1 John 1:9 – Part 1

1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Take a look at this verse carefully; again, it is packed with theology and practical implications for our daily living. I’ll try to unpack it a bit to see if we can really understand what this verse is communicating. Because of the amazing amount of content packed in a single verse, I’m planning two posts to fully explain.

First, let’s briefly discuss what this verse is NOT: It is not a salvation verse. I believe it is a mistake to use this verse with a nonbeliever in a call to salvation. I’ve heard people say you need to confess all your sins to God to be saved. Impossible! Since salvation is by grace through faith, the work of naming all your sins is not required. Many new converts do not even know all the sin in their life since they often do not know the scripture! To believe we can exhaustively name our sins is absurd and potentially just prideful. Also, many false religious systems encourage followers to confess sins; many of these people with quite repentant hearts I’m sure. The knowledge of sin and the desire to have it removed do not qualify you as a child of God. Even repentance isn’t enough. The sin of unbelief: of rejection of Jesus Christ as the son of God and only intercessor between God and man is the sin that needs to be repented of first!

Reading the 1^st chapter of 1 John a few times will give you the clear impression that he is writing to people who’ve already been born again. This letter is written with 2 primary purposes, which build on each other. John is calling the hearers to examine themselves to see that they are of the faith. He is concerned that the people of the church are using grace as a license to sin. He realizes, by the will of the Holy Spirit, that sinful men who hear of the matchless grace of God in Christ will use that as a reason to live lawlessly. Men everywhere will claim justification by faith alone, apart from works as justification for evil. John issues a warning to God’s people, and maybe more so to the false convert, that this is not acceptable: that the new creation believers have become, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, will not fail to manifest these good works which were before-ordained. (Eph 2:10).

A call to examination is the first of the 2 primary purposes John wrote this letter. The second is this: John desires, as does the Holy Spirit, to give real believers assurance of their salvation. Let me restate that in other words to be clear: the Bible is adamant that true children of God ought not to walk in fear of wrath or judgment of God. Again: If you are born again, even though the Bible is clear about the possibility of false conversion, God wants you to know that you are converted.

Rom 8:1-2 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. ² For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.
1Jn 2:12 I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for his name’s sake.
1Jn 5:13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life.

Why is this important? Why does God want us to have assurance? Here are three reasons:

1. God speaks very clearly of false conversion. Read Matthew 7:13-29. There is no doubt that many who profess Christ in this life are not really His. 1Jn 2:19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.

   Nothing is more chilling than the thought of a person believing they will not taste eternal Hell and then living in that torment for eternity. There is no greater fear to them who claim to be reborn than the idea that the very idea they cling to is not true, whether that doubt be in the object of their faith or their faith itself. But John does not write these things to scare the brethren. He writes these things so that we may have discernment when witnessing, so that we may know what false conversion looks like. So if John’s entire book was about them who are NOT truly part of the sphere of salvation, it would be incomplete. Therefore, John writes that we may know that [we] have eternal life.

2. Because God is so clear concerning false conversion, He chooses to provide assurance of true conversion as well.

   God desires His people to have certainty of the hope that is within them. God has a real desire for His people to know they are saved, not just to avoid the fear of false conversion, but because He is a God of goodness and His children ought not to fear that which is irrational. If you are truly saved, it means that your only hope for ultimate glorification and justification for your sins rests upon the finished work of Christ on the cross. If God’s letter depicting false conversions and the fruit thereof would cause you to become too focused on your own works, then you are missing the point. Many people read Matthew 7:21-23 and look at their works to see if they think they are of the faith. But it is faith in your works that Jesus ultimately condemns in that passage! Your faith has found a resting place, not in device nor creed; you trust the ever living one, His wounds FOR YOU WILL PLEAD. Jesus Christ is the object of your faith. John desires to remind people that Jesus paid it all on the cross. So immediately after explaining the type of behavior that will indicate unbelief, John follows that up with “if you confess…” It is important to God and John that you understand that the truly regenerate person who by faith has trusted Christ alone has already been promised forgiveness. That Christ’s atoning death on the cross paid for future sins too. This is similar to Romans 8 where Paul writes:
   Rom 8:33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. (Rom 8:38-39) For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, (39) nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

