Pastor Barry's  "Chapter & Verse"  Day 173

June 25;   I John 1:9;   231/260(I);   ‘Cleansed & Righteous’

1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

The Bible teaches that on the cross, the Lord Jesus took the sins of humanity upon Himself and was punished for those sins so that we would not be.  2 Corinthians 5:21 tells us that when the Lord Jesus took our sins upon Himself, He gave us His right standing with His Father.  Since Jesus never sinned all of the blessings recorded in the Bible legally belonged to Jesus.  Our Lord did not take the blessings, He took the punishment for our sins instead and gave us the blessings that legally were His.  Jesus’ right standing with the Father is called righteousness.  Righteousness is a blessing given to us, we could not earn it, since we do sin.  Once we are Born Again, all of our past sins have been cleansed by the shed blood of Jesus.  Even though we are Born Again, and have been cleansed of all past sins, we still miss it, as a Christian and sin.  The Lord has provided a remedy for sins committed as a Christian.  We acknowledge our sin to the Lord and repent of that sin.  To repent means to turn away from.  Once we are Born Again, our spirit is recreated by the Holy Spirit.  Our spirit now has the love of God in it and the fruit of the Spirit.  As we learn more and more of what Jesus has done for us and the blessings that have been freely given to us, the Lord believes that we will desire to live for Him and the desire to sin and the temptation to sin will decrease.  When we do commit a sin, again, we repent of that sin and ask the Lord to forgive us.  He instantly does and our righteous position with the Lord is restored.