'In Christ full provision has been made for both aspects'
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In the Lord Jesus we receive forgiveness of our sins and also the authority and power to destroy the works of the devil in the heavens and on the earth (I John 3:8; Matthew 28:18).
God the Father has given to Christ full authority to forgive sin and to retain sin. Christ holds the keys. He can declare whomever He will to be forgiven of sin or to remain guilty of sin. Christ’s authority is absolute.
The Father has given to the Son all authority to declare blameless whomever He will and to give eternal life to whomever He will (John 5:21-30, 17:2). There is no personage who has the authority or power to call into question the judgments of Christ. Christ has offered full pardon to each individual who comes to Him. The complete forgiveness of sins is the first half of the atonement.
The forgiveness or retention of the guilt of sin is the beginning of the exercise of God’s eternal judgment on sin. The judgment is eternal, in the case of the Christian redemption. Once a Christian has confessed and repented of a sin and Christ has forgiven that sin, the guilt of the sin never again can be held over the Christian, provided he does not turn and practice it again.
The sin has been forgiven and now we are able to deal with the power of it. Sometimes the power of a sin over us is broken immediately. In other instances we have to endure a fierce struggle against some particular sin. However, total victory shall come if we keep calling on the Lord for help, naming the sin as sin and assigning it to the Lake of Fire.
The authority of the accuser, Satan, is weakened because he cannot hold the guilt of the sin over the saint. God has forgiven it in Christ.
The individual who keeps on pressing forward in Christ proceeds from deliverance to deliverance. Likewise it is possible for an individual to refuse the grace of God until the door of mercy is closed (Revelation 22:11; Luke 13:24-27).
Both forgiveness and deliverance are included in the atonement. Christ possesses not only the authority to forgive a sin but also the power to cleanse and deliver the Christian from the dominating influence of that sin.
In order to bring about deliverance from the dominating influence of a sin, Christ and the Christian must act together in the power of the Holy Spirit to confess the sin, repent of the sin, cast out the sin, and close the door against all further activities of the sin. This is the stripping away of the graveclothes that bind the Christian and hinder the Nature of Christ in the Christian from being expressed in deed, in word, in motive, and in imagination.
When Christ read from the scroll of Isaiah (Luke 4:19) He concluded by saying, "to preach the acceptable year of the Lord."
Then Jesus "closed the book." He did not read, "the day of vengeance of our God" (Isaiah 61:2). It may be noticed in the King James translation of Isaiah that Jesus stopped reading at a comma, not at the end of a complete sentence.
The point at which Jesus stopped reading has significance. It reveals that the Day of Vengeance, the Day of the Lord, had not as yet arrived.
The next coming, the Presence of Christ, is the Day of the Lord, the Day of Vengeance. It will be the fulfillment of the Levitical Day of Atonement (Leviticus, Chapter 16).
The first half of the Day of Atonement, the sprinkling of Christ’s blood beyond the sacred veil (Leviticus 16:12-15), was accomplished at Calvary (Luke 23:45; Hebrews 9:12).
The second half of the Day of Atonement, the removal of the presence of sin from the Christian, and finally from the earth itself, has not been accomplished as yet. We can observe the lack of deliverance by examining our personality and our surroundings. Such deliverance shall be brought to pass in the Day of Judgment, when Christ returns to the earth. To those who look for Him He will appear without sin unto salvation. The wicked will perish at His fiery Presence.
In preparation for the great Day of the Lord that is at hand, the Lord today is judging the sin in the warlike remnant of saints whom He is calling out from the ranks of Christendom.
Sin will be removed from the heavens (the spiritual domain above us that pollutes the earth) and then from the earth. The inhabitants of the earth will be "delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God" (Revelation 12:8,9; 19:20-20:3; Romans 8:21). This is the fulfillment of the Year of Jubilee that was announced on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 25:9).
The atonement made by Christ will not have taken full effect until the power of sin has been destroyed totally. Christ now is in the process of destroying the works of the devil. In order for a Christian to receive the full benefit of the atonement, all the works of the devil in him must be destroyed—not only the guilt of sin but also all traces of compulsion to sin.
The last evil work to be destroyed will be physical death. The removal of the authority and power of physical death will be the sign that all else in the believer that is related to the works of the devil has been forgiven and its power overcome and destroyed. This is the personal, individual fulfillment of the Year of Jubilee (Leviticus, Chapter 25).
One can see then that the eternal judgment of God is on the doers of sin. As long as the Christian is committing acts of sin, following the inclinations of evil spirits, the judgment of God is on him. The judgment is suspended as long as the Christian is following the Spirit of God. "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit" (Romans 8:1).
The Christian is sealed to the Day of Redemption by the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:30). In anticipation of the coming day in which sin is removed from the earth, the Christian is without condemnation as long as—and only as long as—he remains "in Christ." If, however, he neglects the salvation that has begun its work in him and is not careful to abide in Christ, he will come under the judgment of God (Hebrews 2:3; John 15:2).
If the Christian continues to walk in the light of God’s Presence, the Holy Spirit will point out to him the sins of thought, word, and deed that he is practicing. Sins are pointed out one at a time so they can be dealt with victoriously.
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