CONTINUOUS
CONFESSION
1 John 1: 5-2:2
INTRODUCTION
Is it ever hard for you to ask another person, whom you have offended,
to forgive you? All of us, if we were honest would have to answer yes
to that question. As I have thought about asking others for forgiveness,
it seems to me that there are three reasons we do not ask others to forgive
us. First, we may not be aware that we have offended another person. It
is possible to be offensive to another and not know it and so obviously
we do not ask for forgiveness. Second, we may not believe that what we
did was offensive. We may believe this because the behavior that was offensive
to the other person does not seem offensive to us. When we feel like this
we are inclined to at least think and perhaps say to the other, "What’s
the big deal? Why are you upset about that?" Or we may feel that
we didn’t intend to hurt them and so say something like, "I didn’t
mean for that to hurt you." The implication being they shouldn’t
be offended by what we’ve done. The third reason we may have difficulty
asking for forgiveness is that we feel we are justified in what we have
done. We said what we said because of what the other person did to us.
We offended them because of their offending us first. So it is difficult
to seek forgiveness because we believe the other person ought to be asking
us for forgiveness and there is no way we are going to let them "get
away with" what they have done to us. Or we were short tempered because
we’re under stress at work.
Yet, all of us know that while it may be hard to ask for forgiveness,
human relationships will not survive, much less thrive if we do not regularly
ask for and give forgiveness. Asking for forgiveness and giving it is
the language of love. What is true on the human level is also true in
our relationship with God. The difference is that God never has to ask
us to forgive him, for he never does anything wrong. We, however, must
regularly ask him to forgive us. This morning I want us to think about
what it means to confess our sins, why we confess our sins and what happens
when we confess our sins. We are going to do this by looking at perhaps
the most often quoted verse in the Bible regarding confession, 1 John
1:9, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive
us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness." However, rather
than just talk about this one verse I want to place it in its context.
As you know, when you take the text out of context, all you have left
is a "con."
First I want you to see the purpose for which John wrote this letter.
Turn to 5: 13. "I write these things to you who believe in the name
of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life."
John wrote this letter to show those who profess to be Christians how
they can know they truly are Christians. If you are a true Christian,
God wants you to know that you are. This letter was written so that you
might know you are a Christian. It is written to give you assurance of
salvation. It is also written as a warning for those who profess to be
Christians but are not. The warning is there not for the purpose of condemnation
but for the purpose of bringing people to true repentance and faith in
Christ. I’ve given you an outline for the entire first chapter, but I’m
only going to make a few comments about the first two points and the last
one because I want to spend most of my time on the third point.
The main question that this passage is aiming to answer is, "who
is it that has fellowship with God?" To have fellowship with someone
is to share things in common with him or her. It means I am welcome in
their home and they are welcome in mine. It means we are in agreement
about the important things in life. It means we have no secrets from one
another. It means God loves me and I love God. In chapter one John is
explaining what are the characteristics of those who have fellowship with
God.
MAIN POINT
The only people who have a relationship with God are those who
I. Agree with the New Testament’s teaching about Jesus (vv. 1-4)
In vv. 1-4, who is the "we"? They are those who saw, heard,
looked at, and touched something. What is it that they bear testimony
to? The Word of Life or Eternal Life. The "we" are all the apostles
who lived with Jesus who John calls by these titles. He is saying the
same thing that Peter says in 2 Peter 1:16, "We did not follow cleverly
invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord
Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty." In other
words, John is saying that the message he and the other apostles are proclaiming
is about a person who is the Word of Life.
Notice what he says in v. 3. He proclaims what they heard and saw so
that his audience can have fellowship with them, the apostles. Then he
says that their fellowship is with the Father and the Son. The logical
conclusion is that if you have fellowship with the apostles then you too
have fellowship with the Father and the Son. But if you do not have fellowship
with the apostles, then you do not have fellowship with the Father and
the Son. The apostle’s, including John, were not present with these people
and they are not present with us. So how did they and how can we have
fellowship with them? When we agree with and love what they have told
us about Jesus in the pages of the New Testament. The only people who
have a relationship with God are those who agree with all that the New
Testament tells us about Jesus.
II. Walk in the light as God is in the light (vv. 5-7)
In verse 5 John gives us a summary statement of the message that Jesus
proclaimed. He says that the message that Jesus told the apostles and
that he now tells them is that "God is light and in him there is
no darkness at all." If you were going to summarize the teaching
of Jesus recorded in the four gospels, is that how you would summarize
it? I doubt that any of us would. So what does he mean by saying that
God is light? It means three things. First, God is absolutely glorious.
He has no competitors. He alone is awesome and beautiful and terrifying.
The angels must shield their eyes when they are in his presence. He is
awesome in the power of his holiness. Second, he is true and truthful.
