In light of our celebration of the Lord’s Table this Palm Sunday, it is fitting that this week’s memory verse from Robert J. Morgan’s book, One Hundred Bible Verses Everyone Should Know by Heart, would be I John 1:7, which says: But if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin (NASB).

In chapter 36 of his book, Morgan shares the following in relation to this verse of scripture. Most people think that they are so “good,” that God will obviously save their souls and accept them into His glorious Heaven. However, I have first-hand experience that there are those rare souls here and there who have lived such a life outside of both God’s law as well as man’s, that they cannot fathom how God could possibly accept them, rescue them, have mercy on their souls. My father was such a person. For that reason, the following account I find so poignant as well a pertinent to our time of communion tomorrow. I trust it blesses you as well.

Years ago, evangelist Charles Finney preached this verse (I Jn. 1:7) in Detroit, and afterward a stranger asked him to come to his home to talk with him about his soul. Against the advice of friends, Finney followed the man down a side street, into an alley, and through a darkened door into the back of an establishment. The man reached into his pocket and pulled out a revolver. He said, “You see this revolver? It has killed four people .... is there any hope for a man like me?”

Finney simply repeated the text from his sermon: “The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin.”

The man explained he owned a saloon and had sold every kind of substance to every kind of person. Again he asked, “Is there any hope for a man like me?”

And again Finney replied, “The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin.”

The man continued, “In the back of this other partition is a gambling joint and ... there isn’t a decent wheel in the whole place .... Men have gone out of that gambling place to commit suicide .... Is there any hope for a man like me?”

Finney said, “The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin.”

The man confessed he had cheated on his wife and been abusive to his family. Hanging his head, he asked, “Brother Finney, is there any hope for a man like me?”

Finney took the man by the shoulders and said, “Oh, son, what a black story you have to tell! But God says, ‘The blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.’”

The next night this man and his family came to Finney’s meeting, listened to the Gospel, and gave themselves to the Lord Jesus Christ.

The blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.

Charles Finney used this verse evangelistically, but in its actual context it is addressed to Christians. John was writing to church members, encouraging them to walk in the light and to confess their sins in order to keep their relationship with the Lord sweet and strong. We need to walk in the light.

Perhaps there is a sin into which you repeatedly fall. It’s unhealthy to allow that sin to remain unconfessed. If we know Jesus as our Savior, we don’t lose our salvation every time we sin, but we do lose something of the sweetness we should have with our Heavenly Father. We lose a clear conscience and an untarnished walk. How wonderful to confess our sins and walk in the light as He is in the light. 

Morgan ends his chapter with the following quote from Hannah Whitall Smith:

I find a speedy deliverance by simply declaring over and over again “The blood of Jesus cleanseth me from all sin”. It seems as if Satan cannot endure the mention of that name; he always takes his flight.

As we contemplate our time around the Lord’s table this coming Palm Sunday, let us remember Morgan’s comment that this verse of Scripture is addressed to Christians. There is not only no sin that you have committed that God cannot forgive, but we are commanded to not participate in the Lord’s ordinance of communion without relying upon this verse of Scripture and confessing all known sin in our lives and vowing again by God’s grace to forsake it. How could the Lord possibly command us to do that? It’s simple, because the blood of His Son Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. Soli Deo Gloria!