"
God may, and does, know much against me when I know nothing against
myself; and it is just here that our constant need of the cleansing Blood
comes in. If the Bible doctrine of the clean heart meant the eradication
of sin, a state of sinlessness, that is, absolute perfection, what need
would we then have of the cleansing Blood at all? Though Jesus Christ may
have "cleansed us from all unrighteousness," so that we "have a conscience
void of offense," so that we "know nothing against ourselves," yet we need
the Blood to cleanse from the sins which our eyes fail to detect, and of
which our conscience takes no cognizance. It is failure to see this that
has led many astray at this point. Having been cleansed and having "no
more conscience of sins" (Heb. x. 2), they imagine they _have_ no more
sin. How superficial is some people's idea of sin! How little conception
have they of the Pauline doctrine of sin! He speaks of sin as "exceeding
sinful." How subtle it is! how far-reaching! In their daring ignorance
some have actually taken the penknife, like Judah's foolish king, and cut
a whole petition out of the prayer which the Lord taught His disciples. He
taught them to pray, "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors;" but
these modern lights in their darkness are correcting their Teacher, and
have cut out that petition, and thrown it away. "No need have we to
confess our sin, for we have none to confess, and therefore we have no
debts to be forgiven." Poor mistaken people! never more need of confession
and forgiveness than when they are speaking thus! The holiest of men are
the men who lie the lowest before the Holy One, confessing that which
they know only too well (because the truth is in them), that they "have
sin," offering the sacrifices with which God is ever well pleased, "a
broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart" (Ps. li. 17). The nearer we
get to Him "whose head and whose hair are white as wool, white as snow"
(Rev. i. 14), to the Ancient of days "whose garment is white as snow"
(Dan. vii. 9), the more conscious are we of the dullness of our whiteness,
of the vast difference between our whitest and His whiteness; and this
consciousness humbles one. "What is it to have sin? What is sin?" asked a
great leader once, and he answered his own question thus: "It is to come
short of the glory of God; and in this sense we sin every moment of our
lives in thought, word, and deed." Is there a man on earth who can stand