11. What is the first step we need to take to benefit from all that God has done for us? Psalm 32:5. Consider Ephesians 2:8.
NOTE: ‘If we confess and forsake our sin; if we come to Jesus in penitence and humility of soul, acknowledging our inability to remove one spot or stain of sin, and relying wholly on the merits of a crucified Saviour, we may expect forgiveness; for His word is pledged. He has said that He will pardon our transgressions, and blot out our sins. We must dwell upon the matchless love and compassion of Jesus, and not upon our own unworthiness and sinfulness. If we look to ourselves, all will be darkness; but Jesus is all light and life, and we have only to “look and live.” We may look “unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame.” [Hebrews 12:2.] What tenderness, what mercy, what love, are here manifested!’ Gospel Workers, 1892 ed., page 436.
12. If we believe in the gift offered to us, what are we able to do if we sin? What does this allow God to do for us? 1 John 1:9. Compare Jeremiah 3:13, first part; Ezekiel 36:25-26.
NOTE: ‘I see the way wide open for Christians to be “cleansed from all unrighteousness.” It is in the fulfilment of this new covenant that that will be accomplished for which our Saviour taught us to pray, “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven:” for when God’s law is put into the hearts of His people, so that they truly love Him “with all the heart, and with all the soul,” then His kingdom is come within them, and then His will is done in them on earth as it is done in heaven. To the blessings of this new covenant, we may also apply other great and precious promises of our Saviour. “All things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in My name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.” When the Christian finds his sins taken away, and the new covenant fulfilled in him, so that he does “love God with all his heart, and with all his soul,” then “his joy is full,” and it never can be full until then. Accordingly, John, in writing his epistle, says, “these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.” And what does he then write, to give Christians fulness of joy? Why, that “the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin; that if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness; that He was manifested to take away our sins, and that “whosoever abideth in Him sinneth not.” These are the very things to give the Christian fulness of joy, and nothing short of these can do it.’ Charles Fitch: Views on Sanctification, page 14.