Praying DOES NOT cleanse from sin.
Joining a church DOES NOT cleanse from sin.
Living a good life DOES NOT cleanse from sin.
Being baptized in water DOES NOT cleanse from sin.
Partaking of the sacraments DOES NOT cleanse from sin.
Committing your life to Jesus DOES NOT cleanse from sin.
THE BLOOD OF JESUS — HIS BLOOD ALONE — cleanses from sin!
“For THE WAGES OF SIN is death; but the GIFT OF GOD IS eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23).
Sin pays singular wages: DEATH! Christ died for our
sins "according to the Scriptures" (1st Corinthians 15:3).
It took the DEATH OF
JESUS, and the shedding of HIS BLOOD, to pay sin's debt, and
bring REDEMPTION FROM SIN.
“And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and WASHED US FROM OUR SINS IN HIS OWN BLOOD” (Revelation 1:5).
We read in 1st Peter 1:18,19:
“Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; BUT WITH THE PRECIOUS BLOOD OF CHRIST, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.”
And again in 1st John 1:7 we read:
“But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and THE BLOOD OF JESUS CHRIST his Son cleanseth us from all sin.”
The only way to have your sins forgiven (and your name written in the Lamb's Book of Life) is by the precious blood of Christ Jesus. How do you receive God's gift of eternal life?
- Admit that you are a GUILTY sinner, under
the condemnation of God's Law (Romans 3:19). You and I deserve to be
punished in the flames of Hell for our sins. We are guilty and without
excuse. No one ever got saved who didn't realize that he was a sinner.
Romans 3:19, “Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to
them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and
all the world may become guilty before God.”
- Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ Who DIED on the cross for our sins, was BURIED and physically RESURRECTED from the dead three days later. Receive Christ's sacrifice on the cross as full-payment for your sins and you are saved. Acts 10:43, “To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins.”
That's it. It is one's faith in the
Gospel, because of the redeeming power of Christ's literal blood, that saves a
person. Please note that there are NOT steps to being saved. Salvation
isn't a process. We are saved by coming to Christ to be forgiven of our sins.
Repentance and belief are two parts of one step to be saved. The Bible says in
Mark 1:15, Repent ye, and believe the gospel. Believing the Gospel is the
subject compliment of the verb believe. We are not saved by repenting, we are
saved by BELIEVING; but no man has ever believed who didn't also repent. To
“repent” simply means to “think differently.”
In fact, you don't even have to “ask” God to forgive your sins, because Jesus has already paid for them, so all you have to do is receive forgiveness as a free gift.
No self-righteous works are required to be saved. In fact, adding anything to faith alone in Christ is no faith at all. Do not add or subtract from the gospel. We are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, plus or minus NOTHING!
You may have all sorts of questions, doubts, worries and fears, and that's ok, just so long as you place what faith you DO have in the Savior. It's normal to have some doubts. Just Enough Faith (faith is not the absence of doubt; but rather, the presence of believing). Even if you only have as much faith as a small seed the Bible says, that's ok, just so long as it's enough faith for you to believe on Jesus Christ to save your soul from sin and Hell (Romans 10:13). God does not require a degree of faith to be saved; no, rather, He just requires faith. Optimism is not faith. Saying you believe is not faith.
I like to use the illustration of a chair. I can
say all day that I believe a chair will support my weight if I stand on it, but
I haven't placed my trust in that chair until I actually stand upon it. Once I
get up on the chair, even if I was 99% sure the chair WOULDN'T hold up, I have
placed no less than 100% of my faith in that chair. Isn't that beautiful? That
means I can still have 100% faith in Jesus Christ, even though I may still have
99% doubt in my heart. Faith is the presence of just enough trust to receive the
gospel as full payment for my sins. If you've placed your hope in Christ's
death, burial and resurrection, then you are saved. Hoping for the best is not
faith. Faith is when you come as a sinner in need of a Savior, and you actively
place your trust upon Jesus Christ to forgive and save you, because of the blood
that He shed for you. Christ died, that's history; Christ died for my sins on
the cross and raised up, that's salvation!
Old Testament Blood Sacrifice Proves That Lordship Salvation is a Lie
There is a sincere but dangerous group of false teachers who propagate a heresy known as, Lordship Salvation. This is the errant philosophy that believing on Jesus is insufficient to save anyone. Lordship Salvationists ADD to the gospel. They add a requirement for people to leave the act of sin, forsake the sinful world and cease from sinful bad habits to be saved. They require a person to commit to changing their sinful ways (reform) as a prerequisite to placing their faith in Christ to be born again (regeneration). Biblically, it's the other way around, that is, regeneration comes first and then reformation. It is a satanic lie to teach that a person must reform before they can be regenerated by the Spirit of God.
Did you ever wonder why Dr. John MacArthur and his followers don't teach the importance and necessity of Jesus' literal, physical, blood? The doctrine of the blood of Jesus totally blows up the heresy of Lordship Salvation. It's Christ's literal, physical, precious, blood that washes our sins away, and not our commitment to cleanse our own ways and turn over a new leaf as they say.
In the Old Testament, God required the high priest to kill a male lamb, a perfect lamb without blemish (which pictured Christ), and to apply the lamb's blood to the mercy seat in the holy place. The holy place was in the innermost court of the tabernacle. There was no stipulation or requirement in the Old Testament that the Israelites cease from sinful bad habits in order for the lamb's blood on the mercy seat in the holy place to be valid!
When the Lord brought the 10th plague upon Egypt, the firstborn died. The only way to protect the firstborn was to kill a lamb and apply it's physical, literal, blood to the homes doorpost. It wasn't enough for the lamb to be killed. The blood had to be applied! The Lord said in Exodus 12:13, “WHEN I SEE THE BLOOD, I WILL PASS OVER YOU”!!! It is the BLOOD that saves, not the death! It is Jesus' blood that saves, not the death only as John MacArthur errantly teaches! The people weren't required to give up their sins before the high priest entered into the holy place. In fact, it was because of their sins that the high priest needed to apply the lamb's blood in the holy place.
How ridiculous it is for anyone today to claim that sin must be forsaken in order to come to Christ for salvation. The entire purpose of the Old Testament holy place and sacrifice of the innocent lamb, and application of its blood to the mercy seat in the holy place was to atone (cover) for the sins of the people for that year. It was BECAUSE OF THEIR SINS that the blood needed to be applied! The people weren't required to reform themselves, or cleanse themselves, as a prerequisite to the priest applying the blood. If we look even casually at the meaning and purpose of the work of the Old Testament high priest, it plainly exposes the heresy of Lordship Salvation. No one in the Old Testament was required to declare “Jesus is Lord” to be saved; but rather, their faith in the Lord was COUNTED for righteousness (Genesis 15:6).
When Adam and Eve sinned, Adam went and gathered fig leafs, sewing them together to make clothing in an attempt to cover their nakedness. But God immediately rejected Adam's fig-leaf religion. Instead, God killed an innocent animal, shedding its blood to provide skins of clothing for Adam and Eve. The innocent animal represented the coming Messiah Who would one day bleed and die for OUR SINS, giving His precious blood to wash our sins away for ever. It was the BLOOD that atoned for sin! From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible proclaims the necessity and importance of Jesus' literal, physical, precious, blood that cleanses away our sins!
Thank you Lord for washing my sins away with your blood!
“For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for IT IS THE BLOOD THAT MAKETH AN ATONEMENT FOR THE SOUL.” —Leviticus 17:11
“Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but BY HIS OWN BLOOD he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.” —Hebrews 9:12
