the ‘gift of righteousness’.

This amazing and precious gift of forgiveness – of cleansing from all sin and all unrighteousness – is permanent. It is not something that comes and goes dependent on whether or not we have sinned, or whether or not we have owned up to God about some particular sins. The ‘purifies’ in verse 7 is present tense: it is happening all the time, continually; the blood of Jesus is being applied to us all the time. There is never a moment when the blood of Jesus is not active and effective on our behalf. The ‘forgive’ and the ‘purify’ in verse 9, are both in the Aorist Tense, indicating that this forgiveness and cleansing were once-for-all time decisive actions. Because it is a once-for-all-time action it is permanently current and effective. It does not cease. It cannot be interrupted or suspended. As Paul states in Ephesians 1:7 – in Christ ‘we have ... the forgiveness of sins’ through his blood.

This forgiveness, this purification was accomplished by the once-only action of Jesus Christ. He died once-for-all, and he returned to the presence of the Father with his blood. There, John says (2:1,2): He is our Advocate with the Father. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins.

For all our sins. For all our guilt. For all time.

© Rosemary Bardsley 2021