JESUS
LOVED US
“To Him that Loved us.”
Some old manuscripts have the present participle here,
so that we can read
GOD’S EXPRESSION to us, here, as:
“To Him that Loves us.”
***
AND, Of course,
“INSPIRATION DOES NOT ALWAYS
‘RUN in the SAME SET of TRACKS”
(i.e., Moses came down from God
with Tablets of Stone,
which WERE IN SOME LANGUAGE
YET, WE KNOW GOD TOLD US,
“DO NOT MURDER”, etc.,
AS GOD’S DIRECTLY INSPIRED
COMMAND TO US, TODAY, ALSO. )
***
SO, it is true either way,
as God has Loved His people
“with an Everlasting Love”.
(Jeremiah 31:3.)
Yet the past tense is very appropriate to the context,
and is less liable to the “perversions of subjective religion”.
***
JESUS Loved us before we had any existence
except in His Own Mind and Purpose,
for GOD’S ETERNALLY GIVING GRACE
“was Given us in Christ Jesus
before the World Began,”
or, more literally,
“before times of eons.”
(II Timothy 1:9.)
***
Our text, however,
relates Christ’s Love
to the Entire Cleansing Power of His Blood.
***
JESUS’ Offering of Himself
on the Cross to Bear our sins in His Own Body
was the Supreme Manifestation of His Love,
and no doubt this is the primary meaning of these words,
“To Him that Loved us.”
***
God Commended His Love Toward us,
in that, while we were yet sinners,
Christ Died for us.”
(Romans 5:8.)
***
“By this we perceive the Love of God,
because He Laid Down His Life for us.”
(I John. 3:16.)
***
Yes, GOD Loved us when we were unlovely,
unloving, and unlovable;
and so we can be sure
that He will Continue to Love us
as He teaches us to Love Him
and Recreates us in the Image of Himself.
***
JESUS
WASHED US
“And Washed us”
***
So we were dirty.
This is the Awful Truth
that self-righteous sinners balk at confessing.
***
But God is of Purer Eyes than to Behold evil,
and Cannot Look on iniquity.
“You Are of Purer Eyes than to Behold evil,
and Can Not Look on iniquity:
therefore You look on them
that deal treacherously,
and Hold Your Tongue
when the wicked devours the man
that is more righteous than he?”
(Habakkuk 1:13.)
***
If we were Ever
to be Acceptable in GOD’S Sight,
we had to be Cleansed Up.
***
Moreover, only the Power of God could Wash us Clean.
All human efforts fail, and man at his best is still only vanity.
The supposed good works of the self righteous
are vile in the Sight of God, for:
“all our righteousness’s
are as filthy rags.”
(Isaiah 64:6.)
***
All sin is In the CREATED HUMAN Creature,
and All the Power of Cleansing is in the Creator.
***
Some old manuscripts read,
“and loosed us.”
The English words do not look alike,
but in Greek there is a difference
of only one letter in spelling
and the pronunciation is practically the same.
There is no vital difference in meaning:
“loosed” calls attention to the bondage of sin,
which also is Scriptural Truth.
I prefer the reading “Washed,”
which has better manuscript authority
and is in accord with the Usual Expressions of Scripture.
If we have Trusted the same Savior that John knew,
He Washed us.
***
FROM
OUR SINS
“Washed us from our sins.”
No mention here of anybody Else’s sins,
but of OUR sins.
*
No mention here of Adam’s sin,
but of our OWN sins.
*
Adam’s sin is discussed elsewhere in the Bible,
and Christ’s Atonement Covers it;
HOWEVER,
before THE JUDGMENT SEAT of GOD,
the Responsibility of THE SINS
COMMITTED AGAINST GOD
by Adam’s descendants
is not Adam’s Responsibility
but the Responsibility
of EACH INDIVIDUAL SINNER.
***
Beware, IF YOU WOULD,
of half-baked preaching
which so magnifies the sin of Adam
as to excuse the sins
of ADAM’S descendants.
***
In all honesty, you cannot repent for Adam,
nor are you commanded to do so:
even if some preachers are confused,
God Knows that you are not to be blamed
for Adam’s sin.
***
You are Commanded to Repent for yourself,
and by God’s Grace you can
and must REPENT.
***
Our sins, our own sins, only our own sins,
can separate between us and our God.
(Isaiah 59:2.)
***
These are OUR sins
from which we need Cleansing;
these are OUR sins
from which JESUS
has Washed us.
***
IN HIS
OWN BLOOD
“To Him that Loved us,
and Washed us from our sins
in His Own Blood.”
