1 John 1:5-10 New International Version

Light and Darkness, Sin and Forgiveness

⁵ This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. ⁶ If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. ⁷ But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all^[a] sin.

⁸ If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. ⁹ If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. ¹⁰ If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Adeste Fideles! Laeti Triumphantes! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.

⁷ But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 1 John 1:7 ESV

A believer in Jesus Christ must be humbled by the fact that the righteousness that he or she has received is because of the blood of Jesus at Calvary.

When Jesus was crucified he was bleeding from the cross for you and for everyone in the world.

Even as he was dead on the cross he continued to shed his blood.

But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs: But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water. (John 19:33-34, KJV)

This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth. (1 John 5:6, KJV)

In the Old Testament times there was the first covenant in which the sins of the people of Israel had to be covered up by the shedding of the blood of an animal.

However, with the arrival of Jesus Christ came a new and better covenant in which he became the perfect sacrifice for our sins. 

Hebrews chapter 9 provides for us a comparison and contrast of “cleanliness.”

What Can Wash Away My Sins-Hebrews 9

Hebrews 9 New International Version

Worship in the Earthly Tabernacle

9 Now the first covenant had regulations for worship and also an earthly sanctuary. ² A tabernacle was set up. In its first room were the lampstand and the table with its consecrated bread; this was called the Holy Place. ³ Behind the second curtain was a room called the Most Holy Place, ⁴ which had the golden altar of incense and the gold-covered ark of the covenant. This ark contained the gold jar of manna, Aaron’s staff that had budded, and the stone tablets of the covenant. ⁵ Above the ark were the cherubim of the Glory, overshadowing the atonement cover. But we cannot discuss these things in detail now.

⁶ When everything had been arranged like this, the priests entered regularly into the outer room to carry on their ministry. ⁷ But only the high priest entered the inner room, and that only once a year, and never without blood, which he offered for himself and for the sins the people had committed in ignorance. ⁸ The Holy Spirit was showing by this that the way into the Most Holy Place had not yet been disclosed as long as the first tabernacle was still functioning. ⁹ This is an illustration for the present time, indicating that the gifts and sacrifices being offered were not able to clear the conscience of the worshiper. ¹⁰ They are only a matter of food and drink and various ceremonial washings—external regulations applying until the time of the new order.

The Blood of Christ

¹¹ But when Christ came as high priest of the good things that are now already here,^[a] he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not made with human hands, that is to say, is not a part of this creation. ¹² He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, thus obtaining^[b] eternal redemption. ¹³ The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. ¹⁴ How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death,^[c] so that we may serve the living God!

¹⁵ For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.

¹⁶ In the case of a will,^[d] it is necessary to prove the death of the one who made it, ¹⁷ because a will is in force only when somebody has died; it never takes effect while the one who made it is living. ¹⁸ This is why even the first covenant was not put into effect without blood. ¹⁹ When Moses had proclaimed every command of the law to all the people, he took the blood of calves, together with water, scarlet wool and branches of hyssop, and sprinkled the scroll and all the people. ²⁰ He said, “This is the blood of the covenant, which God has commanded you to keep.”^[e] 21 In the same way, he sprinkled with the blood both the tabernacle and everything used in its ceremonies. ²² In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

²³ It was necessary, then, for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. ²⁴ For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made with human hands that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence. ²⁵ Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. ²⁶ Otherwise Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But he has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. ²⁷ Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, ²⁸ so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.

We have all seen the commercials on television or on the internet advertising all kinds of the best laundry soap for all the very worst kinds of stains imaginable.

We see the kids rolling around in all kinds of mud puddles, stomping mud pits, rubbing their muddy hands all over their clothes and parents looking stunned.

Their eyes and mouths are all wide open, and their facial expressions and their slouched and bewildered bodily postures say: “What detergent will clean that?”

Or to try and tone it down a bit, when kids play outside and get a bit sweaty, we will softly often say to them, “OK, jump in the shower and do a quick rinse-off.”

Other times, when they have played outside for hours and they need more than just a quick rinse—they need that deep-cleaning shower or a soak in the tub.