God never speaks in error. Everything he says is absolutely and finally
true. His word, as Jesus said, is truth. Third, God is perfectly good
and righteous. He never does anything wrong. He always does what is right.
In vv. 6-7 John describes what cannot be true and what must be true of
anyone who claims to have fellowship with this God who is light. Do you
claim to have fellowship with this great and glorious God who always tells
the truth and always does right? Your claim is true if you do not walk
in darkness but rather walk in the light as he is in the light. What does
it mean to walk in the darkness? It means that God, as he’s revealed himself
in the person of Jesus, is not glorious to you. You’re not impressed with
him. It means you don’t believe what he has said is true. You don’t agree
with his revelation in the Bible. It means you don’t do what is right.
Conversely, to walk in the light is to see this Triune God, Father, Son
and Holy Spirit as the most beautiful and attractive and awe-inspiring
person in the entire universe. It means to believe and depend upon everything
he has said about reality in this book. It means that you do what is right.
In other words, if you have fellowship with God, you are like God.
What are the two consequences of claiming to have fellowship with God
but walking in darkness in v. 6? We lie and we do not live by the truth.
We are hypocrites, saying one thing and doing another. But then, what
are the results of walking in the light as he is in the light in v. 7?
We have fellowship with other Christians and the blood of Jesus purifies
us from all sin. These results are surprising. Why does John say we have
fellowship with one another and not with God? You don’t have fellowship
with God unless you are having fellowship with his people. What does his
telling us that when we walk in the light then the blood of Jesus purifies
us from all sin mean? Walking in the light is not sinless perfection.
When you are walking in the light you still need the blood of Jesus to
be purifying you from sin because you are still sinning.
The only people who have a relationship with God are those who agree
with the NT’s teaching about Jesus and those who walk in the light as
he is in the light.
III. Continuously confess their sins (vv. 8-9)
Four ways that people claim to be without sin or to have not sinned:
- Atheists and naturalistic materialists say there is no God and so
there is no sin.
- Certain religious groups: Pentecostals (Greg Adkins), Nazarene, Weslyan,
Keswick (Quote Dr. Bright).
- Those who don’t agree that what the Bible says is sin is really sin.
Most often had the discussion about sexual immorality with college students.
Sexual immorality is any behavior you intentionally engage in that stimulates
sexual desire in yourself or in another person unless you are married
to the other person. Eph. 6:3-6.
- I’m not sinning because I’m not responsible for my behavior. I was
abused as a child or my parents treated me wrong or my spouse is mean
to me, therefore it’s OK for me to sin like this. My needs aren’t being
met and so I can’t trust God but must live in this fashion.
If we claim to be without sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not
in us. If we say we have not sinned, then we call God a liar and his word
has no place in our lives.
The first thing to note about verse 9 is the tense of the verb "confess".
It is present tense. In other words, Christians regularly confess their
sins. People who are daily, moment-by-moment confessing their sins are
walking in the light as he is in the light. If you are not confessing
your sins, you are saying that you are without sin and that you have not
sinned. When you consider God’s commands, how can you not regularly be
aware of how far away you are from keeping his commands? Quote Matt 5:48,
Romans 14:23, 1 Cor. 10:31
What does it mean to confess our sins?
The word is a compound Greek word that means to say the same thing as
or to agree with. What do we have to agree with God about, concerning
our sin?
- It is our sin. Nobody made me do it. The circumstances don’t
justify my sin. There is no excuse for it. There are no "buts"
in confession.
- I should go to hell for this sin because it so dishonors God and offends
his holiness. Rom. 6:23, Psalm 90:7-8. One of the reasons I so seldom
ask others to forgive me is because I don’t feel the hurt I’ve caused
to others. I don’t feel my offense against them. Confession means that
I am acknowledging that this sin greatly offends the majesty of God’s
holiness and the greatness of his mercy. He has done nothing but take
care of me. He has given me no reason not to trust him and honor him
and yet I have despised his kindness.
- We are sinning in the face of God, against God alone. Psalm 50:4
- Confession requires repentance. In other words, I must tell God I
do not want to live like this. I must resolve to not do it again. I
must tell him that I agree with him that this is the path to death and
I don’t want to walk on it anymore. In my confession I must be laying
plans for how I will avoid this sin.
- Confession means that I agree with God that Christ has died for my
sins. I must thank him that my sins are forgiven for the sake of what
Christ has done, not because of anything I have done.
- Confession requires restitution. I must repair the damage I have done
to others. If I hurt another person I must apologize to them. If I stole
something, I must return it.