***
It was;
“not possible that the blood of bulls
and of goats should take away sins.”
(Hebrews 10:4.)
***
And of mere human beings,
“None can by any means
redeem his brother,
nor give to God a ransom for him.”
(Psalm 49:7.)
***
Only the precious blood
of the Son of God,
the Lamb Slain
from the Foundation of the World,
could Accomplish this Cleansing.
***
When did JESUS Wash us
from our sins in His Own Blood?
***
Some people are confused on this question,
but there is no need of confusion.
The washing was in the Purpose of God from Eternity;
***
WE SEE THIS in REVELATION 13:8,
after LOST MEN are DESCRIBED
WHO WORSHIP THE BEAST
and THE DRAGON; SATAN:
in REVELATION 13:3-7;
***
“all the ( LOST ) world wondered after the beast.
And they worshiped the dragon
which gave power to the beast:
***
and they worshiped the beast, saying,
Who is like the beast?
who is able to make war with him?
***
And there was given to him
a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies;
and power was given to him
to continue forty and two months.
***
And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God,
to blaspheme His Name, and His Tabernacle,
and them that dwell in Heaven.
***
And it was given to him
to make war with the saints,
and to overcome them:
and power was given him
over all kindred, and tongues, and nations.
***
“And all that dwell on the Earth
will Worship Him,
whose names are not Written
in the Book of Life
of the Lamb Slain from
the Foundation of the World.”
(Revelation 13:8),
***
JESUS BLOOD
was actually Shed at Calvary
nearly 21 centuries ago.
***
All this was long before you and I were born,
yet we were in the Mind of God.
In personal application,
we were Legally Washed from our sins
when we first came to Trust
in JESUS Precious Blood.
***
“For all have sinned,
and come short of the Glory of God;
Being Justified Freely by His Grace
through the Redemption
that is in Christ Jesus:
***
Whom God has set forth to be a Propitiation
through Faith in His Blood,
to Declare His Righteousness
for the Remission of sins that are past,
through the Forbearance of God;
***
To declare, I say,
at this time His Righteousness:
that He might be Just,
and the Justifier of him
which Believes in Jesus.”
(Romans 3:23-26.)
***
Now, this Legal Cleansing
at the Beginning of our Christian experience
Is Once for All, Perfect and Eternal,
with no need or possibility of loss or improvement.
***
JESUS
“Washed us from our sins
in His Own Blood,”
***
As far as
Eternal Judgment is concerned,
that is it.
***
JESUS’
CONTINUED
CLEANSING
Legal relationship, however,
is not the same thing
as Spiritual Fellowship.
***
As children of God, we need to maintain
(or, when we lose it, to regain) Fellowship
with our Heavenly Father.
***
Maintaining Spiritual Fellowship
with The GOD of The Universe
calls for the Cleansing Power
of the Blood of Jesus Christ,
not now for Justification,
but for Sanctification:
“If we keep on walking in the Light,
as He is in the Light,
we have Fellowship with one another,
***
and the Blood of Jesus Christ His Son
Keeps On Cleansing us
From all sin.”
(I John 1:7.)
***
This is Maintaining Fellowship
by walking in the Light.
Since none of us walks without stumbling:
***
“For in many things we offend all.
If any man offend not in word,
the same is a perfect man,
and able also to bridle the whole body”
(James 3:2),
***
God tells us
how to regain that Fellowship
( WHICH IS STILL
by Virtue of JESUS Blood):
***
“If we keep on confessing our sins,
He is Faithful
and Just to Forgive us our sins,
and to Cleanse us
from all unrighteousness.”
(I John 1:9.)
***
GOD is Faithful
in this Forgiveness and Cleansing
because it is According to His Word,
and He is Just in it because
OUR FORGIVENESS
by GOD
is upon the Merits
of the Blood of Jesus Christ.
***
JESUS’ KINGS
AND PRIESTS
“And has Made us Kings
and Priests to God
and His Father.”
***
The tense of the verb is Greek aorist,
and the meaning is that JESUS Made us Kings
and Priests at the same time
that He Manifested His Love to us
by Washing us from our sins
in His Own Blood.
***
Here also, Provision is one thing
and Experience is another.
***
While we LOOK FORWARD
to Eternal Glory with JESUS;
***
We ought to rejoice now
in our position with the King of kings:
***
AND SERVE AND REIGN
in JESUS PRESENT KINGDOM on EARTH,
DURING the CURRENT AGE of CHURCHES
as JESUS’ KINGS and PRIESTS:
***
“You are a Chosen Generation,
a Royal Priesthood, an Holy Nation,
Aware of The Godhead 