Then parents get on their hands and knees, with soap and start the scrubbing.

In some ways, the old Hebrew cove­nant laws of cleansing the body and the spirit and the soul after a time of uncleanness provided just a quick rinse.

It wasn’t any kind of deep-down cleaning – that would take too much time..

But then, the millions of people needed to be cleansed through and through.

But then, the millions of people needed to be cleansed once and for all time.

Today there are billons and we all need to be max cleansed from our lives of sin.

What the old laws could not ever hope to do, as there were simply not enough High Priests to do it, directly and decisively points us all today, to that only someone who could provide a “one and forever done” max full, deep cleaning.

That High Priest is Jesus Christ, whose coming, whose life, ministry, whose death and whose resurrection for our sake, provided purification once for all.

The Old Hebrew Testament law included ritualized ceremonial Temple practices of washing to be clean.

What soap was used in the Bible?

There are also Biblical accounts of the Israelites making soap gel from ash lye and vegetable oils showing the importance of personal hygiene was realized.

Moses gave the Israelites laws governing personal cleansing through the use of ‘borith’ – Hebrew for soap – shortly after their Exodus.

But the cleaning was never complete.

And God knew this and vigorously denounced it through Jeremiah;

Jeremiah 2:20-24 New International Version

²⁰ “Long ago you broke off your yoke
    and tore off your bonds;
    you said, ‘I will not serve you!’
Indeed, on every high hill
    and under every spreading tree
    you lay down as a prostitute.
²¹ I had planted you like a choice vine
    of sound and reliable stock.
How then did you turn against me
    into a corrupt, wild vine?
²² Although you wash yourself with soap
    and use an abundance of cleansing powder,
    the stain of your guilt is still before me,”
declares the Sovereign Lord.
²³ “How can you say, ‘I am not defiled;
    I have not run after the Baals’?
See how you behaved in the valley;
    consider what you have done.
You are a swift she-camel
    running here and there,
²⁴ a wild donkey accustomed to the desert,
    sniffing the wind in her craving—
    in her heat who can restrain her?
Any males that pursue her need not tire themselves;
    at mating time they will find her.

The people continually turned away from God, worshipped Baal idols, turned their lives away from diligently obediently serving God to personal corruption.

People would get “dirty” again – their whole year of sins would need cleaning by the High Priests – and sin offerings would need to be repeated over again.

Year after Year after Year … ad infinitum

More and more material resources, “perfectly imperfect” animals sacrificed.

Hands and feet cleansed, whole Bodies cleansed …

But what of the sin stained soul?

What no man can physically wash or cleanse with any kind of bodily soap?

God knew this and vigorously condemned this disobedience – but did also point to a future time when one would come and be that perfect sacrifice for all sins;

Isaiah 53 New International Version

53 Who has believed our message
    and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
² He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
    and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
    nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
³ He was despised and rejected by mankind,
    a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
    he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

⁴ Surely he took up our pain
    and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
    stricken by him, and afflicted.
⁵ But he was pierced for our transgressions,
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
    and by his wounds we are healed.
⁶ We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
    each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
    the iniquity of us all.

⁷ He was oppressed and afflicted,
    yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
    and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
    so he did not open his mouth.
⁸ By oppression^[a] and judgment he was taken away.
    Yet who of his generation protested?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
    for the transgression of my people he was punished.^[b]
9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
    and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence,
    nor was any deceit in his mouth.

¹⁰ Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
    and though the Lord makes^[c] his life an offering for sin,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
    and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.
¹¹ After he has suffered,
    he will see the light of life^[d] and be satisfied^[e];
by his knowledge^[f] my righteous servant will justify many,
    and he will bear their iniquities.
¹² Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,^[g]
    and he will divide the spoils with the strong,^[h]
because he poured out his life unto death,
    and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many,
    and made intercession for the transgressors.

then God made for us the definitive revelation of Isaiah 53,

John 3:16-17 Amplified Bible

¹⁶ “For God so [greatly] loved and dearly prized the world, that He [even] gave His [One and] ^[a]only begotten Son, so that whoever believes and trusts in Him [as Savior] shall not perish, but have eternal life. ¹⁷ For God did not send the Son into the world to judge and condemn the world [that is, to initiate the final judgment of the world], but that the world might be saved through Him.

