February 18th, 2021
Psalm 25:1–10; Daniel 9:1–14; 1 John 1:3–10
The 1 John passage forms the basis for confession within the church. I hear these words every Sunday after corporate confession. It is also perhaps notable that these words are plural and first person, “if we confess our sins,” “will forgive us our sins,” “cleanse us.” As my church confesses our sins, we do so on the basis of Scripture and under the assurance that Jesus is faithful and just.
The point of confessing sins, however, is not necessarily a salvation question, or at least it is not a justification question. Jesus died for you already, and John goes on to say that Jesus is God’s way for dealing with the sins of the whole world. This command is very much addressed to a community of believers, who must live out what they are already confessing to be true.
The context here is about being “in the light” (shoutout to dc talk). God is light, therefore to be united with God in this way we cannot live in darkness, it’s an impossibility. But it is not just a prohibition to living in darkness, it is also an encouragement that when we are in the light we are also united with fellow-believers and with the saving work of Jesus. Again we have a prohibition saying that if we say we are without sin or have never sinned we would be lying, which is to say that we would no longer be in the light, but in darkness. A key characteristic of living in the light is truth telling.
But the simple act of confessing our sins brings the assured promise that Jesus will cleans us, we will be in union with Jesus and our fellow believers. If this were a message about how to become a believer we wouldn’t have the verse after that says that if we say we have never sinned, we make God a liar.
I think that what’s going on here is that, in this setting God has already made a claim on us. God has declared us righteous in Christ, not that we have never sinned or that we will never sin again, but that in Christ sin has been defeated and we are united to that victory by the power of the Holy Spirit. If we say we have never sinned, this makes the victory obsolete because then we wouldn’t have needed it. If we say we are without sin this is also a lie. The requirement to being in Christ is not being without sin, to say you are without sin actually excludes you. The requirement is humble submission to God, or we could say belief, allegiance, or faith in God.
