It’s great to be saved from sin’s penalty, but how can we practically deal with daily defilement?
There’s a wonderful verse that says, “If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 Jn 1:7). This isn’t about sinners being saved from sin’s domination, but saints being saved from sin’s defilement. It’s not pointing to a fresh application of the blood—if believers sin, there is no need for us to be saved again. It is talking about a fresh appreciation of Christ’s blood. It is not His once-for-all sacrifice in the past, but the ongoing cleansing He gives in the present so we have unhindered fellowship with Him. Here’s what happened. The priest killed the red heifer “outside the camp” (Num 19:3) where we are to go in identifying with our Lord (Heb 13:13). The blood didn’t go into the tabernacle, for atonement is not in view. It was sprinkled “seven times directly in front of the tabernacle” (Num 19:4), the place of public confession. Then the animal was burnt completely to ashes, along with “cedar wood and hyssop” (v 6), a picture—as we saw earlier in the cleansing of the leper (Lev 14)—of God providing the New Covenant for all those “from the least…to the greatest” (Jer 31:34). Scarlet was also added, the word used as worm in the Lord’s prophecy, “I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised by the people” (Ps 22:6). This reminds us to take very seriously the Lord’s great humiliation in order to lift us up. The ashes were taken and stored in perpetuity, always available for those defiled in the way. Christian, do you regularly spend time making sure you’re clean before Him? “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 Jn 1:9). Only then will our fellowship be sweet.