Reading: “The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” —1 John 1:7

Ay, but aged sinners may reply, is there any hope, any help for us? Is there any probability, any possibility, that we should find mercy and favour with the Lord? We who have lived so long without Him! We that have sinned so much against Him! Is there any hope that we white-headed sinners, who have withstood so many thousand offers of grace, and so many thousand motions of the Spirit, and so many thousand checks of conscience, and so many thousand offers of Christ and heaven, that we should obtain mercy, that we should have our hearts turned, our millions of sins pardoned, our vile natures changed and our poor souls changed?

Despair not, O aged sinner! Return unto the Lord and you shall be happy forever. With the Lord nothing is impossible, and for the grace of the gospel nothing is too hard.

There is virtue enough in the precious blood of Jesus Christ, to wash and cleanse away all sin. Not only to cleanse away the young man’s sins, but also to cleanse away the old man’s sins. Not only to cleanse a sinner of twenty years, but to cleanse a sinner of fifty, sixty, yea a hundred years old. “The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin”—not simply from sin, but from “all sin.”

There is such a power and efficacy in the blood of Christ, as is sufficient to cleanse all sorts of sinners from all sorts of sins. There is a virtue in the blood of the Lamb to wash out all the spots that are in the oldest sinners’ hearts; and therefore let not old sinners despair, let them not say there is no hope, there is no help, as long as this fountain, the blood of Jesus Christ, is open for all sorts of sinners to wash in.   

(Taken from “Apples of Gold” in The Works of Thomas Brooks, 1:275–277)

 

Long my imprisoned spirit lay,
Fast bound in sin and nature’s night;
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray—
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.

—Charles Wesley