“If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
1 John 1:9 has been one of the most important verses of Scripture in my entire adult life.
I first remember reading it and then memorizing around 1978.
I was 19 and just beginning to take my faith seriously.
Change was happening in my life pretty rapidly early on…my priorities were turned upside down in a single semester.
The reality that I could mess up, fess up, and move on was super important for me.
I would have stayed stuck longer in my sin patterns, that were still being discarded, if I had not taken God at his word on this.
The truth of this verse has shaped me, comforted me, challenged me…every week, and most days of my life for 45 years.
There have been many ways I have not been as faithful as I should have been…but I have been faithful to confess my sins, because I have believed that God is faithful to forgive them.
PRAYER
1 John 1:5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
The link between this paragraph and John’s introduction is the word “message.”
Verse 3: “We proclaim what we have seen and heard.”
The message John says he proclaims (v5) is not something he thought up, but rather he “heard it from God.”
What is the content of this revealed proclamation?
-That God is light and in him there is no darkness at all.
This is a comprehensive statement of the essence of who God is.
Not that he is made up of photons…he is not a physical being at all.
This is a metaphor to help us understand some important things about God and what relationship with him requires.
Long before there was knowledge (such as it is, there is still plenty of mystery) of the physics of light…light was an intuitive way of describing some key ideas.
Light is truth, darkness is ignorance or lies
Light is moral purity, darkness is evil.
You see these light/dark motifs throughout scripture.
This is not light/dark as in colors but as in the presence or absence of the ability to see, to comprehend, and then live in God’s truth.
John loves to use the symbolism of light, in his letter and especially in his gospel.
John 1:4,5,9
“In him (Jesus) was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it…the true that light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world.”
John 8
Again, Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life.
John 9
Jesus said, “I am the light of the world” Then he healed a man born blind.
*Making a claim of truth and morality superiority(divinity)…then backing up that claim with divine power.
John 12
So, Jesus said to them, “The light is among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. 36 While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.”
Light and walking are tied together in Scripture.
Makes sense, you need to see in order to walk securely.
The message that God is light, has practical, moral implications for us…we are to walk in the light as he is in the light.
John 3
And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.
We are not just to know the truth; we are to do it…to live in it.
God is light, in him there is no darkness equals: God is truth, God is goodness…to know him is to live in his truth and goodness.
With this foundational truth in place John counters three wrong claims by the false teachers of his time:
Each introduced by “If we claim…”
and
Contradicted by “Then we lie…”
and
Contrasted with “But if we…”
*The third will have a variation, we will talk about why when we get there.
The three errors were:
- A denial that sin impacts our relationship with God. (6,7)
- A denial that we are sinful in our nature. (8,9)
- A denial that we actual sin at all. (1:10-2:2)
The false teachers were dismissing the terrible reality of sin and in so doing were steering people away from the gospel…the good news.
The good news is good because of the bad news of sin.
It is commonly believed now (as it was then) that certain kinds of sinful behavior are trivial to God…they don’t matter.
They are of such relative unimportance to him (after all he is running the cosmos) that he doesn’t care about the small things, and neither should we.
So, you hear things like, “God has bigger things on his mind than what happens in my bedroom, or on my phone, or about some curse words I use, or whether I got mad, drunk, or jealous.”
“don’t sweat the small stuff.”
You have to wonder, when listening to this…what exactly does matter to God?
Alec Ryrie in his book, “The Emotional History of Doubt” writes that one of the greatest signs of the eclipse of Christianity in our age is that the defining individual of morality is no longer Jesus Christ as a positive example but Adolf Hitler as a negative example.
So instead of “be like Christ”…which is a a great challenge.
It is, “don’t be a Hitler”…which is a great relief…pretty low bar…I’m no Hitler, I’m good to go.
So, pretty much anything goes…as long as you have Hitler as your negative example…don’t be him.
This is very different from a positive vision, a vision of Christ as the definition of morality that we are to strive for.
John will say as much, in chapter 2, “Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.”
High bar to aim for.
What Ryrie meant by his “Hitler” as the gauge for how we are doing…is that if you aim only to “not be Hitler” you will fall very short of a life of real morality.
“At least I didn’t murder anyone.”
If you aim for Christlikeness, well…that is quite a different kind of life goal.
To aim for Christlikeness doesn’t mean we sweat the small stuff…but we do repent of it…because, what we do with the small, God knows we would do with it all…Luke 16
Remember, what John just said to us, “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.”
The God who is too big to care about the “small stuff” is actually a too small, not a too big God.
God is not working out of some triage…ranking sins against all the problems he has to solve in the world.
He doesn’t have limited resources…he isn’t so overwhelmed that he doesn’t have time or energy to deal with the small stuff.
