I want to talk to you about the most unpleasant subject that man has ever been forced to contemplate. It is, in fact, so very unpleasant, that men have tried to put the subject completely out of the realm of serious consideration, by saying that the thing itself is an old fashioned notion; that it is a concept invented by the very religious, to frighten their children into good behavior and hold the religious-minded man under a weight of guilt that will keep him on the straight and narrow.
I want to talk to you about sin.
Now I am not going to waste your time and mine here, debating the worldly philosophers of every age and trying to convince of sin. Convincing and convicting of sin is a work that falls under the auspices of the Holy Spirit, and He does it quite well.
The Bible talks about sin as a matter of fact, and so will I.
In Genesis we are simply told, “In the beginning, God...” It does not say, “In the Beginning THERE WAS God”; and the Apostle John opens his gospel with the same assertion; “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God...” He does not attempt to prove the existence of the Word; he simply lays down the facts of the case.
With this same matter-of-factness, in Genesis, we see God finishing His creation, and no sooner does He create the man and the woman, and give them simple instructions for successful and continued fellowship with Himself, than we see man going his own way and introducing sin into the world, and death through sin, by disobedience.
Then turning back to the opening verses of John, he also goes straight to the problem; “There was the true light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.” And if we turn to the third chapter of John’s gospel and read his first recorded discourse of Jesus with the Pharisee, Nicodemus, we find Jesus pronouncing the terrible verdict of mankind’s case in these words, “And this is the judgment, that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their deeds were evil.”
Now we have to be very careful here, not to deceive ourselves or let ourselves be deceived into focusing our minds on the Jews who rejected Christ, or the condition of the world before the Flood, or just generally thinking of some historical evil; like Nazi Germany or the godless dictators of today’s middle east, or the crazies of our own nation who occasionally show up at the workplace with a gun and start shooting people; and tell ourselves that these are the nasty folks that Jesus is referring to when He says “...men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their deeds were evil.”
C.S.Lewis said it quite well:
“The greatest evil is not done in those sordid dens of evil that Dickens loved to paint... but is conceived and ordered (moved, seconded, carried and minuted) in clean, carpeted, warmed, well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voices.”
-C.S.Lewis
Jesus was pronouncing the verdict of mankind’s case, and that word ‘mankind’ includes everyone. All of us. All of mankind was in Adam’s loins when he sinned, therefore, all sinned.
When Paul says in the third chapter of Romans that, “All have turned aside. Together they have become useless; there is none who does good, there is not even one.”, he is talking about every man and woman and child of Adam’s race.
So the horrible fact of sin is well established in scripture, and to argue the reality of it or deny the presence of it in ourselves, thereby rejecting the cure, is the very zenith of foolishness. In fact, the attitude itself only serves to prove the existence and the destruction of sin, as surely and finally as jumping off a cliff proves gravity.
I’m presenting you with a rather lengthy introduction today, but there needs to be a solid foundation laid in your understanding in order for you to fully realize what our text verses tell us about sin as it affects our relationship with the One who shed His blood to pay for sin, and now intercedes for us according to the will of God.
But once I get to the text itself I promise to be as brief as possible, so please be patient.
The thing I want to explain then, is the difference between having sin in the flesh, and having sin on the conscience.
Before someone comes to believe in the atoning work of Christ and appropriates to himself through faith the forgiveness of sin provided through that sacrifice, he is entirely in sin. The Bible says that he is dead in trespasses and sins. There is a decree of debt against him, that he cannot pay; and in fact, does not want to pay.
There is no consciousness of his condition until the Holy Spirit brings that consciousness to him, and then there is no repentance until the Holy Spirit grants repentance.
Once there is that consciousness, there is only despair. The man who has come to see his sin and realizes that God’s wrath abides on him, can only say with Paul, “Wretched man that I am!”
Then it is, and only then, that the repentant sinner can confess his sin to God, and run to the cross of Christ for refuge.
On the cross of Christ, God judged all of sin for all eternity, once, for all, in the flesh of His Son. We find in the first four verses of Romans chapter eight that the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set us free from the principle of sin and of death, because God condemned (or judged) our sin IN THE FLESH, that is, the flesh of His Son, and there is therefore, “no condemnation for the one who has faith in Jesus”; that word ‘condemnation’ in verse one literally meaning ‘no penalty’.
Now I want to be sure to point out before I go on, that if you are here today and you are one who has never realized that you are in sin and under God’s wrath; if you have never trusted in Jesus Christ to save you and give you right standing with God, then the first thing you need to know is that you are dead in trespasses and sins. Your spirit is dead, your body is dying, and if you continue to reject His good news, you will spend eternity banished from His presence.
There is no other way to come to Him except through faith in the shed blood of Christ as payment for your sin. It is free, it is according to God’s grace and mercy; you cannot earn it, and you do not need to earn it. But rest assured hearer, that if God sent His only Son, in whom He was well pleased, to suffer and be nailed to a cross and pour out His sinless blood in order to appease the Father’s wrath against you; and if He let His Son die there in order to give you life, then the only way you’re going to get to Heaven is by way of that cross! It is the only way, but it is sufficient to save you for all eternity, and to usher you brand new and without spot into the presence of the Living God, in right standing with Him for eternity. Do not reject that way; run to His cross for refuge, cling to it, be washed clean in that life-giving flow...today! Today is the day of salvation.