God sent His only begotten Son Jesus as the only perfect sacrifice for us, cleanse us thoroughly and providing such a deep-down cleaning we all receive new life.

As Hebrews 9:14 explains, the blood of Christ, shed for our sake, cleanses “our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!”

For all who confess with their whole heart, their maximum trust in Christ, we are washed in his blood, fully cleansed from our sin so that we may serve him!

1 John 1:5-10 Easy-to-Read Version

God Forgives Our Sins

⁵ We heard the true teaching from God. Now we tell it to you: God is light, and in him there is no darkness. ⁶ So if we say that we share in life with God, but we continue living in darkness, we are liars, who don’t follow the truth. ⁷ We should live in the light, where God is. If we live in the light, we have fellowship with each other, and the blood sacrifice of Jesus, God’s Son, washes away every sin and makes us clean.

⁸ If we say that we have no sin, we are fooling ourselves, and the truth is not in us. ⁹ But if we confess our sins, God will forgive us. We can trust God to do this. He always does what is right. He will make us clean from all the wrong things we have done. ¹⁰  If we say that we have not sinned, we are saying that God is a liar and that we don’t accept his true teaching.

From mankind’s fall in the Garden of Eden, Sin is 100%, an undeniable reality.

Its effects can be seen every day in our lives, in our families, and in society.

Sin is the transgression of God’s law and the lack of conformity to that law.

We sin against God in our words, thoughts, and actions—and even by not doing the good we should do.

We sin because we are sinners.

We were conceived and born in sin, and we live in sin.

We cannot cleanse ourselves.

Sin has affected every possible aspect of our reason, our emotion, and our will.

All areas of our lives have been stained and tainted by sin.

No religious ritual can cleanse us from sin.

Sin separates us from God, setting a impenetrable barrier that we cannot cross.

Jesus Christ, the Only Son of God, has done for us what we ourselves cannot do.

By his death we have life, and by his life blood we have cleansing from all sin.

No sin we commit is too great for him to cover, or so bad God cannot forgive it.

In Jesus Christ, our Savior, we have redemption—abundant, full, and free!

Praise God from whom all blessings of abundant life flow!

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

Psalm 84 The Message

84 ^1-2 What a beautiful home, God-of-the-Angel-Armies!
    I’ve always longed to live in a place like this,
Always dreamed of a room in your house,
    where I could sing for joy to God-alive!

^3-4 Birds find nooks and crannies in your house,
    sparrows and swallows make nests there.
They lay their eggs and raise their young,
    singing their songs in the place where we worship.
God-of-the-Angel-Armies! King! God!
    How blessed they are to live and sing there!

^5-7 And how blessed all those in whom you live,
    whose lives become roads you travel;
They wind through lonesome valleys, come upon brooks,
    discover cool springs and pools brimming with rain!
God-traveled, these roads curve up the mountain, and
    at the last turn—Zion! God in full view!

^8-9 God-of-the-Angel-Armies, listen:
    O God of Jacob, open your ears—I’m praying!
Look at our shields, glistening in the sun,
    our faces, shining with your gracious anointing.

^10-12 One day spent in your house, this beautiful place of worship,
    beats thousands spent on Greek island beaches.
I’d rather scrub floors in the house of my God
    than be honored as a guest in the palace of sin.
All sunshine and sovereign is God,
    generous in gifts and glory.
He doesn’t scrimp with his traveling companions.
    It’s smooth sailing all the way with God-of-the-Angel-Armies.

Holy! Holy! Holy! Lord God Almighty, holy is your name. Sin does not dwell with you. Thank you for sending your Son, for the full and free forgiveness that Jesus’ blood has purchased for your Children, allowing them to be close to you. In the Savior’s name.

Adeste Fideles! Laeti Triumphantes! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.

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