This is a too small God…God can, and he does hold all things equally and easily in his great mind.
I know as parents we sometimes say, “Choose your battles.”
This is wisdom when deciding which of the many possible responses to our children’s actions and attitudes we should take.
It means asking is this hunger, are they tired, sad or is this just plain old rebellion?
But when it means “I’m going to let sin go because I’m too tired to fight” Then we are not parenting at that point.
God is never too tired or overwhelmed to not deal with our sin.
His holiness is his greatness it’s not a weakness.
He understands that all sin is a breach in how we are designed…sure some sin has larger direct consequences than others but all sin, if not dealt with, is going to lead to our harm.
And it is darkness…all sin is darkness…God is light…there is NO darkness in him.
So, the false teachers John is addressing were undermining the gospel itself.
If we deny sin and its impact on our relationship with God we will not believe and receive the gospel cure for sin.
No human religion takes BOTH sin and grace seriously like the gospel does.
When humans make up a religion then they either focus on sin (judgement) or grace(forgiveness).
The gospel is the truth of God…it maintains the balance of sin and grace…God’s justice and faithfulness.
Let’s walk through this passage looking at the three errors revealed and refuted…then finish, where we began, with a focus on the great promise of 1 John 1:9
FALSE CLAIM # 1:
6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.
If we claim to have relationship with God but walk in ongoing sin then we are living a lie…in unreality.
We don’t walk with God if we are walking away from God.
John is addressing the belief then (and now) that relationship with God is not impacted by our sin.
*Robert Hansen is considered the worst spy in US history.
He worked for the FBI and spied for the Soviet Union from 1979 to 2001.
He died this past June in the Colorado Super Max prison where he had been held the past 22 years.
-His betrayal cost the lives of many people and untold damage to our national security.
-He was a very religious man; in fact, he was “in your face” with his religion.
-He went to church services daily, prayed, read Scriptures.
-And he walked in deep, deep darkness…he fully embraced sin…and not just his national betrayal…but marital betrayal.
*This is not uncommon…historically mafia members were very religious but lived in terrible darkness…did unthinkable evil.
It is the idea that someone’s faith and relationship with God are separate from their morality and personal behavior.
This is a terrible lie with devastating consequences for the reputation of Christ and his church.
In virtually every church, and every cooperating group of churches (denominations, or other voluntary associations) there have been knuckleheads who thought they could do whatever they wanted and still have relationship with God, still do ministry in his name.
It is an old and horrific lie…a travesty of what grace actually is.
To have relationship with God we must first go to the cross.
There Jesus paid the penalty for my sins, and I receive his mercy when I repent of my sins and trust his finished work for me…he died for me on the cross, and there I die to me to live in him.
This is how we enter into relationship with God.
Then to have ongoing fellowship with God I must continually pursue a holy life, in essence…I keep going to cross.
I continually mess up, fess up, in order to move on in my walk with Christ.
Sin is always a barrier to fellowship with God…Grace is only the remedy.
GOSPEL TRUTH #1:
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.
If we walk in the light as he is in the light…then…and only then…we have
- fellowship with one another
And
- The blood of Jesus purifies us from all sin
This is the provision of sanctification not justification…walking in the light means that we continually confess our sin and are continually forgiven.
Justification is that initial “Yes Lord” and “Please Lord…forgive.”
Sanctification is that ongoing “Still, Yes Lord” and “Again, Please Lord…forgive.”
Notice that he says we have “fellowship with one another”…this is a bit unexpected, we would expect “Fellowship with God.”
But in the last passage he tied fellowship with Father, the Son and the church all together.
He will keep this theme going in his letter…most of our sins are in some way against one another in addition to God.
To walk in the light is to be cleansed from sin and to enjoy fellowship with one another.
FALSE CLAIM # 2: The Denial that sin exists in our nature.
8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
The first claim was not to deny sin but to deny that sin mattered in terms of relationship with God.
Here the claim is that we are not sinners in our core.
Sin here is in the singular and it refers to the inherited sin nature.
The first claim at least seemed to admit the reality that we are capable of sin…but it denied that it matters to God.
This claim is that we are not sinful at all.
Now, if you pointed out to those making this claim some obvious sinful behavior they would either deny it (oh, that’s not sin) or justify it (I have good reason).
Because, if I am not sinful, then whatever I do is, by definition, not sin.
They are down that sin rabbit hole like Isaiah wrote about.
“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness,!” (5:20)
This is the upside down world of…”I am not a sinner.”
“What was that you just did?”
“Well, not sin, because I am not a sinner.”
We sin because we are sinners…sin is at our core.
We must admit this reality if we hope to live in the grace of forgiveness.