If I borrowed $10,000 from Matt and we agreed upon a payment schedule
and after one month I went to him and said, Matt, I can’t pay it back
and he told me don’t worry about it, I forgive the debt. When I describe
to Jane what Matt did for me, what kinds of words would I use? I would
say he was generous and loving and kind and gracious. But notice what
John says about God. The reason we can be sure that he will forgive us
when we confess our sins is not because he is kind and loving and gracious.
He forgives us because he is faithful and just. What do these words mean?
To say that God is faithful means to say that he keeps his word. He always
does what he says he will do. Can you think of any place God has promised
to forgive you sins? Col. 2:13-14 says, "When you were dead in your
sins and the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive
with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code
that was against us and that stood opposed to us. He took it away, nailing
it to the cross." The word picture that Paul uses here is this. God
has a file on you. In that file is a list of all God’s laws and all the
ways you’ve broken those laws through the course of your life. Each one
of those laws carries the death penalty for violating it. You’ve broken
thousands of God’s laws and so you are under an infinite penalty of death.
If you are one of the people God has made alive in Christ, he has taken
all those violations of his law and he nailed them to the cross of Christ.
The Romans nailed a sign above the head of every person they crucified
that stated what crime they had committed, for which they were being crucified.
The sins of all Christ’s people are what was nailed to his cross. Our
sins are the reason he died. Because that is true, God makes a promise.
He says, all your sins are forgiven. So when you confess your sins, you
can be sure they are forgiven because God always keeps his word.
But God also forgives because he is just. What does it mean for God to
be just? It means that he always gives people what they deserve. How can
God’s justice be the cause of my forgiveness? Justice ought to mean that
he sends me to hell for my sin, not that he forgives my sin. Judges who
forgive murderers and let them go free are not just, they are corrupt
and evil. Do you know what double jeopardy is in our legal system? It
means you cannot be punished twice for the same crime. If you were caught
shop-lifting and sentenced to 90 days in the county jail, at the end of
those 90 days, as you’re leaving the jail, the warden can’t stop you and
tell you to go back to jail for the same crime. You can’t be punished
twice for the same crime. Christ has already paid the penalty for the
sins of every Christian. Therefore, God cannot make you pay for sins that
Christ has already paid for. That would be unjust and God is just, he
always gives people exactly what they deserve. If Christ has paid for
your sins you cannot be held accountable for them. There is no condemnation
any longer for all those who are in Christ.
Now, are you forgiven because you confess your sins? Yes and no. No,
you are forgiven because God has promised to forgive the sins of all who
belong to Christ because Christ died. No, because God is just and will
not punish you for sins that Christ has already died for. Imagine that
a person has been found guilty of murder. At the sentencing trial, when
the judge asks the guilty man if he has anything to say, the murderer,
through tears of genuine remorse apologizes for his action and promises
to never do it again, should the judge forgive him? Absolutely not. You
cannot be set free just because you are sorry for what you’ve done. The
penalty must be paid. So, you are forgiven because of what Christ has
done, not because you confess your sins. However, everyone who is forgiven
confesses their sins and if you don’t, you are not forgiven. If you are
walking in the light as God is in the light you are confessing your sins
and the blood of Jesus is cleansing you from all unrighteousness. Both
are true. If one isn’t true, then neither is true.
The only people who have a relationship with God are those who agree
with the NT’s teaching about Jesus, who walk in the light as he is in
the light, who continually confess their sins and who…
IV. Have Jesus as a defense attorney (vv. 10-2:2)
Notice how John inserts a parenthesis at the beginning of 2:1. He says
that the reason he rights is so that we will not sin. Again he is referring
to the entire book but it is important that he inserts this at this point.
I can’t tell you how often I have had people tell me over the years that
it’s OK for them to sin, because Christ died for their sins and he will
forgive them. That is a lie. Christians don’t plan on sinning because
they know that if they confess their sins, he is faithful and just and
will forgive their sins. The fact that we must confess our sins and that
God forgives because he is faithful and just does not encourage us to
sin but discourages us from sinning. If you ever use the fact that Christ
died for your sins and so God will forgive you as an encouragement to
sin, you are not thinking straight. The death of Jesus for sin and the
necessity of confession is the strongest deterrent to sin.
But then notice where John ends this section. All those who agree with
the NT teaching about Jesus, who walk in the light as God is in the light,
who confess their sins, have Jesus as a defense attorney in God’s courtroom.
We enter into God’s court as guilty sinners. But standing at our side
is Jesus, who is completely righteous and who gave his life to satisfy
God’s just anger against our sins. Therefore we do not need to fear. Therefore
we do not want to sin.
The only people who have a relationship with God are those who agree
with the NT’s teaching about Jesus, who walk in the light as he is in
the light, who continually confess their sins and who have Jesus as a
defense attorney.
© Copyright
2001 John Swanson.
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