1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” To “purify” (katharizo) is to cleanse the spiritual heart from the filth, pollution and contamination of sin. As the child of God is sanctified through the washing of the Word of God and the cleansing work of the Holy Spirit, he is more and more becoming like Jesus Christ, thus he is being freed from the admixture of a life controlled by the flesh and the world, to enjoying a Holy Spirit led life.
Chemistry has performed many wonderful feats of transformation. What is more black and dirty and unpromising than coal tar? Yet it has been changed into the most beautiful useful colors and lotions.
What can be more filthy and unpromising than a God-hating, sin loving, blaspheming sinner, steeped in a cesspool of iniquity, and possessed by the spirit of the devil? Yet the purifying grace promised in 1 John 1:9 has changed many such a man and enabled them to become fellow workers of the Lord Jesus.
One such man was John Bunyan – He was born to hard working parents who tried to set John on the right course in life, yet rebellion moved him into a life of darkness, becoming the ring leader of many youth who loved all manners of vice and ungodliness.
God was faithful to warn John, he writes, “The Lord even in my childhood, did scare and affright me with fearful dreams and did terrify me with dreadful visions.” Even in his adult life John was able to recognize God judgments and mercy in his life, yet still retained his hard heart. John writes, “I sinned still and grew more and more rebellious against God and careless of my own salvation. It was my delight to be taken by the devil at his will: being filled all unrighteousness.” He loved sinning for the devil, indulging the flesh with all the world had to offer.
However, after suffering the consequences of sin, John finally surrendered to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. The Lord did a powerful cleansing in John’s spiritual heart, enabling him to become a great soldier of Christ, standing against false teachings in the church and a hard worker in the spread of the Gospel. His stand ended him up in prison for 12 years, were he enjoyed the Holy Spirit’s enablement to write the famous Christian allegory, “Pilgrims Progress.”
The blood of Christ is a life changing, purifying cleanser of the Spiritual heart enabling the worst God hating sinner to repent and become a solder of Christ who is equipped to serve the Lord, even in the most difficult circumstances in life. Any repentant sinner could be used of God to do a work that changes lives long after they have gone home to be with the Lord.
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