The Daily Word of Righteousness

The Blood—Forgives and Cleanses, #4

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad. (II Corinthians 5:10—NIV)

When we use filthy language God does not notice. We are covered with the blood. God sees our behavior only through the blood. Our behavior would not result in spiritual death.

No Christian need worry about the Judgment Seat of Christ. No matter how he behaves, God sees him only through the blood of Christ. What a wonderful salvation! A person would be a fool not to accept Christ. He can accept the blood covering and then live as he pleases, being assured that, unlike everyone else in the world, he never will have to account for his behavior. Wonderful!

This is what is preached today. What do you think would be the result of such preaching? You've got it. Churches containing many members who are not diligently serving the Lord.

One of the main ways in which the blood is correctly employed is to wash our robe, our behavior. The blood does not cover our sins, it washes away our sinful behavior. We do not mean by this that it only forgives our sins, it actually changes our behavior. The blood of the cross produces moral transformation. The blood of the cross brings forth the new righteous creation that God is looking for under the new covenant, the fruit of the moral image of Christ in the believer.

But how do we wash our robe in the blood of the Lamb? We do so by confessing our sins and resolutely turning away from them, with the help of the Lord. When we do this God is faithful and righteous to forgive our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. This is how we wash our robe, our behavior.

It is absolutely true that because of the blood of Christ God keeps forgiving us. But this is on the condition, and only on the condition, that we are walking in the light of His will, keeping the commandments of Christ and His Apostles.

It is not at all true that God keeps on forgiving the sins of careless Christians who made a profession of faith some time ago and now are not serving Christ fervently, not presenting their body a living sacrifice, not carrying their personal cross behind Jesus.

This is the tremendous error of our time—that all churchgoers who make a profession of faith in Christ are continually forgiven. There is no scriptural basis whatever for this delusion.

The truth is, multitudes of Christians in the United States are under condemnation because they are living worldly lives. Their Christianity consists of a weekly attendance at church. There is no fervency, no pressing into the rest of God, no exhorting one another daily to push ahead in God. They are spiritually dead and do not realize it. Yet their leaders keep assuring them that they are about to leave the earth in a "rapture." However unwittingly, they are being lied to and they do not care enough to make certain from the Bible that what they are hearing is the truth.

To be continued.