The Reality of Cleansing

D. W. Lambert gave the following message at the Japan Evangelistic Band's annual conference in 1939 showing what the believer's attitude is toward sin and the cleansing blood of Christ. This portion is taken from the book titled Personal Holiness:

"Sin is diabolical [1 John 3:8], it is of the devil, that is the root origin of sin.

"It is always necessary when we ascribe sin to the devil to remember it is only in a final sense that he is responsible for it. I heard a story over in Ireland of a little fellow who had been getting into trouble for ill-treating his baby sister. His mother had to take him to task and said to him, 'you know why you pulled her hair and kicked her shins? It was the devil in you.' He replied, 'No mother, it was the devil made me pull her hair, but it was my own idea to kick her shins.' There is something within which is 'our own idea,' the devil is responsible even for that away back in the beginning, and John goes on to speak of that.

". . . Sin is unnatural, for a Christian, v. 9. If you are really a Christian in the sense that John wants you to be, you will not sin, and you cannot sin. I know that that verse is a difficulty to many, but he says there is something planted within, a seed, it is eternal life, and according to the standard of that seed, you cannot have sin in the life, it is a moral impossibility. It is an argument from life, not a matter of logic, it works out simply like this, we need not sin, therefore we must not sin, therefore we cannot sin; that is the standard set up for us. Thank God there is a glorious remedy, and we turn with relief to that now.

"The Precious Blood is the remedy for sin. Turn to the 7th verse of chapter 1; we have that familiar word in the latter part of the verse

'. . . The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.'

"There is that great and wonderful statement, and if you cannot understand all the philosophy of sin, you can hang on to that, that glorious reality, that wonderful promise of cleansing from all sin. John has come into the porch, this introduction of the Epistle, a beautiful little porchway all about Christ the Word of life, and then he passes on to his great room of fellowship, and the actual doorway is sprinkled with blood, and just as we pass into the Epistle we have that great watchword,

'The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.'

"There is a remedy, thank God, and it is about that remedy that we must try to speak now. We might give the time to testimony and confirmation from the Word, but I feel we ought to take that sentence and put it at the top of the pyramid. It is not enough to say, 'I believe the blood of Jesus cleanses from all sin,' it is enough for our own hearts if we have the experience and know it, but there are people who want to reason, and if we have inquiring minds we want to reason ourselves . . . People in the world think, and we ought to think according to the mind of Christ. Let us think about this tremendous statement of cleansing through the blood of Christ. As you go on through this Epistle, John gives us a wonderful pyramid of truth that you can build up and confirm your faith in our wonderful redemption . . . .

'And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.'

"I think this is one of the most wonderful verses in the whole of Scripture. That is as it were the ground plan of redemption, and John had got that deep in his heart and deep in all his thoughts. His Gospel is just the setting forth of the Son who was sent of the Father to be the Saviour of the world. That is the foundation, a Son, the only begotten Son of God, sent to be, what? A model? an ideal? a teacher? No, to be the Saviour of the world. That is our foundation.

"The next reference is 3. 5.

'And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin.'

"and with that bracket the 8th verse, the latter part

'For this purpose the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil.'

"Salvation means the taking away of sin. John goes right to the root of it with that wonderful inspired perception of his. He was not logical as Paul was, building up the argument step by step. Why did He come? To deal with sin and destroy the works of the devil. The word used is the same as the word used 'to destroy' in connection with the temple being destroyed, the whole structure being taken to pieces, that is what the Son of God came to do to the works of the devil, to take it all to pieces, send it down in ruins, that is the great purpose of salvation.

"Now a little further down in the 16th verse

'hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us.'

"That was the mode of action: self-sacrificing love in the heart of the Father coming through the Son in a great act of love. Right from Bethlehem to Calvary he was laying down that life for you and me.

"Next, chapter 4, verse 10.

'Herein is love, not that we loved God.'

"(That would be the natural thing if we realised all that He did for us),

'. . . but that he loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.'

"And so we have the mighty application, an atoning sacrifice. It is that word 'propitiation' we must hold on to. Turn back to chapter 2, verse 2.

'He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.'

"Now those are the passages we ought to build up as it were in this pyramid, and as the top stone put this word:

'The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin,'

"but you need the whole pyramid to uphold the top stone."