“Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?  Are you walking daily by the Savior’s side?” We sing that hymn quite often, but do we ever consider the words that we are singing?  God desires to have fellowship with us.  I John 1:3 tells us: “That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.”  The creator of the universe created us. He loves us!  Is it any wonder that the world wants to destroy where we came from, and tell us that we evolved so that they can take away the truth that we were made in God’s image and in His likeness?  God wants to have a personal relationship with us.  He wants to be our Father.  We are His personal creation!

I John 1:4 tells us: “And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.”  The Father wants us to have full joy.  We live in a time when people are depressed, discouraged, bitter, and angry!  There is so much anger amongst humanity!  God does not want that for us. He wants us to have joy!  That is His greatest desire.  The only way to have that joy is if we have a personal relationship with Him.  However, our sin causes our fellowship with God to be broken.  It separates us from Him.  Sin is the whole reason that people are lost.  Sin separates us from God before we are saved, but it can also separate us from Him after we are saved.  To have fellowship with God, we need to first take care of our sin problem.  We need forgiveness.

There are two types of forgiveness.  The first one is judicial forgiveness.  The whole theme of the book of Romans is a treaty on judicial forgiveness and that we are guilty before God.  If there was a supreme court of the universe, and it was to look at our lives, it would find that we were born in sin, we chose to sin and sin separated us from God.  Legally, we are guilty before God, but Jesus Christ stepped into eternity.  He was born in a manger, lived a perfect life, died on Calvary’s cross, and offered His sinless blood to pay for our sin.  Yes, we were found guilty!  Yes, we were destined to go to Hell.  But, Jesus Christ paid the price for our sin with His own blood, and the Father accepted the payment once and for all!  That is judicial forgiveness.  If we have accepted Christ as our Savior, we are justified and have been declared righteous before God.  Romans 3:22 says: “Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe…”.  Romans 3:25 says: “Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God.”  Are we washed in the blood of Jesus Christ?  I John 1:7: “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.”

Once we have judicial forgiveness (we are saved), we then need parental forgiveness.  Yes, we still sin after we get saved!  Therefore, we need parental forgiveness.  We are His children and He is our Father, so when we sin, we need to ask Him for forgiveness.  Our fellowship with the Father is damaged when we sin.  Judicial forgiveness begins our relationship with God and parental forgiveness maintains that relationship.  I John 1:8-10 tells us: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.”  If we confess our sin to God, our fellowship with Him is restored.