The Apostle John writes the wonderful promise, "If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
The first thing you'll notice about the promise is that it is attached to a commandment, and we must keep the commandment if we want the promised blessing. Most of God's promises are like that. They are
In this case, the commandment requires that we must confess our sins. The blessing to us, if we obey that commandment, is that all our sins will be cleansed by Christ's blood. The blessing will only be given if we keep
The next thing I want to draw to your attention follows on from the first. It is the problem of what we might call "perfect work". Let me explain the problem, then show you
On its face value, the promise seems to be saying that any sin you confess, God will forgive. But it also seems to imply that any sin you fail to confess, God will
The problem arises when we think back over our lives and wonder if there is some sin we failed to confess, but cannot now remember. Is that sin unforgivable because of the conditional nature
The solution to this difficulty is simple. It is found in the answer to the question of whose perfection is being relied upon. Does the forgiveness of all our sin depend upon our perfect performance in remembering and confessing every single sin? Or does it depend rather on the perfection of Christ's sacrifice
In Hebrews we are told that by one offering Christ has made perfect forever those who are being made holy
This tells us clearly that we are not perfect in ourselves of our own virtue, but we are deemed perfect by virtue of Christ's wonderful sacrifice. We simply do our best and Christ does
It follows then, that we receive forgiveness of all sins, and are continually cleansed by Christ's blood, through God's kindness and his just acknowledgement of Christ's perfection on our behalf. We do not receive forgiveness because we are perfect in the performance of the commandment attached to the promise
The promise of forgiveness is possible because Jesus Christ shed his blood on the cross. If you look back a few verses, you'll see how God can cleanse us from all unrighteousness, whilst remaining perfectly faithful to all the principles of righteousness. "The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin"
It is the blood of Christ which avoids God having to lower his standard to something less than perfection. It would not be faithful and just of God to merely pretend our sins didn't happen. It wouldn't be faithful and just of God to make a compromise with evil by letting our sins go unpunished. On the other hand, nor would it be just of God to leave us without a means of forgiveness, and God being loving, kind, gracious, and merciful, would find a right way to
The punishment for our sins fell upon Jesus
The third thing to notice is something essential to the confession of sin. Although it is not stated or mentioned
We are meant to already have an understanding of this third point. If we don't have that prerequisite understanding, then the promise of 1John 1:9 will be a worry to us instead
The confession of our sin should logically be made to the person who is to forgive us, and this person is God. We ought to make this confession through the priest God has appointed and annointed, and that priest is Christ Jesus
Now obviously this involves prayer. Our confession of sins takes place in prayer, therefore it is subject to all the blessings and
Now not the least of those blessings is that the Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ intercede for us as we pray. In simple terms, as we pray, they pray with us
One consequence of this is that even though our best efforts at prayer fall short of perfection, they are accepted because intercession perfects them
Since confession of sin takes place in prayer, it is perfected by intercession. Our best efforts at confession are far from perfect. We might say, "Oh Lord there must be many sins I cannot remember, and I'm sorry that I have forgotten them when I know you remember them; but I ask you to forgive and forget them
What will God's response be to this? If we are not treating it as a short cut, as a formula for confession made easy, if we are genuine, then the Spirit of Christ will name the sins for us and perfect our prayer. We will be deemed to have confessed all our sins, and we will be wholly cleansed. This intercession demonstrates our reliance upon the perfection and authority of
We have considered firstly a conditional promise, secondly Christ's perfection, and thirdly corrected prayers. The first would be a problem rather than a promise, were it not for the second and third points. Our forgiveness is made possible through Christ's perfection, the sacrifice of his blood, and his continual intercession along with that of the Holy Spirit. We can approach God through Jesus to receive complete forgiveness. That, therefore, is