“For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.”
that he was cleansed
“Cleansed” means purification. This is cleansing of sins in the moral sense. We get our word “catharsis” from the Greek word of this phrase.
He. 1:3, “Who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.”
He 9:14, 22, “… how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? … 22 And according to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission.”
1 Jn 1:7, 9, “But 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….9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
God obliterated our sins. They are forever gone, forgiven, and forgotten.
from his old sins
“Old” denotes a point of time in the past, long ago, when we were non-Christians. Christ paid for our “old sins” on the cross. He did all the work on the cross in forgiving us of our sins.
“Sins” mean to miss the mark.
PRINCIPLE:
To remember our forgiveness is to keep our appreciation for the work of the cross fresh.
APPLICATION:
Napoleon said, “A mind without a memory is like a fortress without a garrison.” Unless we remember the things we have in Christ, we will develop spiritual blindness to our forgiveness.
While attending seminary in Dallas, President Kennedy was shot at a spot I passed every day going to seminary. After the shooting, people milled around the area in great numbers. As time went on, fewer and fewer people came to the site. The place faded in its wonder. Unless Christians renew our memory of forgiveness, the reality of Christianity will fade. Familiarity breeds contempt. Long driving on superhighways dulls the sense of speed.
Is 38:17, “Indeed it was for my own peace
That I had great bitterness;
But You have lovingly delivered my soul from the pit of corruption,
For You have cast all my sins behind Your back.”
Is 44:22, “I have blotted out, like a thick cloud, your transgressions,
And like a cloud, your sins.
Return to Me, for I have redeemed you.”
Ps 103:12, “As far as the east is from the west,
So far has He removed our transgressions from us.”
Mi 7:19, “He will again have compassion on us,
And will subdue our iniquities.
You will cast all our sins
Into the depths of the sea.”
He 10:17, “Then He adds, ‘Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.'”
1 Jn 2:12, “I write to you, little children,
Because your sins are forgiven you for His name’s sake.”
Re 1:5, “And from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood.”