GOSPEL TRUTH #2:
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
If we confess our sin’s plural…we do sin, continually, because we are sinners
Then…he is both faithful and just to forgive and cleanse:
-First there is a sin debt he forgives
-Second there is a sin stain he removes
Our sin is not held against us, it is forgiven.
Our sin does not permanently stain us, we begin again, over and over…fresh starts all the time.
How can this be?
Because he is both faithful and just.
He is faithful to forgive because he has promised to do so, and he is just because his Son paid our sin debt.
He is faithful and just…again, that great balance that you only find in the gospel.
Forgiveness and cleansing are conditional upon confession.
Confession is not a religious ritual it is about “repentance”…which means to turn away from sin and turn back to God.
We cannot be forgiven and cleansed if we do not turn to God away from our sin…sin is darkness, In God there is no darkness.
Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy. Prov 28
FALSE CLAIM #3: The denial that sin shows up in our actions.
10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
So, you have the false claim that sin doesn’t matter to God.
The false claim that sin is not in our nature.
Now the false claim that I don’t sin.
“Sure, sin would break my fellowship with God, and in theory I am capable of sin…but the fact is, I don’t sin.”
What makes this claim especially serious is that it is accusing God of lying.
His word frequently declares that sin is universal.
Isaiah famously wrote, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—everyone—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” Is 53:6
If we do not sin, then Christ’s sacrifice was a waste.
He changes how he answers this heresy, he doesn’t use the formula:
“If we say” “then we lie” “But if we…”
There is good reason for the change…lets read it.
GOSPEL TRUTH #3
2:1 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 2 He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.
The way he contrasts truth with lie changes here, because he doesn’t want to give the impression that he is taking sins lightly.
*Sure, sure…mess up, fess up, move on…no big deal…easy peezy.
“No! Sin is a big deal AND you can be forgiven, every time.
He counteracts the two extremes:
-One we can just do what we want and then run to God and “abracadabra” forgiven!
-The other is we cannot possibly get off this easy, not for this, and not for this again…we gotta pay somehow…we need to help God deal with our sins.
Here’s why I am writing you (John says) …so you WON’t sin…BUT if you do…you have Christ as your advocate.
*He is not referring to ongoing, unrepentant sin…the person who is foolish and doesn’t care.
This is the person who is pursuing Christ and still sins.
I am writing, John says, so you won’t sin…but if you do, you have an advocate with the Father.
He is the propitiation for our sins and in fact for the sins of the whole world.
This doesn’t mean that everyone will be saved but that a universal pardon is offered for the sins of the whole world and is experienced by those who embrace it.
Propitiation is a complex but important word in the NT.
The word was used in ancient times to describe the appeasement of an angry deity by offerings.
This is not what the word means for Christians.
These pagan deities were fickle, unpredictable, vengeful, immature
-They were like almighty three-year-olds who had to be controlled by bribes.
This bears no resemblance to God.
Let’s let John explain what he means, jump ahead to chapter 4:10
‘This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a propiation for our sins’.
What John means by this word is “The appeasement of the wrath of God by the love of God through the gift of God.”
This is that great balance of God’s faithfulness and his justice by which we experience forgiveness and cleansing for our sins.
CONCLUSION:
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Because God is faithful and Just:
We can be forgiven (our sin debt paid) and cleansed (our sin stain removed).
Sounds all rather religious, intellectual in fact.
So, let’s get personal…let’s get heart level on this.
Last week I was impatient, selfish, unkind, again.
Last week, I asked confessed my sin to God, again.
Last week, I was forgiven and cleansed, again.
Last week, I choose to believe God and take him at his word, again.
What I didn’t do:
-Excuse my sin…this is just me, it wasn’t that bad, no one really noticed…I didn’t kill anyone, others do worse.
-Hide from God in sin…God isn’t going to want to hear this again. Maybe if I lay low, he will just forget about it.
-Maybe he didn’t notice
-Wallow in guilt over my sin…How can I presume to be a pastor, father, grandfather, leader? I should be more perfect by now.
-No, he forgave… my sin debt and my sin stain are removed by Christ.
This truth is of immense importance and power in my life…It touches me heart and soul…every single week.
*It keeps me moving, encouraged, hopeful, and gives me joy.
God has given us his word so that we would not sin.
We don’t have to; we should be moving away from it in our lives.
But, if we do…there is Jesus.
Anyone who sees as a cop out, a way to do what they want and be forgiven, or an easy out…they don’t understand grace and I don’t know how they could presume to be a follower of Christ.
But if this sounds too good to be true, this 1 John 1:9, this removal of sin debt and sin stain.
Just know that it is true and it is really good…it is left to us to take God at his word and learn to head and heart…mess up, fess up, move on.