Now believer, you need to understand that when you came to the cross of Christ for forgiveness of sin and life ever-lasting, there was a complete reversal of your condition. You were born again. You were made a new creature in Christ. Whereas before there was no consciousness of sin and yet sin was ON you; that is, the guilt of sin rested on you and its wages worked in you, now you are dead to sin; you have been delivered through identification with Christ’s death from the guilt and power of sin and that guilt no longer rests on you.
“Wretched man that I am, who will set me from the body of this death? Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord!”
But now, due to the presence of the indwelling Holy Spirit, there is a consciousness of sin IN you.
You died to sin; your old nature did not die. God has imparted to you the Divine Nature; that new nature that yearns for Him; reaches out to Him; desires Him and hates sin. But the old sin nature still screams for attention, demanding, lusting after evil and seeking constantly to convince you that you are still its slave and must do its bidding.
So we still have sin in the flesh. The difference between the believer and the non-believer under conviction, is that the believer’s conscience is sprinkled clean by the atoning blood of Christ.
We are dead to sin, crucified with Christ, but the spirit is alive. There is now a consciousness of sins, but no unatoned sin on our conscience.
Unconfessed perhaps, but not unatoned.
With that, we can finally turn to our text; I John 1:9
(READ)
I want to be careful here to point out that John is writing to the church. He is writing to believers, not unbelievers. All that he says here in reference to sin, is directed to believers. He is writing to those who say they have fellowship with the Father. He calls them ‘little children’.
There is no need for an unbeliever to confess sin. They are dead. God cannot forgive their individual sin, because they are entirely dead in sin, and His only provision for them is life in Christ; new life apart from sin. It is when they enter into that new life that old things pass away. They appropriate to themselves through faith, the propitiation that He has already made through His blood.
Once we are believers though, we are called upon to confess our sin and daily wash our feet.
So let’s look closely at this verse Christians, and see our need, His efficacy, and what His power produces.
First, John says, “If we confess our sins”
Let me remind you here, that in previous verses he has said, “If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves”, but precedes that statement with the assurance that the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin.
So there is no question as to whether we need to confess our sin. It is there, and if we are not willing to admit that fact, then we can go no further in our relationship with God. We may have right standing through faith, but we cannot have fellowship without sanctification and drawing near to Him through our advocate. Jesus cannot defend us before the throne, if we refuse to admit that we need defending.
On the other hand, we have the peaceful assurance that His blood is sufficient to cleanse us and bring us once more into sweet fellowship with the Father through Him. We cannot bring our sin into the Father’s presence. It must be confessed and purged through the intermediary work of the Advocate.
But notice also that John does not say, “If we ask forgiveness of our sins...” We are not exhorted to ask forgiveness, but to confess.
Now here is where someone will say, “But if we ask forgiveness, are we not, in essence, confessing?”
Not necessarily; that is, not necessarily taking responsibility for our sin. Let me clarify that with an illustration, using the father-and-son relationship.
A father has told his boy to stop throwing rocks, and especially in the direction of the house. Only minutes later in his play, the boy throws a rock and it crashes through the front window of the house.
The father comes around the corner from the back yard, and says, “I heard glass breaking; what happened?”
Now, the father already knows what happened. And the boy knows that the father knows what happened. But the father wants to hear a confession of the truth.
The boy may say, “Father, please forgive me for breaking the window”, and there is a sort of confession inherent in that request. But it may very well be that in the boy’s mind, there is a choice between forgiveness and punishment, and his request for forgiveness is designed to avoid the punishment. This can be done in total absence of remorse or repentance.
However, if the boy says, “Father, I know you told me not to throw rocks, but I did, and now I’ve broken the window; I’m sorry.” That is confession and acceptance of full responsibility, and although he may suffer certain consequences that naturally follow the act (eg, paying for the glass), he is certain to receive a loving father’s forgiveness.
It is one thing for me to pray, “Father, please forgive me of my sins”, and quite another for me to kneel before God and say, “Father, my pride would not let me admit to my wife that I was wrong yesterday. We argued because I wouldn’t admit that she was right, and I bullied her to tears over it. I’ve asked her forgiveness and she has granted it because she loves me, and now I confess to you, Lord, that I have sought my own way...I have a tendency to seek my own way in other areas of my life, and I ask you to cleanse me from my unrighteousness.”
You see there really is no need to ask the Lord to forgive us. He did that once, for all, on Calvary’s cross. But He calls for confession for our sake, not His own. He knows of the sin, but confession brings that sin under the blood of Christ and automatically under the blanket of His forgiveness and His on-going, sanctifying work.
This brings me to my second point; His efficacy -or- His power to produce.
