Forgiveness and cleansing.
I. FORGIVENESS AND CLEANSING MUST BE CLOSELY ASSOCIATED. When God pardons he also cleanses. The first justification that treats as righteous by forgiveness is the seed of the second justification that makes righteous. It is often noted that it would be neither just in God nor wholesome for us that sin should be pardoned without the creation of a clean heart. But we should observe further that it would not even be possible for this to happen. For the essence of forgiveness is reconciliation, not a mere remission of penalties. Even if these are remitted, while personal enmity is cherished there can be no forgiving. To forgive is to effect a mutual reconciliation after alienation through wrong doing on one side, by concession on the other. The very act of reconciliation implies such a change in the person forgiven as involves the cessation of all opposition on his side. Now, in the root of it sin is just departure from God, and its ripe fruit is enmity to God. Forgiveness must, therefore, by its very nature, imply a cleansing from this sin.
II. GOD PROMISES PERFECT CLEANSING AND FORGIVENESS.
1. This is given by God. He only can forgive, since it is against him that we have sinned. He only can cleanse, since only the Creator can create anew.
2. This is given through Christ. Hints of the means only appear in the Old Testament. The gospel revelation brings it more clearly before us (1 Peter 2:24). In the sight of the cross we see the great assurance of deliverance from sin in the revelation of the means by which this is brought about. Since Christ has died for our sins we have good reason to ask for forgiveness and cleansing.
3. The promised cleansing and forgiveness are perfect; i.e.
III. PERFECT FORGIVENESS AND CLEANSING ARE TO BE RECEIVED THROUGH REPENTANCE AND FAITH.
1. As God accomplishes the perfect deliverance from sin, it is foolish for us to begin a small and imperfect and certainly futile cleansing on our own account. But we must desire the justification and the pardon, else it is unreasonable to expect God to bestow them. This desire, real and active, is repentance.
2. Then must follow faith. It is not necessary for us to understand the rationale of the atonement in order to profit by the fruits of it. But it is necessary to trust in the Saviour. Faith is a very different thing from an intellectual comprehension and conviction of a complex set of doctrines. It is a personal trust. This trust is an essential condition of cleansing and forgiveness. Till we yield ourselves to the influence of God's grace, and trust to his love, we cannot expect him to deliver us.