This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. (6) If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: (7) 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. (8) If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. (9) If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (10) If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
By the message may, I think, be considered the whole sum and substance of the Gospel. For the Apostle having before so blessedly introduced the Lord Jesus Christ, next tells the Church the purport of the divine revelation he brought. And, by the general expression of light, to which God in his threefold character of Person is compared, is meant to say, that everything of darkness, (which sin, in all its multiform shapes, may well be called), must, of consequence, be directly opposed to God. Hence, here is an infallible mark to know the Church, and every individual of the Church by. For, if any man remain in the dark, and blind, and ignorant state of nature in which he was born, unconscious of the plague of his own heart, ignorant of Christ's Person as God-Man, ignorant of his offices, characters, and relations, hath never been regenerated by the Holy Ghost, and is still in the Adam-state, dead in trespasses and sins; for such an one to talk of having fellowship and communion with God, when he neither knows God nor himself; this shews him to be deceiving himself; with saying peace, peace, when there is no peace! Reader! pause over the account, for it is truly awful. And what makes it yet more so is, that it is much more general than is supposed. Our Lord hath given us the representation of a whole professing Church of this kind, in that of Laodicea; Revelation 3:14-18. They thought themselves rich, and increased with goods, and needed nothing, whereas He, whose eyes are as a flame of fire, searching the heart, and trying the reins, discovered, that they were wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. And that same Almighty Lord only knows, what multitudes there are of the same character in the present hour, mingling up in what are called Gospel Churches, in a pharisaical righteousness of their own! Such I mean, as though they hold the blessed doctrines of God the Father's everlasting love, in having chosen, the Church; God the Son's redeeming love, in working out salvation by his blood and righteousness; and God the Spirit's regenerating mercy for an entrance into the kingdom of heaven; yet consider these but only part means, or but procuring causes, to their best, and (as they call them) sincere endeavors. In all such instances it may be truly said, darkness hath covered the earth, and gross darkness the people; Isaiah 40:2. For, for men to profess having fellowship with God, while walking thus in the vanity of their own minds, is the most awful of all self-deceptions!
But what a blessed relief is it, to the soul of a poor self-condemned and self loathing sinner, to be so graciously taught by God the Spirit, in this divine scripture, that if walking in the light, as he is in the light; that is, being enlightened by God the Spirit to see, as God sees, sin to be exceeding sinful; to lay low in the dust before God, under the condemnation of our own mind, convinced that in us, that is, in our flesh, dwelleth no good thing; to be daily, hourly, coming to Christ, as the Christ of God; and to him, as a remedy, full and complete, and of God's own providing for sin; this proves the partnership, fellowship, and interest we have, in all that belongs to Christ, and in which all his redeemed have alike fellowship with God, and with one another; and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth its from all sin. Reader! pause over these wonderful words, and ponder them well. The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth from all sin. Not the blood of bulls, or goats, or lambs, or sacrifices upon a thousand altars! Not the ordinances, means of grace, services, sacraments, prayers, tears, reforms, repentance, or the whole world of offerings, commutations, or charities, even though men would give the fruit of their body for the sin of the soul! Not these. For so far are they, any of them, or all of them put together, from recommending to the favor of God, that they are offensive to God, unless themselves are cleansed, and perfumed in that blood of Christ, which hath perfumed all heaven! Oh! the preciousness of this scripture. The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin! Every word is bigger with importance than all the world! The blood of Jesus Christ. Nothing less than Christ's blood, can take away sin. And no blood but the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, can take away sin. And none but the Son of God, one with God, and equal with God, can he competent to this vast work. And not only cleanseth from sin, but all sin. Original sin, actual sin, natural sin, spiritual sin, universal sin, yea, all sin. And it cleanseth from all sin, by the infinite dignity of his Person who offered it, the infinite preciousness of the blood he shed for it and the infinite merit, efficacy, and everlasting power of it in that in its cleansing, it cleanseth so as to prevent all future defilements. Oh! the glory of this perfect, full, and finished salvation! It is a peace-speaking blood; Hebrews 12:24, a soul-cleansing, sweet smelling blood; Ephesians 5:2, a full redeeming blood, for in it we have redemption of sins according to the riches of his grace; Ephesians 1:7. And neither the powers of hell, nor the remains of sin in our own nature, can bring anything to counteract its efficacy, in the souls that have been cleansed by it. And the Church here on earth, which, through the leadings of God the Holy Ghost, are come to the blood of sprinkling, as well as the Church in heaven, have all the same divine cleansing. The company John saw around the throne, were samples of the whole Church; who had washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb; Revelation 7:14. Reader! write down this blessed scripture for hourly use. Yea, beg of God the Holy Ghost to indent it with his living engraving signet, in the tablet of thine heart: The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin!
I will not detain the Reader longer than is absolutely necessary, in observations on what follows. But the verses are too important to be hastily passed by. John, under the authority of the Holy Ghost, having told the Church, that the blood of Christ cleanseth from all sin; though he knew the Church is thereby cleansed from all sin, so that its guilt and filth shall no longer condemn; yet, by what he immediately adds, he plainly shews us, that the bodies of the saints are still the subjects of sin; neither will they be ever free from sin, until they drop into the grave, and return to corruption. If we say (saith John) that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. Now here is opened to us an interesting subject, which, if duly studied, under God the Spirit's teaching, explains to every child of God the blessedness of being cleansed from all sin in Christ; while yet the best of men still groan under the consciousness of in-dwelling corruption.
