But some one objects, "I thought that when one became a Christian, and was made a partaker of the Divine nature, he had a clean heart?" Not necessarily. Many, many a one is born again, is pardoned and justified, and yet has not a "clean heart." "Forgiveness" is one thing, "Cleansing" is another, and one may possess the former without possessing the latter. For instance, take the case of David in Ps. li. He was one of God's people, a restored backslider, when he wrote that Psalm. "The Lord also hath put away thy sin" (2 Sam. xii. 13), said Nathan to him. But forgiveness, great and sweet as that gift was, was not enough for Israel's now so deeply-taught and penitent King. "Create in me a _clean_ heart" (Ps. li. 10), he cries. This is something over and above being "born again," over and above and beyond and deeper even than "forgiveness" (compare Ps. li. 2 and Jer. xxxiii. 8). See also the New Testament teaching on this point in 1 John i. 7, "The blood of Jesus Christ His Son _cleanseth_ us from all sin;" and 1 John i. 9, "He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to _cleanse_ us from all unrighteousness." Is the "cleansing" of verse 7 the same as the "cleansing" of verse 9? Most certainly not. The "cleansing" of verse 7 has to do with the _guilt_ of sin, with sin after it has been committed; this is the only sense in which the Blood of Jesus "cleanses," it washes white as snow from the guilt and stain of _actual_ transgression; that "cleansing" is retrospective. Now, this "Cleansing" of verse 7 is the "forgiving" of verse 9; both these words bear on a sinner's Justification. But the "cleansing from all unrighteousness" of verse 9 is something different from, something over and above the "forgiving" of verse 9, or the "cleansing" of verse 7; else, if they mean one and the same thing, would not the author be guilty of tautology? The "cleansing" of verse 9 is prospective, and refers to holiness of life, to our being saved from sin, from sinning. And you will notice that it is not the Blood of Jesus that does this, but Jesus _Himself_ by the exercise of His Almighty power. There is a great deal of confusion on this point in many minds, a confusion fostered, if not begotten, by some of our hymns. Powers are sometimes attributed to the Blood of Jesus, to the Death of Christ, which belong to Jesus Himself, to the living Christ. We are saved from sin's condemnation by the Blood, cleansed from the guilt of all sin, forgiven on the ground of the Blood; and in this connection we cannot possibly make too much of the Blood, too much of the Death of the Son of God--but we are saved from sin's power by Jesus Himself. "Himself (lit.) shall save His people from their sins" (Matt. i. 21). "We shall be saved _by His life_" (Rom. v. 10). "_He_ is faithful and just to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." The Blood "cleanses" in the sense of washing the sin away after it has actually been committed; He "cleanses" in the sense of