The Blood of Jesus Christ

1 John 1:6-10
“If we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not do the truth. But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say 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 cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His Word is not in us.”

“Is John’s teaching here with regard to justification only or does it go on to include sanctification at the same time? The difference between justification and sanctification is the difference between dealing with the sins that we have committed and their effect upon us, and dealing with the principle of sin that resides within us.

What in the New Testament is the meaning of the phrase “the Blood of Christ?” Does verse 7 here mean that the Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ is cleansing the sin principle right out of me, that it is sanctifying me and that I am being purged from sin as a power until I shall be absolutely free from it? I suggest that if you take every single reference to this phrase in the New Testament, you will find that invariably it is a reference to the blood shed on the cross and nothing more.

What then does the death of Jesus Christ achieve? The answer invariably is that the Lord’s death is that which purchased our pardon. His death is concerned about reconciliation, about justification, about remission of sins, it never goes beyond that.

What John is interested in is fellowship with God. He is not interested in our sinful natures as such, but in the guilt of sin and the tarnishing which sin produces and which interrupts the fellowship. What he is anxious to show us is that, though we are guilty of sins and though we fall into sin, we can still have fellowship with God. The Christian is not a man who ought to be walking in the Light but who so often walks in darkness. No, the Christian is one who is always walking in the light even though he falls into sin. By falling into sin you do not return to walking in darkness. The Christian is not a Christian at all unless he is walking in the Light.”