We do not enter upon the question in this paper of God’s provision for the sins of believers after conversion. These are never imputed as guilt, as we have shown above; but when, through the advocacy of Christ (1 John 2) and the action of the Holy Spirit through the Word, they are brought home to the conscience and confessed, they are forgiven, 1 John 1: 9. The sins of the sinner are cleansed by the blood of Christ; the sins of the believer are put away through the washing of water by the Word.