When a child of God is first awakened from sin, and regenerated by the Holy Ghost, and under his divine teachings, and quickening influences, he is brought to a sense of his lost estate by nature, and to a heartfelt knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ by grace; he feels a blessedness in what the Apostle here saith, under the authority of the Holy Ghost, that he hath fellowship with God in Christ, and that the blood of Christ cleanseth from all sin. But, in the midst of this soul-reviving truth, he feels, and groans under the daily workings of sin in his body, which he discovers to be virtually all sin. He would do good, but he finds evil present with him. He delights in the law of God, after the inward man; but he sees another law in his members warring against the law of his mind, and bringing him into captivity to the law of sin, which is in his members. The child of God ponders these things with the most poignant distress of soul; and, until they are explained to him by God the Holy Ghost himself, he never can discover a full and satisfying account.
As an humble means in the Lord's hand, I have, in several parts of this Poor Man's Commentary, (see particularly 2 Thessalonians 2:13) endeavored, and wholly on scriptural grounds to shew, that grace, when renewing the soul, makes no alteration upon the body. The body is wholly a mass of flesh and blood, and bones and arteries. It remains, therefore still carnal. All its pursuits, and desires, and affections, and appetites, are suited to its nature, which is daily tending to corruption. So that grace makes no change in this part of our nature, neither was it ever intended. The original sentence at the fall must be executed. Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return; Genesis 3:19. Hence it is to be sown at death a natural body, as it was first formed in the Adam-nature of our creation, but by virtue of our redemption by Christ it will be raised at the resurrection, a spiritual body. This is to form the triumphs of Christ, in raising our vile bodies, to be then fashioned like unto his glorious body. This is what the Apostle calls the redemption of our body, and which they who have the first fruits of the Spirit wait for; Romans 8:23. But in the mean time, a corrupt, sinful body, whose whole tendencies are corrupt, cannot but be in opposition to the renewed part of the child of God, who by regeneration is wholly spiritual, being quickened, which was before dead in trespasses and sins. It is no wonder, therefore, that in a constant daily warfare between such opposite principles, the child of God should go mourning. How shall it otherwise be, when a man's own body is everlastingly opposing his own soul? the flesh lusting against the spirit, and the spirit lusting against the flesh; and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would; Galatians 5:17
Reader! if this subject be well studied, under the teachings of the Holy Ghost, and in the lessons practically taken from the plague of a man's own heart; it would tend to clear up the point upon true scriptural evidence, and, under grace, enable a child of God to extract much good from the seeming evil. It would shew him, more and more, his own unworthiness before God, hide all pharisaical pride from his eyes, keep open a constant spring of true sorrow for sin, in making him loathe himself in his own sight; and, above all, endear Christ in the glories of his Person, blood, and righteousness, as the sole cause of salvation. But if men, unauthorized by scripture, untaught of God, will presume to be wise above what is written, and contend, that regeneration renews but in part, and that it is a work wrought alike in soul and body; that there is a progressive holiness and sanctification in the whole man; (though if the advocates for this doctrine would honestly confess, what their daily experience cannot but teach them, that they themselves are living witnesses against what they advance;) I say, it is not to be wondered at, that persons of this complexion are always hanging at an uncertainty, as to the condition of their spiritual state before God. For they are building up, in their own strength, a supposed holiness of their own, which is like erecting an house upon the mud, where there can be no foundation. And, as their whole life is at the best but a peradventure; at a peradventure they live and die.
I must beg the Reader's attention to another very sweet and interesting point, which the Holy Ghost hath here dwelt upon, by his servant John. If we confess our sins, (saith John), he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Is God's faithfulness and justice concerned to forgive the sins of his people on their confession of them? Yes! for having received an equivalent payment, yea, more than an equivalent, in the death of Christ; the faithfulness and justice of God are both engaged, in Covenant engagements, to discharge the Principal Debtor, now the Surety hath made him free. And in the pardon of all Christ's redeemed ones, the Lord remembers, and fulfils his everlasting Covenant; Isaiah 49:9; Zechariah 9:11. And the confession of sins in the pardoned, is not the cause of pardon, but the effect, This will always follow, where the grace of God brings salvation.
Moreover, it is among the precious testimonies of our enjoying communion with God, that we confess our sins before him. He that hath most communion an d fellowship with God will be most open and communicative. It is with God's friendship in this particular, as it is with man's: the more we love a man, the more we delight to unbosom ourselves to him. So with God in Christ, the more the Lord hath our confidence, the more we shall find grace to unfold to him, what we feel by reason of sin. Nay, as our sins and transgressions are all against God, the more sensibly we shall feel our love to him, the more we shall feel hurt at offending him. And, therefore, none will be so ready to rip open the soul before God, as that soul who loves God most, and dreads to do anything so as to be shy before him. And, as we know, that the Lord knows all our secret sins, which are in the light of his countenance, before we can inform him: so we also know, that so gracious is our God, that he hath pardoned them before we have confessed them, and before we called for mercy, he hath answered; Isaiah 65:24. Oh! what a thought to comfort us. None but God's friendship could admit a friendship like ours! His love, not our deservings, becomes the standard of his favor. Hence, our communion with him, is kept up on our part, in confessing our sins. And on his part, in pardoning them in Jesus.
I will not dwell upon the last verse in this Chapter, though I must not wholly pass it by. If we say that we have not sinned! Who among the sons of Adam will, or can say this? Original sin, actual sin, sins of omission and commission; all sin, and come short of the glory of God. To deny this, must argue a state of blindness indeed, which no truly regenerated child of God can be in! But I add no more.