John writes, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins...” There are two terms there, so we have to take them one at a time.
I’ll remind you that I said there is no need to ask the Lord to forgive us. This is why.
He is faithful, and according to His faithfulness to His approval of the accomplished work of His Son, His forgiveness flows automatically to the blood-washed child who confesses sin.
God is not holding back forgiveness until we perform the proper penance. God is not seething in roiling anger over our sin and waiting for us to beg forgiveness in order to feed His ego and remind Him and us that He is in control.
Our confession of sin in itself is an acknowledgment that He is right and we are wrong. He is truth and we are the liars. He knows what is best and we do not. Confession says, “I have attempted to usurp your authority over me, Lord, and I desire to be purged of its very tendency. I desire to be purged of all that is contrary to you in my life. I desire to be cleansed. I bring this confessed sin to my Advocate, who is the propitiation for my sins, and place it under His blood.
The Father’s forgiveness then automatically flows out from Him, because for Him to hold back forgiveness for a sin thus confessed, would be to deny that His Son’s sacrifice was sufficient, and that He will not do; that, He cannot do... because the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from ALL sin.
He is faithful; and He is righteous (or just).
The term we are most familiar with from that verse, is “just”, because the King James uses it (in fact, so does your NIV), and it is what we hear quoted. The New American Standard Bible translates that word, “Righteous”, but the meaning is not changed.
It means, “without prejudice or partiality”.
Vine says, “It designates the perfect agreement between His nature and His acts.”
Not only is God faithful in forgiving our confessed sins, but He is just, or right in doing so, because to forgive sin that has been relinquished through confession and therefore comes under the blood of Christ, is perfectly consistent with His nature.
In Romans 3:26 Paul tells us that man’s sins, even from ancient times, were held in abeyance, or a state of suspension until the proper time. Instead of His wrath being poured out immediately against each sin committed, or the entity of sin itself, His forbearance allowed Him to pass over, or ‘let go’, sins previously committed, until the way to be right with Him was demonstrated through Christ’s propitiation.
God would have been just at any point in history, in destroying mankind entirely. His justice, not tempered with mercy, would have demanded immediate and final retribution for sin. But wanting also to be justifier, or, the One who declares us right with Him, he passed over sin until the demonstration of His righteousness.
He did not neglect or condone sin; He let it go until Christ’s atoning work was done. When that work was completed, God was then able to be just; that is, His righteous wrath was finally poured out on sin, but He was also able to be justifier, or the One who declares right, of the one who has faith in Jesus.
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins”, because it is in perfect keeping with His nature, and His constant and ready forgiveness re-confirms His approval of the efficacy of Christ’s atoning blood.
But He also cleanses us from all unrighteousness. This is my third point; what His power produces.
As His blood-bought children, when we confess our sins to Him, He yields the power to be both faithful and just (or righteous) in forgiving our sins, because of the power of the blood of the Lamb. What that power produces as a result, is our continuing sanctification. Remember, Jesus came with water and blood. The blood for our forgiveness and justification, the water for our cleansing and sanctification.
The definition of unrighteousness is not just an intellectual defect as though we do not know what is right. It is a moral evil; a distaste for truth, and a condition that issues in deeds violating law and justice.”
The efficacy, or power of the blood of Christ that allows God to justly forgive us, then produces in us a cleansing of any defilement from the moral evil that still exists in our old nature. By our confession we show an awareness of our moral evil, and as a loving Father He sets out immediately to purge us of it.
In short, when we confess our sins to God, His lightening fast reaction is to forgive that sin, which He can faithfully and justly do through the atoning work of Christ, and by His sanctifying power, make us a little more like Jesus.
Isn’t it an amazing thing!? We become more like Christ, by our very confession that we are not enough like Him!
Believer in Christ, how can we ever be content to tarry outside the veil, clinging to unconfessed sin as though hoarding some prized toy, when it is the very thing that precludes us from enjoying His fellowship who calls us to draw near, as a loving Father calls a small child to his lap?
The shed and sprinkled blood of our Lord is sufficient to take away the guilt of sin and release us from the power of sin, and to put away sin from us so we can be free to enter into that Holy Place.
We have an Advocate with the Father, declares John; and not just a legal mouth-piece; not a paid lawyer, but our Advocate Himself is the one who is the payment, the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but for all who respond to His call and believe.
To deny our sin is itself, sin, for it calls Him a liar.
To fear coming to Him in confession is sin, for it rejects His sacrifice made in love and His right to justify.
To neglect confession through apathy is tantamount to living in the Father’s house, but despising personal fellowship with the Father.
But to confess our sin, is to trust in His faithfulness and declare His righteousness; it is to take Him at His word and come confidently before Him to receive cleansing and renewing; that we might fully enjoy the fellowship He desires and the full and glorious benefits of heirship with Jesus Christ, the righteous.
I pray that by His enlightening Spirit He will cause you to see the wonderful privilege that we have been given, to openly confess our sin to Him and by so doing, walk in His light and enjoy sweet fellowship with Him. Amen.
