Forgiven Saint

Forgiven Saint!

By Apostle Felix

8  If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 
9  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 
10  If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. 

1 John 1: 8 – 10

I remember, in the year 2005, while attending a Bible study at a particular church, (name withheld), the Lord prompted me to stop the person who was leading in prayers, from asking the people to confess their known and unknown sins before starting to pray. That was unusual, very unusual for me because not only was the word I received in conflict with my theology at that time, but I was very new at that church. And to make it worse, the person who was leading was one of the leaders. But I found courage and I had to obey the Lord. I stopped the person and explained why I did that. The Lord of course, told me to say that confessing either known and unknown sins creates a sin consciousness in a believers. It was a bitter pill to swallow even for me. This was because, we were made to understand that confession of sin was part of prayer. In fact, you have to confess your sins before you begin to petition God.

The constant, unceasing confession of sin will not make you more righteous than you are right now, but rather make you more sin conscious. It will make you more less confident before your Father and that will affect the effectiveness of prayers. James talked about the effectiveness of Elijah’s prayer, when he prayed that it might not rain. In the context, James mentioned the importance of confessing our faults or sins to one another.

16  Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. 
17  Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. 
18  And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit. 

James 5: 16 – 18

Now, let us do an overview of first John chapter one. The first chapter of book was not written to believers, but Gnostics, who did not believe that Christ came in the flesh. In other words the first chapter was addressing the heresy was gnosticism. The Gnostics also believed that they had no sin in their lives. So the apostle John was telling them that if they would acknowledge and confess their sins, God would forgive them and cleanse them from all unrighteousness.

16  Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? 

1 Corinthians 3: 16

Apostle Paul, who wrote two-thirds of the epistles to the churches, never once taught on confession of sins. In fact, in his letter to the Corinthian Christians, many of whom were committing sins like visiting temple prostitutes, he didn’t tell them to go and confess their sins to get right with God. Rather he reminded them of who they were in Christ—“Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?”

The word “confess” in 1 John 1:9 is the Greek homologeo, which means “to say the same thing as” or “to agree with.”² To confess our sins, therefore, is to say the same things about our sins as God does: that it is sin, and that our sins have been forgiven and washed away by the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. When you have sinned and realize you have sinned, true confession is agreeing with God’s Word and expressing your gratefulness to Him for the reality of your forgiveness in Christ.

The word “confess” is exomologeo, suggesting acknowledgement and agree. It is not suggesting going about confessing our sins to other people in order to find healing. Rather, James was encouraging the believers to live in harmony and peace by easily acknowledging the wrong done one to another. It is the offense between the brethren, not between God and man.

That’s why 1 John 1:9 is primarily a salvation verse, one that encourages the sinner to acknowledge and confess his sinful state or rather acknowledge that he is a sinner and he needs salvation  by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, and have his sinful state through Adam replaced with a new righteous state through Christ. The heretical Gnostic doctrine did not subscribe to a belief in man’s sinful state. John was addressing this heresy directly in the first chapter of 1 John and encouraging the Gnostics to confess their sinful state and receive the Lord’s complete forgiveness and total cleansing from all their unrighteousness through His finished work at the cross.

Now, what does the apostle John say then, about our committing of sins after we’ve become believers? Just two verses later in the second chapter of 1 John, John answers this question as he begins his address to believers:

“My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”

1 John 2:1

Because of our Lord Jesus and what He has accomplished at the cross, we have forgiveness and we still stand righteous before God even when we’ve missed it. As the apostle Paul reminded the Corinthian believers who had failed that they were still the temple of the Holy Spirit, John reminds us of who we are in Christ and who we have representing us at God’s right hand.