   Yes it is God’s desire that the death of His son is completely trusted for remission of sins. God does not desire His children to constantly focus on themselves and the works of their hands, but to look toward Christ, the author and perfecter of our faith. It is for His glory that dying saints smile and look forward to the end amid suffering. It is for the praise of Christ that sinful men who still possess their Adamic nature will turn to Him and claim Him as their only righteousness when they stumble into sin. It is because of His promise, and His goodness and His faithfulness that any man who comes to Him, he will give him rest. Matthew 11:28, Exodus 33:14

   Psalm 34:22 KJV
   (22) The LORD redeemeth the soul of his servants: and none of them that trust in him shall be desolate.

   Hab 3:18 KJV
   (18) Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation.

   This hope: this unwavering, unshakable foundation of faith in Him brings Him glory. As much as people have commented to me in the past 4 years about “my faith,” I’ve been granted the humility to remind people that “my faith” is irrelevant. It is the OBJECT OF MY FAITH that is relevant. It is God alone who holds me in His hands; and my faith, although strong looking from man’s perspective is NOT a reflection of me, it is a reflection of God! People all over the world have devout, strong faiths! Take the 9/11 WTC plane crashers: that was faith enough to give up their lives! That’s impressive faith! I doubt many professing Christians are ready to die for what they believe, or even give up earthly pleasures; but the biblical Christians faith exhibits that even weak, sinful men can have great faith, because He is worthy! I am not a man of great faith. I am a man of little faith: in an awesome God.

3. It differentiates God’s people, (sets them apart), from other groups, i.e., false religions.

   I’ve already outlined that God has and will allow many to perish believing they knew Him. This really shouldn’t be absurd. Don’t atheists believe they know the truth? Don’t they have faith that “they know where they’re going after this life?” Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims and all religions have believed in something false. People of these faiths will all die thinking they knew what was right, and then see the true God. Why is it so hard to swallow that many will also believe a false Christ?
   Having established that many will be turned away at the end, and that God does, in fact, desire for his children to have assurance, we can quickly see how this can be a way to set His people apart. Many world religions do not allow believers to have assurance. They die believing something, but often they cannot truly believe they are going to glory.

   For example, in the realm of relative truth, you cannot even state with certainty that you know anything!

   Here are a couple of excerpts from the Catholic Council of Trent:

   Session 6 CANON XVI.-If any one saith, that he will for certain, of an absolute and infallible certainty, have that great gift of perseverance unto the end,-unless he have learned this by special revelation; let him be anathema.

   Session 6 CANON XV.-If any one saith, that a man…, who is born again and justified, is bound of faith to believe that he is assuredly in the number of the predestinate; let him be anathema.

   Now I have heard quite a few irrational arguments for what these statements can mean, but let me be clear: Anathema means a person or thing accursed or consigned to damnation or destruction. In the statements above, the Catholic religion is declaring with certainty that there are those who are condemned. And what are they condemning? Read the Canons: anyone who will say for certain that they have a gift of perseverance to the end; and anyone who believes he is assuredly in the number of the predestinate: these are descriptions of those who have been born again of the spirit of God and have by faith trusted Christ as their only provision for forgiveness of sins. The men and women described here are the same people that John was writing to when he wrote

   1Jn 2:12 I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for his name’s sake.
   1Jn 5:13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life.

   God desires to set His people apart from the world. He did it with Israel in a number of ways and He does it with His true church as well, of which Christ is the head. Our confidence in our God and our REAL hope in Him for future glorification is a separator; it makes us distinct from other religions, even the ones that name their idol Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 3:15 reminds us to always be ready to share with others concerning the “hope” or “expectation” that is within us. This is because false hope will fail people!

It is our sincere desire that false hope will fail. For it is the false hope of others that opens the door for them to listen to the real hope Christianity offers. It is the doubt in the minds of the unregenerate that opens their hearts to receiving the gospel. And it is through hearing that they may come to faith. Romans 10:17 And they will not hear if no one is sent (Romans 10:13-15); so go; Go into the entire world and preach the good news!

Read Part 2 here.