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If we should confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous in order that He should send away [to send away as an issue with the Father and the Son] our sins and to cleanse us from every aspect of unrighteousness. He is faithful and righteous because Christ has already died for those sins. God is absolutely right in forgiving sin because Christ’s life was spilled out for them. He’s consistent and faithful because He will always take very seriously what Christ has already done. He’s righteous because if He did not accept the fact that Christ already died for that sin, He would cheat His Son. The word for :confess" simply means “acknowledge.” "Confess" is used by John the Baptist in the Gospel of John in this way. John the Baptist saw Jesus coming towards him. As Jesus came into sight he said to the Pharisees in John 1:20, "I confess [I deny not] that I am not the Christ.” What does the word "confession" mean? It means simple "acknowledgment." Scripture is very sophisticated because the Bible recognizes that breaking out of denial, or facing reality, is one of life's most difficult duties. Counselors know that a major victory has been obtained when a counselee honestly faces his or her wrongdoing. Our responsibility is to get up the nerve to say, “Yes, I did it.” Then God’s responsibility is to say, “You’ve been honest with me. I’ll send away that sin as an issue between you and myself in our personal relationship. Secondly, I’ll clean you up from every aspect of your wrongdoing so that we can freely fellowship and you can be free to do what is right.” He makes us acceptable in the face of all kinds of evil. In 1 John 1:1-10, John has given a clear view of sin. He has told us this: Sin is a principle within that produces acts without. Coming with every variety of unrighteousness, an act of sin, if it’s unconfessed, will always leave a present effect upon us, upon others, and upon God. When we look at 1 John 1:5-10, a question may arise. The question in our minds may be, “Well if sin is such an issue, will it affect my salvation?” This is where 1 John 2:1-2 is extremely helpful. God looks at sin in a profoundly different way than we look at it. We can all do ourselves a great favor to view every sin as being joined to the blood of Jesus Christ. God does not view any sin as naked, bare, and separate from the blood of Jesus Christ. Any sin that He deals with, any sin that is an issue, has already been joined to the blood of Christ and He is already satisfied concerning that sin. 1 John 2:1-2 makes that truth clear. These verses contain a parenthetical comment that enables us to understand why God is faithful and just to forgive us, or send away, these acts of sin as issues between us and a loving Father. 1 John 2:1-2 shows us God’s attitude and perspective. Unfortunately, a chapter division occurs here, giving the impression that verse 2:1 introduces a new subject. Rather than introducing a new subject, these verses explain God’s incredibly generous forgiveness in verses 1-10. Remember the verses follow 1:5-10: My children, these things I am writing to you in order that you should not sin, and if anyone might sin, we have a helper personally facing the Father. And He Himself is a satisfaction for our sins, and not concerning ours only, but also for all the world. 1 John 2:1-2 Remember something about sin: sin is a weak, vicious, nasty choice. So when we have made a weak, vicious, nasty choice, we have a helper with the Father. If we pretend that our sins are not weak, vicious and nasty, we won’t qualify for help because we’re minimizing what we have done. “Harmless little sins,” don’t need any help. If we have weak, vicious, and nasty sins that harm other people and ourselves, then we have a helper, Jesus Christ the righteous, our "paraclete", or "helper" who faces the Father. Notice what we’re told about Christ: And He Himself is the propitiation, or satisfaction, concerning our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the entire world. 1 John 2:2 "Propitiation" is the Old Testament word for "satisfaction" or "pleasure." The term is used for the place of propitiation on the Ark of the Covenant, the lid of the ark that was made of gold. That lid, where the blood was sprinkled, represented the Lord Jesus Christ. The blood-covered slab of gold was the place of satisfaction. The whole purpose of that place was to make God the Father satisfied concerning sin. If we say the word “sin” to God, He’ll say, “satisfaction.” We say, “How can you be satisfied?” He says, “My Son died for that particular sin. I’m satisfied, are you?” His Son is the satisfaction. The issue of sin has been settled. What we should be proclaiming to the non-Christian is the Son — what are you going to do with the Son who has already died for your sins? Such a statement radically changes the message. No longer is it a question of guilt; it’s a question of ingratitude. If God should choose to pay the bills and die for us, what are we going to do with Him? The issue for the nonbeliever is, “What are you going to do with the Son who already died for your guilt and has opened the way to Heaven?” The issue for the believer is, “Are we going to continue living in the shadows, separating ourselves from a good Father and not acknowledging our problems to Him?” That’s the issue for all of us as His children. For the nonbeliever and for the believer, Christ is the satisfaction. John 1:29 illustrates this: The next day, he (John the Baptist) sees Jesus coming to him. He says repeatedly, “Behold the Lamb of God, the One carrying away the sin of the world.” This occurred in the wilderness. The language John used is very similar to what’s in the Old Testament. Leviticus 16:20-22 describes Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. Once a year, on that day, all of the iniquity, or guilt of Israel, was atoned for, or covered. A goat was killed in Jerusalem, and another goat had all of the guilt of Israel pronounced over its head while the High Priest held it. Then, the goat was handed over to a man who led the living animal out into the wilderness where it was set free. The sacrificed goat was supposed to represent Christ’s death on the cross, and the other living goat represented His carrying away the sins of the entire world. Like our sins, that living goat just went off into the wilderness and disappeared. Now why do we confess our sins? Is it in order to sustain our salvation? No, our helper, Jesus Christ the righteous, is very good at saving us until the uttermost. He does a far better job than we could ever do, and we can have confidence in Him. He’s the High Priest forever. That being the case, why do we confess sins? This is what happens when we sin — we step out of a relationship with God and over the line into darkness. Confession of sins is a restoration of sanity. Have you ever heard the statement that we confess our sins in order to restore fellowship? Actually, that’s putting us on a much higher plateau than where we belong. When we sin and we’re not open with God about it, we go into spiritual insanity, and He wants to restore our sanity.
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eople do wrong things. The sins
they produce are the curse of life and human history. The
Bible provides the breaking of sin’s power through the work of
Christ and confession of sin. The antidote to all is the
confession that we must make. 1 John
1:9 says:
