Mountain Top Magazine #6

Mountain Top Magazine #6

Jesus Has, By Himself, Purged Our Sins

A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver

"God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, whom He hath appointed heir of all things, by Whom also He made the worlds; Who being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.” (Hebrews 1:1-3)

Jesus sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high because He had accomplished His work and merited this high position. He had effectively, forever, and once for all PURGED OUR SINS. All of salvation is taking place in the wake of such a great work. As a result of Christ purging our sins He has been exalted, men and their offerings have been made acceptable, and we shall be presented to the Father as a pure and spotless bride. 

A TRUTH TO BEHOLD AND BELIEVE

Redeemed men must have a conscience awareness of this purging if they are going to live boldly before God. They can only have confidence to stand before Him if they know that He is not against them. Ignorance of the fact or else failure to believe that Christ has purged their sins will cause men to remain bound by sin for he such a man “is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins” (2 Pet 1:9).

Christ HAS purged our sins. He came and fulfilled His purpose in doing so. As it is written, “And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness” (Mal 3:3). Jesus has once for all purged men of their sins and is in the process of purifying them. The knowledge of this will cause them to endure hardness, rejoice in tribulation and live by faith and patience.

THE EFFECTS

A Purged Conscience. In the present day we are a contrast to those who lived under the sacrificial system of the law who under “a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, [could] never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually” were never made perfect. Otherwise those sacrifices would “have ceased to be offered because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins” (Heb 10:1-2). “But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year for it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins” (Heb 10:3-4). But now, Jesus “after He had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God from henceforth expecting till His enemies be made His footstool. For by one offering He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified” (Heb 10:12-14).

The Removal of Sin has a Forward Working as Well. When Christ purged our sins He didn’t just provide a salvation to deal with our past. He provided a salvation to provide a holy future. The removal of sin and a clear conscience before God enables man “to serve the living God” (Heb 9:14). This is actually depicted in the Passover meal and the subsequent Feast of Unleavened Bread. 

“And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, ‘Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, Concerning the feasts of the Lord, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are my feasts. Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is the sabbath of rest, an holy convocation; ye shall do no work therein: it is the sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings. These are the feasts of the Lord, even holy convocations, which ye shall proclaim in their seasons. In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the Lord's passover. And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the Lord: seven days ye must eat unleavened bread.’” (Leviticus 23:1-6)

After the Lamb is sacrificed it is right for men to no longer have part of the leaven of sin anymore. “Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us” (1 Cor 5:7). It is as though we are living in a continuous Feast of Unleavened Bread. We have been purged from our sins and they have no more part in our lives.

We are a Holy Tree Bringing Forth Good Fruit. Jesus said “I am the True Vine, and My Father is the Husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit” (Jn 15:1-2). We are the tree of God. Individually and collectively we shall be presented to the Father with not a single unfruitful branch thus making us more productive in the world to come. In the end there will be no bad trees, no bad fruit, no unfruitful branches. Only holy branches that have been granted into one holy tree producing a multitude of holy fruit. For Christ has purged our sins. He has sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high, and from thence the Spirit has been poured out upon us. “The wilderness [has become] a fruitful field, and the fruitful field [shall] be counted for a forest” (Isa 32:15).