Under the Blood Ps. 32:1 CLICK TITLE FOR AUDIO

We had a question from a radio listener that we decided to answer in this broadcast.  The question concerns sins that are “under the blood.”  Here’s the question:“Thought maybe you could help answer a question that came up recently while having a ‘discussion’ with members of the Church of Christ.  Has to do with the fact that all a believers sins are under the blood of Christ and God can’t even see them.  They responded with, ‘if all the sins you commit AFTER you get saved are under the blood and God can’t see them, then why do you have to give account at the Judgement Seat of Christ for sins committed after salvation?  How can you give account for sins that God has no record of or can’t see?’  Then they added, ‘if all your sins are hidden from God under the Blood, how can God even chasten a believer? If He can’t see them, He can’t discipline you.’”

Now this is a great question and we hope to clearly address it from the Bible.  The question covers several topics and so we will try to answer them all without just repeating what we already know about the blood of Jesus, the judgment seat of Christ and the chastening of the Lord.

Sins Under the Blood – the first part of the question concerns “the fact that all of a believer’s sins are under the blood of Christ and God can’t even see them.”  The concept of sins under the blood of Christ is not a scriptural doctrine.  We sing the lyrics of a song by N. Vandall that say, “You ask me why I’m happy so I’ll just tell you why, Because my sins are gone; And when I meet the scoffers who ask me where they are, I say, ‘My sins are gone.’ They’re underneath the blood on the cross of Calvary, As far removed as darkness is from dawn; In the sea of God’s forgetfulness, that’s good enough for me, Praise God, my sins are gone!” But these lyrics are not scripture.

The three closest scriptures to lend doctrinal credence to the lyrics of this song are Ps 32:1, “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered” and Is 1:18, “… though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool,” and Heb 10:17, “… their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.”

Our sins are covered because God imputes the righteousness of Jesus Christ to us when we get saved and will not impute sin to us [Rom 4:3-8].  Our sins become white as snow because “the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin” [1 Jn 1:7].  Our sins are not remembered any more, not because God is forgetful, but because he chooses not to remember them based on the propitiation and substitution of Jesus Christ.

These verses are true concerning sin and our souls.  Once we receive Jesus Christ we are washed, we are justified, we are sanctified, and we are redeemed [1 Cor 6:11; Rev 5:9].  Nothing can separate us from God [Rom 8:38-39].  We have passed from death unto life [Jn 5:24].  We are going to be with Jesus in heaven when we die, no matter what [Jn 6:37].

But our bodies and spirits can still be defiled with sin.  2 Cor 7:1 says, “… let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.”  We still sin after we are saved because God didn’t save our bodies – we still have the same old flesh we had when we were saved.  Rom 7:18 says, “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing…”  And Rom 7:20 says, “Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.”  Listen, sin in our flesh is not hidden by the blood of Jesus Christ and it is not invisible to God.  He sees it, “Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do,” [Heb 4:13].

And when we sin in the flesh, it affects our fellowship with God and that sin must be confessed in order to be cleansed [1 Jn 1:7-9; Prov 16:6].  The Lord wants us to confess it and forsake it [Prov 28:13].  That young man who sinned in 1 Cor 5 was “churched” and when he repented he was received again in 2 Cor 2:6-11 and 2 Cor 7:9-13.  His sin wasn’t “under the blood,” if you will, until the blood of Jesus Christ had cleansed it [1 Jn 1:9].

Accounting for sins at the judgment seat of Christ – the second part of the question concerns this, “why do you have to give account at the Judgement Seat of Christ for sins committed after salvation?” After we are saved, our bodies become the temple of the Holy Ghost [1 Cor 6:19] and we are not our own.  Because we are bought with a price, we are to glorify God in our bodies and in our spirits which are God’s [1 Cor 6:20].  At the judgment seat of Christ, we are judged for the things done in our bodies [2 Cor 5:10].  The good things we have done in our bodies are rewarded [Col 3:23-24].  Paul knew, for instance, that he was going to receive the crown of righteousness [2 Tim 4:8].  By contrast, we are going to suffer loss for those bad things done in the body [Col 3:25].  As Paul showed us in 1 Cor 3:14-15, at the judgment seat of Christ you can receive a reward or you can suffer loss, but you are still saved because your soul is secure in Jesus Christ.  There is no one who makes it to the judgment seat of Christ that is in danger of going to hell.

Chastening a believer for sin – the third part of the question concerns this, “‘if all your sins are hidden from God under the Blood, how can God even chasten a believer?”  No doubt believers are chastened by the Lord [Heb 12:5-11] – it is the process whereby the Lord makes us “partakers of his holiness.”  What the Lord tells us to do about sin in our lives is to judge ourselves [1 Cor 11:31-32].  In other words, we are to read the Bible as if it were an x-ray machine – when it reveals sin in us we are to judge ourselves by the truth of the words of God and confess our sin to God [1 Jn 1:9; Prov 28:13].  Through this process of reading and doing the words of God we are cleansed by the word [Jn 15:3].  When we neglect to judge ourselves, the chastening of the Lord becomes more severe to turn us away from sin in our lives.  God surely sees the sin [Prov 15:3] and chastens us to yield “the peaceable fruit of righteousness” in us.

Conclusion: you see through this study how a simple misconception about a Bible doctrine can result in confusion until the doctrine is clearly taught and understood – once the doctrine is understood, it is actually better than the misconception!!